Here lies the founder of Hematite.
A few steps away are the graves of a judge, his wife and their 12-year-old son whose headstones are among the earliest recorded in Jefferson County.
Buried in another row is the wife of a farmer for whom a Jefferson County road, school and town were named.
Their final resting place is a private family cemetery on an elevated half-acre tucked beneath towering power lines a few miles outside of Festus.
The Smith-Speed Cemetery near the Joachim Creek may hold the remains of some 70 people including toddlers, teenagers and adults. But many of their headstones have been lost to history or possibly destroyed by modern machinery.
It’s a sore spot for Tim Ogle, the self-described “cemetery detective” whose hobby is finding and restoring forgotten cemeteries around the St. Louis region.
His latest mission is far more personal: The cemetery he's saving holds dozens of his own ancestors.