This past week, the headstone for my grandmother’s grave at Oak Hill Cemetery was finally set.
Visiting the Cassville cemetery to see the stone brought to mind an obituary I had read a few months ago in a Springfield newspaper from 1845 for Hugh W. Culton.
Mr. Culton was a shopkeeper in the newly formed town of Cassville at the residence of William Kerr. According to Emory Melton’s book, Mr. Kerr lived approximately where the LeCompte lumberyard was later located on 7th and East. The Kerr home was also used to hold court before construction of the Courthouse on the Cassville Square.
It seems the Kerr house was the center of life in Barry County in 1845. According to the obituary, Hugh Culton “departed this life, on Wednesday the 20th of August, 1845, at six o’clock in the evening,” just of few weeks after Cassville was officially platted on June 30, 1845.
Hugh Culton was also one of the filers of the petition to change the Barry County seat from the McDowell location in McDonald Township to the Cassville location in Flat Creek Township. Other names included in the filing were Littleberry Mason and William Kerr, along with a petition of 161 residents of Barry County. It appears Hugh Culton was thought of by the community with the same esteem as prominent local figures William Kerr and Littleberry Mason.
According to Goodspeed’s 1888 history of the county, Hugh Culton was also elected Barry County Treasurer in 1844, minding the county’s money as well as the store. Culton’s death would have been a tragic loss to the burgeoning town and warranted a rare early Barry County obituary in the Springfield newspaper, as Cassville did not yet have a publication at that time.
Aside from an abundance of flowery language such as, “Accordingly a little before the sun sunk to his burning bed, casting long streaks of shade and light across the earth, cooling the day, the spirit took flight over the everlasting hills, up to the glorious mount of God, to enter into the sanctum of Paradise,” the obituary also gives Hugh Culton’s burial location.
“He was buried on Thursday the 21st in the evening, about three hundred yards east of Barry court house, in Barry Co., Missouri, upon a beautiful high hill, shaded with oak trees, and over looking the valleys of Flat Creek.”
Since the courthouse at that time was in the residence of William Kerr at the LeCompte lumberyard location, 300 yards east would describe the Oak Hill Cemetery. This description likely makes Hugh Culton the first person buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Mr. Culton may have been first in several categories of Cassville history: first merchant, first death, first funeral, first burial, and a reminder that being first is not always a good idea. The information is corroborated by an 1896 history of Cassville published in a local paper that states, “A Mr. Culton, who was probably the first merchant, kept a stock of merchandise in one room of Mr. Kerr’s residence. He was also the first person to be buried in the cemetery on the hill.”
I don’t believe a gravestone now exists for Hugh Culton, or at least I haven’t found one. The lack of a marker makes me wonder if there was one in the first place. I didn’t find a wife or any children for Hugh Culton in available records and none were mentioned in the obituary, as “his body was attended to the grave by most of his acquaintances.”
According to probate records, Hugh Culton died without a will, so heirs were listed as his parents, James and Margaret Culton, as well as his siblings. The administrator of the estate was B.F. Hudson, who was likely his brother-in-law, Benjiman F. Hudson, married to his sister Ursula Culton. Another brother, James W. Culton, died in 1884 and was buried in Osa Cemetery in northeast Barry County. His parents died later in Tennessee. The obituary ends with “So departs the good man” and a request of “Athens, Tennessee papers please copy,” likely for the relatives still living in Tennessee.
The obituary was written by J. McCary. I’m speculating that this was Rev. Josiah McCary, brother to early Barry County settlers Henry and Lindsey McCary. According to an 1899 Nevada, Missouri, obituary for Rev. McCary, “he had been a minister in the M.E. church (south) for sixty-five years and served in the Confederate army in Parson’s brigade throughout the war.”
The funeral for Hugh Culton was conducted by Rev. W. Wharton of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but the obituary declares Culton an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, “and possessed no doubt, not only the form, but the power of Godliness.”
According to the 1840 census of Sugar Creek Township in Barry County, H.W. Culton lived next to Henry McCary. Also listed living at the H.W. Culton place in 1840 was a female slave between the age of 55 and 100.
I didn’t see an inventory listing for the Culton estate, so I’m not sure if she was still living in 1845. She may have died in Barry County or may have been sold with the estate. Whatever the case, it’s likely her grave is also unmarked history beneath the surface.
Jeremiah Buntin is a historian at the Barry County Museum. He may be reached at jbuntin@barrycomuseum. org.
