Mount Hope Cemetery
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REMEMBER the Fallen.
HONOR those who Serve.
TEACH our children the value of Freedom.
Our History
Mount Hope Cemetery began when eleven businessmen from Webb City and Joplin decided to form a corporation and build a cemetery in Jasper County, north of Joplin and adjacent to Webb City. Members of the corporation were: W S. Gunning, Alfred H. Rogers, Joseph Allen Hardy, Sr., William S. Chinn, Thomas E Coyne, Thomas J. Roney, George W Moore, R. B. Dodge, Charles Schifferdecker, James M. Leonard and James H. Dangerfield. “The Mount Hope Cemetery Association” was officially incorporated on April 12, 1905. The purpose of the corporation was to establish a park-like cemetery by laying out and subdividing tracks of land into cemetery lots and to preserve and maintain the cemetery in perpetuity. They funded the corporation with capital stock valued at $30,000. The $30,000 was divided into three hundred dollar shares parred at a value of one hundred dollars each. The initial shareholders were: Hardy (70 shares), Chinn (5), Coyne (5), Roney (10), Moore (5), Dodge (5), Schifferdecker (10), Dangerfield (5), Leonard (5), Rogers (90) and Gunning (90).
Principal shareholders, W S. Gunning of Webb City and Alfred H. Rogers of Joplin, selected the site for its high elevation and central location between Joplin and Webb City. The original Mount Hope Cemetery booklet claimed, “no other site in the country combines all the advantages of location, protection, soil, elevation and other features necessary to make a lawn or park cemetery.” Gunning and Rogers purchased the land for $11,550 from landowners WA. and Elza J. Bigger, Jesse T. and Mary Webb L.D., and Clemma E. Jeans and John E. Webb. The cemetery’s original tract consisted of 77 acres of farmland.
Prior to that time, in the 1840s, a small community known as Pilot Grove occupied the site. During the Civil War the property was a formidable position to hold since the land occupied the highest peak in Jasper County.
Three distinctive structures once occupied the cemetery grounds – an office, a water tower and an elaborate three-story grand lodge. The lodge building was replaced in 1957 by a new superintendent’s office.This same brick building is being used today.Total cost of the structure was $12,900.15. Contractors of the building were J. R. Thomas & Company.
The first person buried, at Mount Hope Cemetery, was Newton Miller on November 26, 1905. Little is known of Miller except that he received a very elaborate Masonic funeral service. Two days later, on November 28, Perry C. Rogers and Robert H. Rogers were placed in the Rogers family mausoleum.
The park-like design of the cemetery was laid out by Midwest landscape architect Sid J. Hare. The roads and avenues were designed for horse drawn carriage traffic and were lined with young trees and shrubs planted by Edward Teas. The cemetery location was directly adjacent to the railway right-of-way. The railway made the cemetery accessible to every city served by the inter-urban electric cars. For many years the railway cars were converted and utilized as funeral cars – that is until automobiles and better roads became available.
