Zion's Camp Monument Commemorated 11 October 1997.
Your Help is Still Needed!
Photo caption: Zion's Camp commemorative monument unveiled at Mound Grove Cemetery, Independence, Missouri, 11 October
1997.
Zion's Camp Monument and Commemoration
Complete Text of Max Parkin's Talk
This past year, the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation Board became involved in an exciting project to erect an appropriate monument at the grave site where the remains of three victims of the Zion's Camp Cholera episode now lay buried at Mound Grove Cemetery, Independence, Missouri.
The commemoration Service was held at 10:00 a.m., 11 October 1997.
Two descendants of the deceased were present for the commemoration
-- John A. Davis, a descendant of Erastus Rudd, and Don Johnson, a descendant of Noah Johnson.
Max Parkin, noted LDS Historian and Clay County, Missouri, church history authority,
Max Parkin deliverd a meaningful and insightful talk in rememberance of
Zion's Camp and those who died.
Representatives of various Restoration church groups participated
by laying a commemorative wreath at the new monument.
The Independence LDS First Ward Youth Choir provided special music.
Lettering on the front of the new monument reads:
ZION'S CAMP
In 1834 Joseph Smith, Jr. led a group of over 200 from Ohio to
Clay County, Missouri to redress losses suffered by Latter Day
Saints during the expulsion from Jackson County. About 68 at the
camp were stricken with cholera. Fifteen died and were buried
beside Rush Creek southeast of Liberty in Clay County. The remains
of three of these victims were discovered in 1958 and were reburied
here in 1976.
MISSOURI MORMON FRONTIER FOUNDATION 1997
The back of the monument contains a list of the names of the
fourteen adults and one child who died at Rush Creek while Zion's
Camp was encamped in Burket's field, near what was then the home
of Algernon Sidney Gilbert, about two miles east and south of Liberty,
Clay County, Missouri:
The back of the new monument.
The realization of this long awaited monument is a result of
a colaborative effort by the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation,
1997, with valuable assistance from Mound Grove Cemetery, Johnson
and Sons Monument Company, RLDS Church, LDS Church, and numerous
interested individuals.
This project is part of MMFF's master plan to place suitable
historical markers at significant Missouri Mormon history sites
around Independence, Jackson County, and the state of Missouri.
Interested individuals and family descendants of
the deceased can still be a part of this exciting project.
MMFF is a notforprofit foundation
recognized by the State of Missouri and the Federal Government.
Donations to MMFF for the Marker Fund will be appropriately receipted
and are tax deductible. Send donations, to MMFF Marker Fund,
c/o Shirley Gallup, MMFF Treasurer, P.O. Box 3186, Independence,
MO 64055. Please be as generous as possible in your support
of this and related efforts to mark important Missouri "Mormon"
history sites.
For more information about how you can be involved,
contact MMFF President, Alta Short at altaken@juno.com or
MMFF Secretary William Curtis at 8168333065.
You are invited to join in and support MMFF activities!
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