Our mission at Historic Elmwood Cemetery is to honor those who are buried here through programs to restore and preserve the cemetery. Revenue shortages require the cemetery to seek various resources of support. Community involvement and charitable contributions are necessary to preserve this beautiful historic site. Nineteenth Century Elmwood is the second oldest cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

The large forty-three acre cemetery, with more than 36,000 people, is one of a small number of cemeteries that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in its entirety. While Elmwood was officially incorporated in 1872, some graves date back as early as 1840. In 1896, a group of concerned civic leaders, through mutual subscription, raised the initial funds to organize the Elmwood Cemetery Society.

--

They re-incorporated the cemetery as a non-profit organization and the new President, Kirkland Brooks Armour, created the 999-year Charter with the State of Missouri protecting the cemetery. Of elegant European style, Elmwood’s history is as untimely as the architecture and beauty of this once rural cemetery. National historic recognition has become a staple of Elmwood’s new face and rediscovered history.

Among the notables buried here are John Scott Harrison (President Benjamin Harrison’s brother), Robert Lee (member of Butch Cassidy’s “Wild Bunch”), Kirkland Armour (President/Owner of Armour Meats), Henry Crenshaw (Quantrill guerrilla at Lawrence, Kansas), Tom Speers (First Police Chief of Kansas City), Constance Rowe (first born child of TITANIC victim and founder of McLean, Texas, Alfred Rowe), Kersey Coates (Coates Opera House, developer of Quality Hill), Daniel Muir...

...(father of Pioneer Naturalist, John Muir), and Mattie Rhodes (Mattie Rhodes Counseling and Arts Center, Kansas City, Missouri). There are numerous other national and local individuals whose stories are documented and are yet to be heard. Kansas City, Missouri’s Jewish faith is well represented in historic Block H of Elmwood Cemetery.

Block H, purchased by and consecrated by the B’nai Jehudah Temple in 1898, is a tribute to the lives and legacies of those who established their names in Kansas City’s Jewish culture and the history of Kansas City. Among the heralded names in this section are Abraham Judah (owner of the Grand Opera House), Morris H. Helzberg (Helzberg Diamonds), Samuel Woolf (Woolf Brothers Clothing) and Louis Hammerslough (original Park Board member).

--

The B’nai Jehudah Temple ground at Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri and is sacred ground among the many acres. Nine historic wars are represented by soldiers at rest in Elmwood Cemetery; representatives from all four of the major armed forces lie here. From labor battalion to Brigadier Generals all are honored here.