Historic Elmwood Cemetery - Historic Biographies

Lovick Ainsworth, Evan Albright, Edwin H. Allen, Edna Johnson Anderson,

Charles Earnest Appy, Kirkland Armour, Dr. Peter Arnoldia,

General Frank Askew, William Askew, Mary Atkins, Ira James Avent

Lovick Ainsworth

Lovick Ainsworth
Great nephew of one of the most famous names in all of American history, Davy Crockett!!! His mother was Davy's niece!

Evan Albright
Evan was a Civil War soldier. He was a paymaster and crew member of one of the most known iron clads ever to take to water in the war...the U.S.S. Merrimac!! The Merrimac has gone down in Civil War history for it's four hour battle with the iron clad U.S.S. Monitor! He is documented in the book "Branded as Rebels 3" by Donald Hale. You can find that book at www.haroldsbookstore.com!

Edwin H. Allen
One of 11 Kansas City Mayors buried at Elmwood Cemetery. He served as Mayor in 1867. He was the official greeter to President Cleveland, hosted President Harrison, advocated the first volunteer fire company, member of the first Board of Trade and Board of Education, and supported the first gas company.

Edna Johnson Anderson
Daughter of the Rev. Thomas Johnson, founder of the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway (Mission), KS and for whom Johnson County is named after. Edna was actually born in one of the houses at the mission. She would recall falling into the creek there when she was three. Edna also would remember the buildings and grounds in the days when indian students were taught there. She was all of eleven years old when she witnessed her father's death at the alleged hands of Kansas Jayhawkers. He was shot through his front door at the family home in Kansas City, Mo. The guerrillas then set fire to the front porch, leaving her mom to hold her dying husband in her arms and calling for help from the Johnson children. The full account of witnessing her father's demise can be found in the book "Opening The Western Frontier: Thomas Johnson and the Shawnee Indian Mission" by Joanne C. Eakin. This book is part of the Elmwood library.

Charles Ernest Appy

Charles Ernest Appy
With a very esteemed background of sheer musical brilliance, Charles Appy’s history is one of the forgotten treasures here at Elmwood. His musical training began at an early age. His father Jean Marie was a violinist in the Royal orchestra in The Hague, Netherlands and this was what set the tone for Charles’ career. He began by studying piano, violin and cello under guidance of such artists as Richard Hol, Franco Mendes and Willhelm Joseph von Wasielewski. With hard work and musical mastery, Charles became known for years as the most distinguished cello player in Europe! His training and reputation allowed him to become close friends with and perform alongside some of the greatest artists and composers in history, such as Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Hans Von Bulow, Neils Gade, Stephen Heller, Alfred Jaell and Victor Berlioz! The authentic letters and correspondence between Mr. Appy and these composers are housed in the Music Special Collections at UCLA. In one letter from Clara Schumann, she thanks him for his support when they played together! Elmwood has obtained authentic copies from some of these letters for our museum inventory! In 1854, he fell ill while on tour in Switzerland. The physician that tended to and treated him was Dr. Ischinski, a noted physician for the great composer, Chopin. And during a six month stay in New York in 1876, Charles became friends with the great preacher, Henry Ward Beecher as Beecher would frequently come to his hotel room and listen to him practice. During a stay in London, he assisted concert performances and was a solo cellist at the famous London Crystal Palace! His children would go on to find their fame as well, like when his daughter Cornelia was dubbed “the great virtuoso” by renowned bandleader John Phillip Sousa and eastern critics named her one of the best female cellists in America! His son Louis would go on to become the first cellist in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Charles’ brother Jean Henri was a great violinist in New York and this allowed him to appear with the wonderful singer known as “The Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind! Charles arrived at Ellis Island, New York on May 7, 1894 and would travel to Kansas City where he opened a music school. He died on August 2, 1895 to tuberculosis. Unbelievably, he has no marker or stone to indicate his grave here.

Kirkland Armour
In 1870 Kirkland B. Armour and his brother, Charles, came to Kansas City from Chicago. Here they joined their uncle, Simeon B. Armour, in the family's meat packing plant. Armour was born 16 years before on April 10, 1854 in Stockbridge, New York. His forebears were American bluebloods from England. The wealthy young man married and made his first home on prestigious Quality Hill.From that high-toned neighborhood, he overlooked the source of his wealth in the West Bottoms below. The city moved south, and the Armours followed. In 1896 they built a three-story French chateau at Warwick and Armour boulevards. Fittingly, the street was named for his Uncle Simeon, a member of Kansas City's first Park Board. Kirk Armour was a handsome, mustachioed man. He was dedicated to city betterment, the meat packing industry and to fine livestock on the h Kirkland Armour oof. His 1,000-acre farm lay just south of today's Country Club district. He stocked it with cattle from England, once a part of the Queen's herd. His old Armour farmhouse still stands at 6740 Pennsylvania Avenue. On September 27, 1901, the 47-year-old Armour died. The year following, Mrs. Armour built a memorial to him in Elmwood Cemetery. It is the small Gothic-style chapel of rough native stone and timber, known as Armour Chapel. It is a fitting, living tribute to Kirkland B. Armour who lies buried nearby.

More information on the Armours...

Union Jail in Kansas City Dr. Peter Arnoldia
Dr. Arnoldia gives Elmwood a place in the history of the dreaded Union Jail collapse in August 1863 in Kansas City. He was called upon to tend to a sick woman in the Union Jail the night before the collapse. It is thought that that woman was the highly profiled Charity McCorkle Kerr. She was the sister of Quantrill man, John McCorkle, who would later write "Three Years with Quantrill after his guerrilla days, and the wife of another Quantrill guerrilla, Nathan Kerr. Arnoldia would testify that he saw no signs of the building being in bad shape or it being sabatoged so it would collapse. This is the first particpant in the Union Jail story. Stay tuned folks, there will be more Union Jail participants from Elmwood that will follow this one and they also have their own testimonies!

General Frank Askew
President Andrew Johnson brevetted him Colonel for "gallant and meritorious" service on July 14, 1865. He was commissioned Lieutenant of the 17th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Highly regarded in Kansas City, he served on the school board and helped organize Westminster Congregational Church.

William Askew
He was a pioneer citizen of Kansas City, owned Askew Saddlery, and served in the Mexican War as a General in Taylor's Third Ohio Regiment. He was a First Lieutenant in the 25th Ohio Regiment in the Civil War. He donated land for the Priest of Pallas Convention Hall. His monument memorializes his only son, John, wo died of scarlet fever at the tender age of 7.

The Askew Saddlery Building at 213 Delaware, KCMO has undergone a complete historic renovation in the past few years. The seven story building has completely new mechanical, electrical, elevator, and other systems. The interior of the heavy timber structure went through comprehensive demolition...and the building now houses loft apartments.

Mary Atkins Mary McAfee Atkins
Mary McAfee was a Kentucky schoolteacher, born in 1836, who moved to Kansas City in 1878 after marrying her longtime friend James Burris Atkins. He was also a Kentuckian, but he had come to Kansas City in 1865 to enter the milling business and to speculate in Kansas City real estate.

When he died in 1886, he left Mary grief-stricken as a 50-year-old widow. He also left her a sizable estate. At the turn of the century, Mary Atkins began the first of eight trips to Europe, where she immersed herself in the collections of the Louvre and the Luxembourg in Paris, the National Gallery in London, and the Saxon royal museums in Dresden.

Her $350,000 bequest to Kansas City helped establish the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Nelson-Atkins Museum was opened in 1933 with NBC Radio broadcasting the event to a nationwide audience and one of the most famous paintings of all, "Whistler's Mother", was there for the opening as well.

Ira James Avent

Ira Jones Avent
African-American World War I Veteran, was a private of the 806 Pioneer Infantry, Missouri, Labor Battalion. His family has been buried in Elmwood since 1884. His grave is marked with a government stone.

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