Richmond Pioneer Cemetery, first called the Public Burial Ground, was created when John C. Richardson deeded approximately one acre on August 13, 1846, to Charles R. Morehead, James M. Lapsely, and George A. Dunn as trustees for the sole and exclusive use of the inhabitants of the Town of Richmond as a public burial ground forever, at a price of $80.00. Its high-ground location was chosen after disastrous spring floods in 1844 washed away the grave of Richardson's wife's mother in the Missouri River lowlands. Some of the early pioneers and other prominent citizens of Richmond and the surrounding vicinity were buried here. About 1875, a new and larger cemetery was established west of the city, and some bodies were transferred there. The cemetery also contains the graves of several members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, preeminent in this section in Missouri's early days, including Oliver Cowdery, who for a time was a close friend and associate of Joseph Smith, founder through revelation of that church. A large granite monument was dedicated on November 22, 1911, with more than two hundred people from Salt Lake City, the church's headquarters, in attendance. After the cemetery had been abandoned for about seventy years, the church, by agreement with the City of Richmond, landscaped the area in 1949-50 by removing brush and rubbish, restoring headstones where possible, planting new shrubbery and hardwood and evergreen trees, and sowing the entire area to grass.
