Several prominent Weston families buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery came from Germany or served the town in business and public life. Heinrich D. Magers and his wife, Louisa, were born in Germany, started their family in Hanover, immigrated to America, and settled in Weston, where Heinrich operated a hardware store later continued for many years by his son Henry W. Magers. Henry was elected Mayor of Weston in 1878 and died in June 1890, while his brother Thomas C. Magers became Weston’s Postmaster in 1889 and died in 1928 at age 87. The Magers family plot, fenced with stone slabs, contains only a few family members, while others are buried elsewhere in the cemetery, and Heinrich and Louisa’s arch-shaped monument symbolizes a doorway to heaven and is the only one of its kind there. Jacob Dietz and his younger brothers Henry and Matthias were also born in Germany, immigrated to America, and became successful businessmen in Weston. Jacob, twice married to Weston women, lost many of his children in early childhood, and his son Oscar, by his second wife Lucy H. Porter, entered business in St. Joseph but was buried in Laurel Hill after his death. Henry Dietz and his wife Anna Mary are buried there, as are Matthias Dietz and his wife Wilhelmina, while Matthias had operated a grocery store in Weston. Dr. Wm. T. Shortridge, noted for compassion and loyalty to his Hippocratic oath, cared for soldiers on both sides during the Civil War. Arrested by Union soldiers for treason and taken to Fort Leavenworth, he attended soldiers and prisoners there and was released several months later because he was needed by soldiers quartered in Weston as well as by townspeople and his family. His wife, Julianna McAdow, who was nineteen years younger than he was and married him at age 16, helped convert part of their home into a hospital; together they had three sons, all of whom died in infancy.