4. Cooley Lake, Modern Satellite Photo
Photo is recent enough
to show dry lake bed.
Note Moore Cemetery
near the top of the
screen. Well
maintained. Founded
1845. Approximately
150 interments.
Elitzer Cemetery: only
21 graves discovered.
Latest to have been
interred
Nancy J. Page b. 1836 d.
1901 Wife of Charlton
Earliest John Cruse
b. Jul. 31, 1814
Feb. 8, 1850
5. Question: Why were these few buried
in this small cemetery with Moore
Cemetery nearby?
6. Was this a Family Cemetery?
Or were they perhaps
The clue came from this
buried together, outside 1877 map I discovered
Moore Cemetery, on Ancestry.com.
because of some
religious affiliation?
The name Elitzer
appears nowhere on the
1917 historical map.
7. Only Citation of Elitzer Cemetery
Re: Jesse Clevenger
buried in “Elitzer”:
“His tombstone and that of his wife Jane
were found in the abandoned cemetery on
the south slope of “Dillon Hill”, in the fare
eastern part of Clay County, Missouri, near
Cooley Lake, known as the “Elitzer”
Cemetery. Jesse's tombstone inscription
From “The Clevenger reads: 'Jesse husband of Jane, d. Nov. 25,
1860 85 y.”
families of Ray County,
Jane (Morrison) Clevenger died in 1865,
Missouri” Gregath Pub. per her tombstone which reads: 'Jane wife
of Jesse, d. 15 Nov 1865, 85 y.”
Co., 1991 - History -
302 pages pp.80
11. The Elitzers: Very Little
Documentation
George Elitzer arrived in
Baltimore in 1843 on a
bark ship named the
Henry Shelton: a weaver
from Hepstedt Germany,
what drew him to Clay
County?
Peter Elitzer was show
to own land on an 1877
map where the
cemetery now stands
and died at age 33
Cordelia outlived them
both and was perhaps
the end of the genetic
line.
