Peggy Campbell Patten

Photographs: looking toward where Peggy Patten is buried (top two photos) and looking out over the surrounding area from there (bottom).

Leaving Atchison, Kansas, I crossed back over the river to Missouri and headed north through St. Joseph. This is where the Billings family spent some time in the early winter months of 1848, preparing to go west. North of there, in the upper northwest corner of Missouri, sits Atchison County, the burial place of Margaret (Peggy) Campbell Patten, wife of Charles Whetherby Patten and daughter-in-law of John Patten. I had found on New Family Search recently that Peggy was buried in the Steiner Cemetery, Atchison County, Missouri, but I had no idea where that was. Looking at the map as I drove north toward Omaha, I realized that I would be driving right through this county and that the county seat, Rock Port, was right off the freeway. So of course, I stopped.

The county records clerk was very helpful. The Steiner Cemetery is known locally as the old Stoner cemetery and Peggy is listed as being buried there, along with several other people, two of whom had the last name of Campbell, Peggy's maiden name. I am guessing that these were relatives, but I will have to do more research to make a definite connection between them and Peggy. The clerk gave me this information and then produced a map of that part of the county with the cemeteries marked on it. The Steiner (or Stoner) cemetery looked to be only a short drive from Rock Port, so I set out to find it. A helpful man out fishing in the area tried to help me locate the graves, but though I was pretty sure of the location, I couldn't get into it because of the tall grass and wild shrubbery. It is a beautiful spot on a rise above the old dirt road. A newer cemetery sits atop an opposite hill and everything is covered with rich green foliage. I'll probably never know why Peggy Patten didn't go west with the Saints after her husband died or exactly what brought her to Atchison County, Missouri, but I do know that she died here on the 11th of March 1871 at the age of 59 years and 3 months, just a few months younger than I am now.