CHAMOIS — Stories of military service, immigrant families, community leaders, and the everyday lives of earlier generations were shared Saturday, Oct. 3, during the first annual Friends of Chamois Cemeteries Cemetery Walk.

Visitors walked between gravesites to hear presentations honoring Jerry Berry, the Hutchison family, Fredericka Sundermeyer, Norbert Boss, Frank and Dorothy Schollmeyer, and Frank Stonner. Speakers shared family photographs, research, and personal memories, including accounts of loss, perseverance, and humor.

At Berry’s gravesite, Craig Haugen of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War described both the veteran’s military service and the work to restore his family burial plot.

Berry enlisted in December 1863 at 19 and served with the 56th Regiment in Helena, Arkansas, Haugen said. During the regiment’s steamboat journey back to St. Louis in 1865, a cholera outbreak killed a quarter of its members, Haugen said. Among those who died was Richard Berry, who enlisted alongside Jerry and was about three years older. Haugen believes Richard may have been Jerry’s brother. After returning home, Berry worked on the Missouri River, preached, and belonged to the Prince Hall Masons.

Haugen said researchers used an older cemetery map to locate Berry’s grave, which was hidden by brush. Restoration work included cleaning and leveling stones and recovering an American Legion marker with a metal detector. Berry, Osage County’s last surviving Union veteran, was honored at a Memorial Day ceremony this year.

At the Hutchison family plot, Anita Doering described a journey from eastern Tennessee in about 1853. The family was headed toward Oregon but settled in Maries County. Jennie Hutchison lost her first child along the trail in Kentucky, and buried the infant there.

Jennie later helped care for her grandchildren after her son P.L. Hutchison’s wife, Kate, died at 44. P.L. worked as a contractor and served as mayor of Chamois.

Friends of Chamois Cemeteries President Michael J. Nolte discussed restoration of the plot, where five generations are buried, and his friendships with later Hutchison family members. Relatives from Idaho and Wisconsin attended the walk to see the work.

Susan Sundermeyer shared the story of her great-grandmother Fredericka, who married Herman Sundermeyer after his first wife died four days after giving birth. Herman, 39, was left with seven children, the oldest 14 and the youngest a newborn. Fredericka was 21 on the day of their marriage.

Fredericka and Herman had six more children. Susan shared family photographs and described Fredericka’s later years raising chickens and gardening in the river bottom outside Chamois while living with her widowed daughter.

Mark Holzem discussed his great-uncle Norbert Boss, who served aboard the USS Indianapolis during World War II. After secretly delivering atomic bomb components to Tinian, the ship was torpedoed and sank in 12 minutes in July 1945.

Holzem said the family learned more about Boss’s final days through a survivor’s account published in a book. The survivor recalled Boss helping him after another sailor died, then becoming disoriented and swimming away. He never saw Boss again.

Cousins Fred and Allen Schollmeyer shared the history of their great-grandparents, Frank and Dorothy, who came from Germany in 1882 and 1881, respectively. They married in Loose Creek in 1883, raised 11 children, and contributed $2,000 toward construction of the Catholic church in Chamois.

Fred also recalled their son John, his grandfather, who drove a 1940 Chevrolet and called a refrigerator an icebox and a sofa a davenport.

“I remember that cool autumn morning in 1965. Grandpa had walked out the door of the house. Grandma turned to me and said, ‘I don’t think your grandpa’s going to make it through the winter.’ My brothers and I were stunned,” Fred said. “I remember that cool autumn day in 1966. Grandpa walked out the door. Grandma turned to me and said, ‘I don’t think your grandpa’s going to make it through the winter.’ This went on for years, and Grandpa finally passed away in 1980. I don’t know why Grandma always told us that. I think maybe it was just wishful thinking.”

At the Stonner Cemetery, Paul Stonner remembered his great-uncle Frank as a devoted family member, friend, and someone whose judgment others valued.

Frank served on the University of Missouri Board of Curators from 1947 to 1953. Paul said Frank cast the deciding vote to locate the university’s medical center in Columbia rather than Kansas City. Following his retirement from State Farm, Frank returned to Chamois, where he raised cattle and spent time with family and friends.

The walk also highlighted ongoing cemetery work. Friends of Chamois Cemeteries Treasurer Steve Duncan said 319 unmarked graves had been identified using ground-penetrating radar. Flags marked locations awaiting permanent metal markers. Duncan also said a mass grave had been found, but the number of people buried there was unknown.

According to the program, the year-old organization has righted more than 100 tombstones, created a drone map of graves on the hill, added road signs and gravel, established landscaping, and received six memorial benches. Its plans include continued tombstone repair and cleaning, mowing, a daffodil display, and uncovering stones hidden by brush.

The program recognized Anne Stonner Patlán for underwriting stone steps and initial landscaping at the Stonner Cemetery, Duncan for sponsoring its new fence and arch, and Tarry and Mary Augustine for funding the new main entrance fence and arch.