Bellefontaine Cemetery and the Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery are adjacent burial grounds, the location of numerous historic and extravagant graves and mausoleums. They are the necropolis for a number of prominent local and state politicians, as well as soldiers of the American Civil War. The cemeteries were established after the cholera epidemic of 1849, to ensure that burials were made further from the river and water supplies. The original St. Louis cemetery was by Old Cathedral in Downtown St. Louis near the Mississippi River. Bodies from that cemetery (including that of city co-founder Auguste Chouteau) have been moved to Bellefontaine.
