INTRIGUING HISTORIC FIGURES
Wright City Cemetery - The "City of the Dead" has many stories
GUIDED TOURS
Each fall, the Society sponsors a program called "Voices of the Past". This program is a Cemetery Walk in which volunteers dressed in period costumes recall the lives of individuals buried in the cemetery who once made this area their home. The individual stories are unique and brings our area history to life.
Members welcome the chance to share the history of the ordinary and some notable people in the cemetery. We plan to share on this page some of those stories.
Check back often for new stories
Voices of the Past 2024 will be on Sept 29
Details to be shared soon
Story of Emil Diekroeger
Emil Diekroeger 1869 - 1951
Julia Blattner Diekroeger 1873 - 1907
Emil & Julia were active citizens in the Wright City community. Both came from large families and were quite well known in the area.
They had a family of five children (one of their twins died at the age of 3 months), Julia died at the age of 34 from cancer five months after her twins were born. Emil's sisters helped him raise his four children as he never remarried.
Emil was a hard worker, good businessman, and livestock owner. He went into the lumber business with his brother Florence.
One of the many things Emil and the Diekroeger family is well noted for is their donation in 1941 of some eight acres of land, known as the old fairgrounds, to the town of Wright City for all community and entertainment affairs. This park known as Diekroeger Park is still in use today.
Story of Capt. Ordelheide
Picture from Ancestry.com
Ernest Frederick Ordelheide 1840 - 1898
known as Capt. Ordelheide
Capt. Ordelheide was in the Union Army in 1861 as a member of the Eighth Indian regiment and served in Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas and made Captain of Company E, of the Missouri State Militia under Colonel Morsey.
After the war, he married Alvine Bockhorst and they settled and raised five children on a farm in the Hickory Grove township. He served as Deputy postmaster in Wright City. In 1870, he moved his family from the farm to Wright City where he was engaged in general merchandising and owned the elevator in Wright City.
In 1882, Ernest was nominated for the office of sheriff and collector of Warren County by the Republican party. He served this office with pride.
Capt. Ordelheide was a man who stood for human embodiment of generosity and was very well liked in the county.
Story of Ellouise Hasekamp
Mary Ellouise Poirot Hasekamp
1906 - 1999
Ellouise started teaching in a small one room school in Locust Grove in 1926. Teachers were in high demand so she started teaching at the age of 20. She had a love for teaching and continued teaching for 46 years!
She married Bill Hasekamp in 1942. They lived on her family farm where Bill continued to farm the land and raise cattle. She did not have any children of her own, so all of the students she had over the years were like hers.
Mrs. Hasekamp also served as an elementary principal in the Wright City School District for 18 of those 46 years. Her favorite subject to teach was English which she taught to many middle school age children. She enjoyed working with that age group as she felt you could really get their imagination going. She always said "A child with an imagination will be a creative person, Imagination is best thing a child can have."
As an educator, Mrs. Hasekamp had a lasting impact on many people in the Wright City area.