ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

There is no other place quite like Smith Chapel in St. Charles County. There are African American schoolhouses like Franklin and Grant. There are African American Cemeteries like Sage Chapel and Union. And there are African American Churches like Hopewell Baptist and St. Johns AME. But no remains of all three together, a Church, Cemetery and Schoolhouse that were all together, like Smith Chapel near Snow Hill (Foristell), remain today. Here lies several freedom seekers, brave men who fought in the U.S. Colored Infantry for the Union Army.

In 1871, several freedom seekers who had fought in the U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War had returned home. These resilient men, would pool their funds, and establish an African Methodist Episcopal Chapel, with a Circuit rider preacher, that spread the gospel between St. Charles and Jonesburg at that time, and name it Smith Chapel. They would purchase one acre of land from another Union soldier, a German man from Ohio named William Potes, and his wife Ursala, for forty dollars. They would establish that one third of that acre would be used for the Chapel, one third would be for the cemetery to bury their loved ones, and one third would be for an establishment of a schoolhouse named Douglass for their children. [See the previous post about Douglass Schoolhouse at https://stcharlescountyhistory.org/2022/03/12/douglass-school/ ]

Among the Church’s Trustees were Smith Ball, Benjamin Oglesby, and Martin Boyd. Freedom seeker Smith Ball would make his way to St. Charles on February 28, 1864, and enlist in Company B of the 68^th U.S. Colored Troops. Benjamin Oglesby fled from his enslaver Marshall Bird and enlisted on February 14, 1864, in Company D of the U.S. 56^th U.S. Colored Troops. On October 31, 1864, Martin Boyd would flee for freedom and be taken in at Fort Peruque near Wentzville, enlisting in Company B of the U.S. 49^th Colored Troops. [For more about the 56th U.S. C.T. see https://stcharlescountyhistory.org/2022/07/24/56th-u-s-colored-troops/ ]

Ogelsby’s son-in-law Jackson Luckett, along with Nathaniel Abington, Austin “Oss” Pringle, his son-in-law Smith Ball, David Bird, Thomas McClean, Mark Robinson, Claiborne Richards, and Martin Boyd were the Trustees for Smith Chapel AME Church’s Cemetery at Snow Hill. While the Church and school are gone and have ceased to be used, the cemetery has been in continual use for over 150 years. The lives of these hard working people whose stories are now etched in stone, are somewhat tumbled and tossed but still give their testimony to all that care to visit. The Cemetery is tenderly and lovingly cared for by descendants of those who are buried there, and a sister church in Wright City. For more about this special place see its website SmithChapel.com