Laughlin Cemetery (Ballard Cemetery)

Click picture for a larger view of Laughlin Cemetery’s location in Pulaski County, Missouri.

Laughlin Cemetery, also known as Ballard Cemetery, is located in Pulaski County, MO., on Fort Leonard Wood.

It is family cemetery with about 39 marked graves and at least 10 unmarked graves. At least 13 members of the Ballard family rest here, and 11 members of the Laughlin family. Other surnames that can be found on stones here are: Anderson, Hamilton, Lane, Long, Michell, Piper, and Vaughn. One of the oldest tombstones in Laughlin Cemetery belongs to Bland N. Ballard, who was born in 1800 and died in 1861. At least one person has been interred here after Ft. Wood acquired the land. Joan Elizabeth Ballard, 3 year old daughter of Samuel Ballard and Blanche Sullivan Ballard, was buried here December 1946. Her family was living in Rolla at the time of her death. It appears that they brought her to the old family homestead to rest among her relatives.

An article in a 2008 edition of The Guidon reports the following about Laughlin Cemetery:

“One cemetery lays in the shadow of prehistoric burial mounds — the remains of two cultures keeping an eternal eye on each other.”

The article goes into further detail:

“Laughlin Cemetery sits on the floodplain below a bluff with seven prehistoric Native American burial mounds, reflecting the layers of history in this area. The cemetery shows the dire economic status of many individuals in the area and the passage of time, with several illegible gravestones and at least ten graves marked only by a rock, those left behind not having the money to purchase a gravestone. Half of the 32 marked graves list children and infants, while one woman lived to be almost 91, passing on in 1931.”

The figure of 39 marked graves differs from The Guidon’s report of 32 in 2008. The 39 marked graves were recorded in either 1984 or 1985 by the Pulaski County Museum and Historical Society. It appears that 7 grave markers have disappeared in a period of 23 or 24 years. This could be attributed to the fact that the cemetery is located in an area prone to flooding from the Roubidoux Creek. The Fort Leonard Wood Directorate of Public Works is charged with maintaining the cemeteries that are located within the boundaries of the military installation.

In the words of the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division, in 2008, Dr. Richard Edging, “The cemeteries are testimonies of what was once here, of times gone by.”.

Latitude: N37 046.572
Longitude: W-92 009.891

Township 35-Range 11-Section 08

Pictures of Laughlin (Ballard) Cemetery can be found on at: www.facebook.com/pulaskicountycemeteries