Cold Water Cemetery, originally the Patterson family burial ground, is a historic cemetery located at 15290 Old Halls Ferry Road in Old Jamestown in what was known as the Sinks, near Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri.[1] The cemetery is 2 acres and was historically most active between 1809 and 1929, however, it is still in use.[2][3] It is owned and managed by the Missouri State Society Daughters of the American Revolution.[2] It is thought to be the oldest Protestant cemetery still in use, west of the Mississippi River.[2][4]
John Patterson (1760–1839), of Scotch-Irish descent, was a Revolutionary War veteran who had emigrated from North Carolina; in 1797 he received a Spanishland grant in Upper Louisiana.[2] There is conflicting information around the size of the original land grant, with estimates between 600 acres and 1500 acres. The cemetery began as a plot for the Patterson family, with the earliest burial estimated to be in 1809 for John Patterson's wife Keziah Horneday Patterson.[2] Around 1809, a log church was erected on the site, later the first location of Cold Water Church, now Salem Baptist Church. The church is no longer standing, but there is a memorial plaque.[2][1]
In the 1970s a restoration effort took place to clean up the landscaping and repair broken or misplaced headstones.[2]
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