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Evangelical St. Marcus Cemetery

Red Bud

Red Bud, Illinois is a small city of 3400 people in Randolph County, 30 miles south-southeast of downtown St. Louis, named for a grove of redbud trees that grew there upon the town's settlement in 1820.

Within the city itself are several cemeteries: Old City Cemetery, the new City Cemetery, St. Peter (United Church of Christ), St. John the Baptist (Catholic). To the southwest lies Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, with the grave of the first Lutheran bishop in America. A few miles north of Red Bud along Illinois 159, in Monroe County, another small graveyard overlooks the highway, across from the church whose parishioners it served.

Evangelical St. Marcus Church, also called Prairie du Long or Long Prairie, was established in 1836 by Reverend John J. Riess. The original log church was eventually replaced with a church of locally quarried stone. The pastors would alternate preaching at St. Marcus and at Immanuel Evangelical until 1949 when, with services having become too irregular, the congregation merged with St. Peter United Church of Christ in Red Bud.1

St. Marcus Church still stands today, the oldest Evangelical structure in Southern Illinois2, on the west side of Highway 159. Now non-denominational, the church was restored by its present owners in 19913, and may be hired for weddings. The parsonage is now a Bed and Breakfast, known as the Olde Parsonage Guest House.

The cemetery lies across the highway from its church, on a slight rise above the level of the road.

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View Data
1. St. Peter United Church of Christ - History
2. St. Peter United Church of Christ - History
3. InnSite: The Internet Directory of Bed & Breakfasts
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