Exploring the Arboretum
Here in Section Cotting, you’ll see young ‘White Shield’
Osage orange trees, a male cultivar selected for its lack of large, heavy
fruits and thorns. The large fruits of a female Osage orange are pictured here.
Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is native to the
central United States and was historically used by Indigenous peoples for
making strong, durable bows. Many older Osage orange specimens on the property
here at Bellefontaine predate the Cemetery’s founding in 1849 as fencerow
property boundary plantings. These trees offer a living link to the region’s
ecological and cultural history.
Significant Figures
Map Reference: Stop 16,
Letter nn
James Dozier
Steamship Owner | Lot #1879
James Dozier arrived in the north of St. Louis in 1828.
Turning from endeavors on land to work on the water, James became invested in
the steamboat business. He, in fact, built his first boat. He retired from the
river in 1854, but still had and owned interests in steamboats, including the
S.S. Sultana, which sank in April of 1865, still the worst maritime disaster in
United States history.
