REMEMBERING THOSE

WHO HAVE GONE ON BEFORE US…

Honoring Our Faithful Forefathers

“The Lord works in mysterious ways” is a concept I think we can all relate to. I know in our case that is certainly true! And in this case, His mysterious ways certainly make me smile.


Let me explain…


My friend Bertha Courtway and I enjoy researching cemeteries and updating

information on the internet website “Find A Grave”. We do this by going on Find A Grave, choosing a cemetery, and then running a list of names of people buried in the cemetery who do not have headstone photographs. We then travel to the cemetery, take the missing photos, and upload that and any other useful information to the Find A Grave website. This information is especially important to people who are doing genealogy searches or simply want to know more about where their friend or loved one is laid to rest.

Group of men, women and children - standing on the Log Providence Property with the forest in the background.

In the spring of 2025, we asked our friend Theora Peterson if it would be alright for us to

photograph the headstones at Log Providence and put that information on the internet. Our

request was brought to the attention of Pastor Ballenger, Sister Mary Warren, and Sister Lena

Warren and we were graciously given the cemetery records that the church currently has on

hand. We then set about cross-referencing the information on Find A Grave with the church

records and soon discovered that there were many names missing, errors in birth and/or death

dates, and other missing information from both the cemetery and Find A Grave records. This

prompted us to perform a complete search of the Missouri Secretary of State’s death record

archives from 1910 through 1974 in which we checked all Boone County death certificates and

documented the names of people we found who were buried at Log Providence. We also

contacted the funeral homes in the Columbia area and asked them to verify, if they could, a list

of names of persons who we believed were buried in the church cemetery.


In January 2026 we were happy to report our findings to the church and to give the

church an updated Excel spreadsheet with the names of everyone we had found so far. Our

findings indicate that there are 798 people buried in the Log Providence cemetery, which is 381

more than church records had documented.


In April 2026 another cemetery researcher, Bonnie Graf, reached out to us to let us

know she had been to the cemetery and taken photos of what headstones are there and had

uploaded that information to Find A Grave. We were also introduced by phone to videographer Chris Schwedtmann who is interested in the Log Providence cemetery project as well.

A black and white photo of a large group of church members in front of the church

And so the Lord continued to make things happen by putting people together at the

right place, at the right time …. In early May 2026, Bertha and I, on a whim, stopped at a small

roadside cemetery south of Boonville, MO. While there we noticed a couple who appeared to
be surveying the cemetery. We struck up a conversation with them and learned that Jaklyn and

Chadwick’s hobby is to use ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find lost graves in cemeteries and

graveyards around the state. Their equipment allows them to visualize not only ground

disturbances, but outlines of coffins. And they have agreed to come to The Log sometime this

summer to see how they can help with mapping out the church cemetery!


In the coming months we also hope to meet with Pastor Ballenger and Reid Millard, owner of the Millard Funeral Chapels, and get plans started for the creation of a permanent memorial listing the names of the souls who have passed on and do not have headstones. We are excited with the progress made so far and look forward to updating you with new developments as they come about! To God be the Glory!



Sincerely,

April Stariwat and Bertha Courtway