Between Marycrest Dorm and the Health Center at UD lies a small cemetery (Marianist Cemetery), which was supposed to be for the Marianist brothers who lived and worked at the University. The markers are small and flush on the ground but for one, a grave dedicated to a four month old child who died in 1848. The gravestone for Mary Louisa Stuart is an elaborate monument that seems to be out of place among the burials of celibates. So how did this grave come to be there? To answer this question, let’s look at some history.

The Founder of the Society of Mary, Father Leo Meyer, came from Alsace to Cincinnati to serve as a missionary in 1949. He found the area in the midst of a cholera epidemic and volunteered to help. The next year he was sent by the Bishop to Dayton to serve at Emmanuel Church, where he met John Stuart.

Stuart owned 125 acres of farmland in the Southeastern section of Dayton. Stuart had come from Scotland and wanted to return, and Father Meyer wanted to establish a colony of Marianists. The two negotiated and made a deal. Stuart would give the land to Father Meyer and allow him to pay back when he could, and Father Meyer would give him his St Joseph Medal as collateral. It took twenty years to pay the debt and get back the medal.

Mary Stuart, infant daughter of John, was buried in St Henry Catholic Cemetery, on Main Street near Ashley and Frank Streets. When St Henry was sold and the bodies exhumed, Father Meyer moved Mary and her monument to the UD Campus in order to fulfill his promise to John Stuart that he would always care for the child’s grave. When the Marianist cemetery was established in the present location, Mary’s grave was moved along with the rest. Stewart Street is named for the Stuart family, but the name was misspelled.