Historians search for unmarked graves in Johnson County's Shawnee Methodist Mission Cemetery

Local historians and scientists are searching for unmarked graves in one of Johnson County’s most historically significant cemeteries.

The study is ongoing at the Shawnee Methodist Mission Cemetery, a Kansas State Historical site, located on Shawnee Mission Parkway and Canterbury Road.

The small plot of land is part of the Shawnee Indian Mission, which is now separated from the main grounds by the busy lanes and traffic and about a block of residential streets. When the Mission was functional in the 1800’s the site encompassed about 2,000 acres.

The cemetery is the final resting place for Reverend Thomas Johnson, a Methodist minister who moved to Kansas in the 1830’s to start a Methodist children’s school on Shawnee tribal land.

“Of course Thomas Johnson is the namesake of our county,” Shawnee Indian Mission volunteer