Illinois Cemetery Tour
Cemeteries as a great place to learn about local, state, and national history. Librarian and historian John Kokoris gives the Prairie Fire crew a guided tour of some great graves and important cemeteries.
First, we visit Springdale Cemetery outside of Peoria, with over 80,000 graves on 254 acres, and the first chartered cemetery in the state. It was intentionally set outside city limits as a peaceful retreat. Springdale features the largest native prairie savanna, and contains many notable graves, including the grave of Lydia Moss Bradley, founder of Bradley University.
The tour also uncovered Moffitt Cemetery, a nearly forgotten burial ground that was paved over, where Nance Leggins Costley lies—who was thought to be the first enslaved person Abraham Lincoln helped free before his presidency.
Other stops included Oak Hill Cemetery in Lewistown, inspiration for Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology; The Old Concord Cemetery in Menard County, where Anne Rutledge was originally buried and "the place where Lincoln wept" after her death; and finally, we end our tour at Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, the second most visited cemetery in America after Arlington.
Massive, old, hilly, stunning. A perfect example of the Victorian "rural cemetery movement", it had been neglected for many years before a community/government coalition seized control and rescued it.
Not much to look at besides a flagpole in a gravel parking lot, but it houses thousands of unmarked remains including some notable African Americans from the Civil War era.
At one point, one of the world's most famous cemeteries—this site is the inspiration for Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology, a once-beloved treasure trove of poetic epitaphs telling stories of small-town life, love, and drama. Once the scene of a massive annual cemetery centered festival.
New Salem area cemeteries:
Two sites Lincoln lovers should put on their list, Oakland Cemetery in cute Petersburg (near Lincoln's New Salem home, where many of his first Illinois friends are buried), and the stark and nearly-forgotten Old Concord Cemetery (where his rumored first love Ann Rutledge was originally laid to rest, known as the place "where Lincoln wept").
Scenic Oak Ridge Cemetery is the second-most visited cemetery in the Country (after Arlington) due to the Lincoln family's large and stately tomb. A must-visit site for any true Illinoisan.
