USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Chicago, the Garden city. Its magnificent parks, boulevards and cemeteries. Together with other descriptive views and sketches > Part 9
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Happily such cases are not met with in any of our large and beautiful "Gardens of the Dead "; what the future, however, will bring forth and what disposition will be made of the cemeteries when the living shall demand the space occupied by them at present, is a matter of conjecture and a question which we will not attempt to answer.
Fredericf ? Gatherino WACHER
DACKER
Graceland .- Monument of Frederick and Catharine Wacker.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CHICAGO CEMETERIES.
Prior to 1835 this city had no stated place for the interment of the dead. Up to that time the friends and relatives of the deceased buried them in some convenient spot near their homes. Then, as time passed, the people living near the forks of the river, had a common piece of ground, where they buried their dead. The bodies from old Fort Dearborn mostly found a resting place north of the main river and cast of the old dwelling in which John Kinzie lived. Here too, the latter was buried in 1828, but in 1835 his bones were dis- interred and removed to the North Side cemetery, which was situated where to day the north side pumping station is standing, but even there they found no rest, for in 1842 they were again taken up and transferred to the Lincoln Park Cemetery, from where they were removed to their last resting place in Graceland.
In 1832 there was a small burying ground near the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Lake Street and there the soldiers, who died of cholera in that year, were interred. Quite a number of deceased persons were buried along the banks of both branches of the river and it frequently happened in later days, that the workmen employed in excavating came across forgotten graves, without being able to ascertain, whose remains the mouldering coffins contained.
In the summer of 1835, the official surveyor of the town was commissioned to select and survey two pieces of ground that could be used for cemetery purposes, one of the tracts, situated in the south division of the city, to con- tain sixteen acres, the other, which was to be established on the North Side, to have an area of ten acres. These were the first regular cemeteries of Chi- cago, and they were located as follows: on the south side near what is to-day Twenty-third Street and the lake shore; on the north side near Chicago Ave- nue and immediately west of the lake shore. As soon as these grounds were turned over to public use, interments were prohibited elsewhere within the limits of the town. The South Side tract served as a burying ground until the year 1842, and five years later the bodies slumbering there were taken up by order of the city authorities, and re-interred in the Lincoln Park Cem- etery, which in the mean time had been laid out and put to use. This tract, of which more details are given in the chapter relating to Lincoln Park, con- tained three thousand one hundred and thirty-six burial lots and was com- monly known as the "Milliman tract." Here also the remains interred in the old North Side cemetery near Chicago Avenue found their next resting place, but in 1865, when the city council ordered the vacation of this cemetery, they and all the rest were again dis-interred. The lot-owners were authorized to select other lots of equal size in any of the newly founded cemeteries in ex- change for the lots surrendered in the Lincoln Park tract. At that time Rose- hill, Graceland and Oakwoods had been established, and when the two years liad expired, within which the city had to clear the "Milliman tract" of all the bodies buried there, the city council named the Aldermen Woodard, Lawson and Wicker as a committee to make the selection for nearly two hundred lot- owners, who had failed to hand in their claims and whose whereabouts could not be ascertained.
The bodies were divided among Graceland, Rosehill, Calvary and Oak- woods. In the latter cemetery the city held the title to the entire "Section B. third Division," which had been purchased and upon the ownersof all lots, in this manner exchanged, were conferred the privilege of obtaining a deed to the new lot. The Chicago cemetery in Lincoln Park, where the present Alderman from the twenty-first ward, Joseph H. Ernst, held the position of Sexton for a number of years, in 1869 passed under the control of the Lincoln Park Com- missioners.
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GRACELAND.
Before the close of the year 1893 the number of the silent inhabitants of the necropolis Graceland will have reached 60,000.
This cemetery is justly famed as one of the finest among Chicago's cities of the dead, and occupies a similar rank here as does Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Forest Hill or Mount Auburn in Boston. Among the 500 cemeteries in this country there is but a small number that can compare with Graceland in point of beauty of landscape and the splendor of its monuments. But the greatest of the remarkable works, which the art of the landscape-gardener has created there, belong to recent times, to the last 15 years.
At the time when the older sections of this cemetery were first laid out for their present purpose, it was still the fashion to surround the family-lots with low stone walls or fence them in with iron railings or natural hedges and then to adorn them with monuments and grave-stones, more or less gorgeous, as the means of the owners would permit. About 50 acres of the grounds were dis- figured in this way. Of course at that time this ancient system had not as yet been recognized as a mistake. That did not become apparent until later on, when the beauties and charms of the park-system created by Strauch had been introduced and welcomed everywhere. But what has thus far been ap- plied of this system at Graceland entitles this cemetery to be termed an ideal burial-ground. We see it well exemplified in the larger eastern half, where Nature, assisted by art, produces alternately solemn and cheerful effects, where the undulating, park-like scenery gives the impression of repose and peace. We see there the chief aim of art is to but modestly indicate what the skillful hand of man can do in artificial and architectural ornamen- tation, and to leave the main work and effect to Nature itself.
The principal charm of "new Graceland" is found in the large rolling lawns, which appear as grand velvety green carpets, from which the blooming decorations of the low mounds dotting the lawns here and there stand out like many-colored embroideries. Nothing can be compared with the impres- sive simplicity. which is seen in this serio-bright picture, neither the stately trees with their heavy foliage, nor the well-kept shrubbery throwing their shades over the resting places of the dead, nor yet the bright-blooming flowers and grasses covering the graves, moistened by the dews of heaven or the tears of the mourners. It is the earnest purpose of the present managers of the cemetery to check the excesses in the decoration of burial places so exten- sively practiced, and to convince the people, that overdoing things in this direction only tends to show to the world the wealth left by the deceased, but is no indication of good taste.
An effort is also to be made to convince people of the impropriety of geometrical flower-beds upon lots; they are not in keeping with the sanctity of the place, but rather remind one of a pleasure-garden. In short, the rules laid down for the park-part of Graceland show the intention of the management not to permit any longer the close erection of monuments and grave-stones nearly alike in size and form, nor the erection of monuments of too great a height.
A very commendable advance in the general embellishment of this cemetery, and one worthy of imitation, has of late been noticeable in the southeastern portion, where the single graves are found. In this part. in recent times many graves were seen - as is alas! the case also in other cemeteries -
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Scene in Graceland Cemetery.
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for which in years no one had cared and which therefore were covered with high grass and weeds and in every respect showed the greatest negligence. The flowers and the obvious care that had been bestowed on some of the other graves by loving hands, only made this wild disorder the more noticeable. These graves, forgotten by the living and allowed to go to ruin by them, have now been cleared of the weeds and grass covering them by the management ; the mounds have been levelled and the whole has been changed into a beau- tiful lawn, on which appear here and there the tops of small numbered stones, marking the resting-places of the dead. This together with the care given to the other graves by loving hands, conveys to the whole the character of a flower- garden, divided up into small sections, and the shade-trees and bushes lend it the additional characteristics of a park. The greatest similarity to the gardens of the living is found in the north-eastern part of the cemetery, where the landscape is embellished by a fine lake with a wooded island in the centre and surrounded on all sides by fine trees and blooming shrubs. In the immediate neighborhood of the lake are the most expensive family-lots, which are in great demand. They are grouped in "sections" and are given such names as "Lakeside," "Bellevue," "Fair Lawn," "Maplewood," "Ridgeland" and the like. They have all been given undulating surfaces, which, together with the beautifully bright-green lawns showing good and constant care, attract the wealthy buyers. Here ground is sold at a dollar to a dollar and twenty five cents per square foot, and as the family lots in this neighborhood contain from 5000 to 12,000 square feet, only persons blessed abundantly with this world's goods can think of buying. The "brotherhood in riches" is one of the chief requirements to obtain a family-lot, but the same condition we also find in other cemeteries. The prices of lots in the leading cemeteries about New York, Philadelphia and Boston range from $1.50 to $5.00 per square foot. It is sometimes regretted that man is dependent even in death upon the prices asked for land, and that people of small means must content themselves with burial places in the out of the way corners of the cemeteries. The adage, that in death all are equal, is therefore not true. But there is another way of looking at the matter. If a cemetery as a whole is considered as a work of art, the broad stretches of lawn, the grand spreading of trees and the beautiful quiet vistas that can only be preserved where there are very large lots, add a value to even the smallest lot.
Near the centre of the cemetery stands the new chapel not long since completed. It is in the gothic style of architecture and the whole building is reared in rich colored Wisconsin granite, whilst red tile cover the roof. The north half of the chapel has a red tile-floor and is supplied with long cushioned pews, whilst the south half is filled with beautiful plants and ferns. The ceiling and walls are decorated with fresco-paintings in harmony with the bright and pleasing color of the benches, doors and wainscoting, which are all constructed of oak finished in natural color. In the middle of the floor is an oblong drop door through which the coffin is lowered after the funeral services. The lower rooms, partly built under a hill, contain the heating apparatus, a coal-magazine and the vault proper, on the sides of which there are 298 receptacles for coffins. These receptacles are constructed entirely of heavy slate-plates.
Much care has been spent upon the immediate vicinity of the chapel. Few persons would guess that the fine elms which give so much dignity and grace to this building were planted as late as the year 1889. The largest of these is about 60 feet in height, and has a trunk of 212 feet in diameter. It is believed that this tree is the largest one that was ever transplanted up to that time, but since then a still larger tree has been moved a long distance and planted in Graceland. The abundant foliage with its dark green color shows that these trees have taken a good hold on the soil and are quite at home in their new locations.
Besides numerous elaborate monuments Graceland has also many private vaults which are however, aside from a few exceptions, no ornament to the cemetery. The exceptions are the vaults more recently erected. These are
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built entirely above ground under the direction of the management and are embellished by artistic decorations of real merit, for other ornaments are no longer suffered at Graceland. The praiseworthy exceptions are led by the vaults of Martin A, Ryerson, Henry H. Getty, William H. Mitchell and those of the Huck and Schoenhofen families.
The first person buried at Graceland was Daniel Page Bryan, who had first been laid to rest in the old city grave-yard (now Lincoln Park), but was afterwards disinterred with about 2,000 others and buried at Graceland. It may also be mentioned, that the original charter of the Company, granted in 1861, was in 1865 amended to the effect that 10 per cent of all receipts from the sale of lots must be turned over to the trustees to form a permanent fund for the purpose of keeping the cemetery in order.
Graceland Cemetery was established to meet the necessities, which a gen- eral demand for extramural interments had created. Thomas B. Bryan, in 1860, purchased the cighty acres of land, which to-day comprise the principal portion of the beautiful grounds and in the year following the Legislature conferred upon Mr. Bryan, William B. Ogden, Edwin H. Sheldon, Sidney Sawyer, Geo. P. A. Healy and others the power to incorporate as the "Grace- land Cemetery Company," of which the five persons named constituted the first board of managers. The act granted to the company the privilege of ac- quiring a tract of land to be used for cemetery purposes, not to exceed five hundred acres.
The first president of the board, Mr. Bryan, remained in office until 1865, when he was succeeded by James L. Reynolds, but at the expiration of the latter's term, Mr. Bryan again assumed the duties of the office from 1868 to 1878, after which time, Thomas E. Patterson was elected president, and he held that office for a term of three years. Then Bryan Lathrop became pres- ident, which office he has since filled in a manner highly creditable to himself and his fellow-members of the board; besides being president, he also is the treasurer of the company, which made a wise move when it procured the valuable services a number of years ago of the well known landscape architect and cemetery superintendent Mr. O. C. Simonds, to whose skill and good taste may be ascribed many of the natural beauties and fine landscape effects this cemetery is justly renowned for.
After the organization of the company in 1861, it acquired forty-five acres west of the original section, then, three years later, five acres cast of it and in 1867 the entire territory was increased by one hundred and nine acres more, which were situated north of it. At that time the Legislature was induced to pass a law, confining the area for cemetery purposes to eighty-six acres, the section improved. This measure precipitated long and weary complications, which were not adjusted until the year 1879. Then the limits of the cemetery were fixed as follows: Green Bay road on the west, Stella Street on the east. Sulzer Street on the north and Graceland Avenue on the south.
The cemetery is situated about two miles north of Lincoln Park and is reached by the Chicago and Evanston Railroad, the trains of which land their passengers for Graceland at the handsome depot and office building the cem- etery company has erected near the eastern boundary of the grounds; the horse cars, connecting with the Clark Street cable-line at Diversey Street, also lead to Graceland and beyond. The city office of this cemetery is in the Montauk Block, No. 115 Monroe Street.
Rozchill Cemetery
Entrance to Rosehill.
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ROSEHILL.
One of the largest and most beautiful of the cemeteries surrounding our city is Rosehill. It contains within its enclosure 300 acres of ground, but may be enlarged at any time when it becomes necessary to 500 acres. The grounds were dedicated on July 28th, 1859, which was an occasion of no small significance.
Rosehill is situated 612 miles north of the Court house, and is reached either by the Green Bay Road or the Chicago and North Western Railroad.
At the time when this cemetery was laid out many of the 100,000 in- habitants our city had then considered the distance from it much too great- but yet, even the people who had originally laid out the old city grave yard (now Lincoln Park) were found fault with for locating it too far out of the city. Yet it took very few years before the growing city put its monster arms around it and it became necessary to dig out the remains of those laid to rest there but a short time before and to transfer them to cemeteries further distant-the dead had to give way to the living. And to-day again circum- stances are taking the same turn once more, for Rosehill, St. Bonifacius, Graceland, the German Lutheran cemetery and two Jewish burial grounds yet further south are now all within the city limits and are surrounded on all sides by human dwellings, which in some locations, f. ¿. in the neighbor- hood of Graceland, are very rapidly growing in number. And how long will it be before the cemeteries mentioned, at least the ones nearest the heart of the city, will have to give way to the living, their necessities and improvements? Nothing will be able to withstand the growth of this still young giant-not even death.
Rosehill was selected as the general city burial grounds by a committee appointed at the time by the City Council, chiefly on account of its high and consequently dry location, the same being 30 to 40 feet above the level of Lake Michigan, an advantage of great importance in a cemetery.
At the dedication of the cemetery there were present as many as 8000 to 10,000 people ; it was conducted under the auspices of the Order of Free- masons. The dedicatory address was delivered by Dr. J. C. Blaney, then the President of the Cemetery Company. Among other remarks, he made the following:
ADDRESS OF DR. BLANEY.
"Ladies and Gentlemen :- You are assembled to-day to witness and assist in the dedication of this beautiful spot as a rural cemetery. Your presence here in such numbers is accepted by those who have undertaken the work as an earnest of your interest in their efforts to supply to Chicago that mournful but necessary adjunct-A City of the Dead.
The custom of burying the dead within the limits of large cities is one which was unknown to the ancients, and resulted from the abuse of a privi- lege granted, at first only as a mark of high distinction, to martyrs and saints, and afterward claimed as a right by the rich and powerful, but ever depre- cated by science and by the Church as detrimental to the public health.
By the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, cemeteries were by the most rigorous enactments placed without the walls of cities and villages, and this salutary provision was adopted in the discipline of the early Christian Church.
It was only during the period of decadence of letters in the Middle Ages that this custom, injurious to the living and unwarranted by any principle of
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public hygiene, by good taste or by respect for the dead, was allowed to creep in as one of many evidences of stolid ignorance and degraded morals. With the revival of letters efforts began to be made to remedy a custom, whose consequences in the more crowded communities of Europe had come to be seriously felt. To the clergy of France, and more especially to the Arch- bishop of Toulouse, is due the credit of arousing public sentiment to the dangers of intramural interments. In a most eloquent appeal, after rehears- ing the abuses by which the practice had been introduced, he portrays vividly the evils to which it gives rise, and exhorts the secular powers to assist the efforts of the Church "to recall the ancient discipline on this point."
It was not, however, until 1765, that the Parliament of Paris, by legal enactment, led the way to a remedy of these evils; the French Government adopted the same course, and those noble institutions "Pere la Chaise," "Vaugirard," and "Montmartre," were the first exemplars of those rural cemeteries which both in Europe and America are at once the ornaments and the patterns of horticultural tastes of so many large communities. I have only to point you to Mt. Auburn, Greenwood, Laurel Hill, Forest Lawn, Mt. Hope, and Spring Grove, as illustrious examples of the disposi- tion in our country to a return to the correct taste and delicate sentiment so beautifully expressed in the epitaph of Sophocles, the founder of Grecian tragedy :
"Wind gentle evergreen, to form a shade Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid ; Sweet ivy wind thy boughs and intertwine With blushing roses and the clustering vine; So shall thy lasting leaves, with beauty hung, Prove a fit emblem of the lays he sung."
To-day inaugurates a movement in imitation of these examples, and in the citizens of Chicago we look to sustain our efforts.
A brief statement of the history of the enterprise thus far, and of the policy intended to be pursued by the Board of Managers of Rosehill Ceme- tery, will not be out of place. In the Autumn of 1858, a petition was pre- sented to the Common Council of Chicago remonstrating against the further interment of the dead in the city cemetery.
The gentlemen to whom the matter was referred, proceeded with their duty with commendable zeal and promptness. They opened a correspondence with the authorities of the several large cities of the United States and the Canadas, procuring a vast amount of statistical information and numerous documents. They also made a reconnoisance of the vicinity of Chicago, with a view of effecting a new location for the city cemetery. Among other Jocali- ties, the one upon which we now stand was examined, and in the unanimous opinion of the committee, was not merely the best, but the only spot in all respects suitable for the purpose.
The report of the committee attracted the attention of several of the gentlemen corporators of the Rosehill Cemetery. The idea of the suitable- ness of this tract of land for cemetery purposes had previously occurred to them, but until the report was made to the Common Council adverse to the continuance of the city cemetery, the movement was thought to be pre- mature. This report suggested that the time had arrived when the public sentiment of Chicago was prepared to support the efforts which might be made to establish a rural cemetery at a convenient distance from the city limits.
The Board of Managers of Rosehill Cemetery, appointed under the act of incorporation, encouraged by the report of the Committee of the City Council, and feeling bound to supply the need of a place for burial without delay, initiated the preliminaries for the location of the cemetery at this place. With this view they solicited and obtained the eminent counsel of J. Jay Smith, E-q., President of Laurel Hill Cemetery at Philadelphia, who, in view of the importance of the movement to the future health and prosperity of Chicago, sacrificing his convenience and other engagements in an incle-
Rosehill .- Battery A, Chicago Light Artillery.
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ment season of the year, visited Chicago and freely gave his assistance in locating the grounds for the future cemetery, and both then and since has been of eminent service by his advice in the management of the enterprise. The Board of Managers would wish thus publicly to express their obligation to this gentleman and their high estimation of his experience in the manage- ment of rural cemeteries, and the value of his counsels.
But, fellow citizens of Chicago and vicinity, with you it remains to decide whether Rosehill is or is not to be your cemetery. We have made every effort to supply your need. That effort will be continued, so that you shall not blush to compare yours with the rural cemeteries of other and older cities. But to effect this we must be sustained by your sympathy and encouragement."-
The speaker himself was laid to rest under the leafy roof of the grove, for which he had so great a liking, on the 13th day of December, 1874.
Thirty-four years have rolled down into eternity since that dedication. Then only one person, Dr. J. W. Ludlam, slept the eternal sleep in its grounds, to-day more than 25,000 are resting beneath its green sod, most of them in the old portion of the cemetery, which is nearest the main entrance and com- prises 80 acres. West of this old section, in which the erroneous practice of earlier days to fence in graves and lots had taken place, the eye is attracted by the park-like landscape into which that new part has been changed. Here we see plainly the difference between the old and new system. On the one side we behold the irregular mass of grave stones forming an unsightly chaos with the rusty, partly broken down iron fences, the delapidated and crumbling stone-walls, the wild shoots of grass and the neglected graves, and beyond the bright beauty and symmetry of smooth and green patches of lawn, by which the graves are enclosed and here and there covered. What a differ- ence! How fortunate, that the "old things have passed away and all things have become new!" a comfort indeed upon the field of the dead. And here it may be mentioned that the idea to give grave-yards the character of parks originated with the famous landscape-gardener Adolph Strauch, the creator of the beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery, near Cincinnati, who himself has gone to his rest in the prime of life. Spring Grove Cemetery has ever since its creation by Strauch been the model burial park and is widely copied by land- scape gardeners in charge of cemeteries all over the country. The fact that the new system is not without its opponents and enemies speaks loud in favor of it for the world is full of old fogies and obstructionists.
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