History

The cemetery board eventually hired landscape designer William Saunders to create a plan for the new burying place. As a result of Saunders’ work, rolling hills and scattered woodlands characterized the new cemetery along Spring Creek, and the master plan for the cemetery reflected its natural character. Roadways were curving, and lily ponds, stone structures, and other naturalistic features highlighted the cemetery. Additional land was annexed to the cemetery over the decades, and the cemetery today takes in about 180 acres.

Oak Ridge Cemetery is widely known as the final resting place of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s body was brought to the cemetery in April 1865, along with that of his son Willie, who had died in the White House. Eventually the bodies of Mary and the Lincolns’ sons Eddie and Tad were also interred in the monumental Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site. (Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of the Lincolns’ sons who grew to adulthood, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.)

Oak Ridge attracts thousands of visitors each year, including many from around the world. More than 78,000 individuals are interred here, among them many of the area’s early settlers and a number of notable state and national leaders. Distinctive memorials, monuments and statuary throughout the cemetery represent their fascinating and unique lives and times. We invite you to visit the cemetery and take some of the self-guided tours outlined here. Look also for guided tours and other special events at Oak Ridge.

(Oak Ridge Cemetery Foundation 11th Anniversary Observance)

”Though a native son of Springfield with many relatives buried here at Oak Ridge Cemetery, I was not fully cognizant of its deep, rich legacy. So I want to share with you briefly some of the historical highlights of these hallowed grounds.

As you may or may not know, our own Oak Ridge Cemetery is second only to Washington D.C.’s Arlington National Cemetery in the number of annual visitors, and Oak Ridge has hosted a wealth of dignitaries over the years, including several US presidents.

The physical layout of Oak Ridge Cemetery reflects the change in cemetery design across our nation during the 1850s and 1860s. Most burials at that time were found primarily in overcrowded city graveyards. During this period in our community of Springfield, the deceased were buried either in the private Hutchinson Cemetery or Springfield’s city-owned graveyard, which was on land donated by Springfield founder Elijah Iles.

Oak Ridge Cemetery opened in 1855 per the design of city engineer William Sides, who envisioned the grounds in squares, without regard to the natural slopes and ravines of the area. It was the new cemetery board, however, that engaged landscape designer William Saunders to create and design a cemetery of winding drives, plantings, and oak trees.

After a few years, lots at the cemetery were selling steadily, and local area families began erecting limestone and granite grave markers for their deceased loved ones.

During its storied history, Oak Ridge Cemetery has had many distinguished citizens who volunteered their time, talent, and expertise to craft and enact policies for the continued improvements to the grounds. One of the most famous board members was Dr. Henry Wohlgemuth, who served variously as city physician, alderman, member of the board of education, and member of the Sangamon County Board of Supervisors. Another name to remember is George Willis, Oak Ridge Cemetery’s first sexton during the 1850s.

President Abraham Lincoln is believed to have attended the dedication of Oak Ridge Cemetery in 1860. Sadly, however, his body was brought back to the same cemetery for burial after his assassination in April 1865. Many Springfield area businessmen thought it appropriate to have Lincoln buried in a mausoleum near downtown Springfield. However, his wife Mary vetoed that idea. She insisted that Lincoln be buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery; otherwise, she said, she would have had her husband buried in Washington, D.C. Needless to say, Mrs. Lincoln’s preference prevailed.

Here are a couple of tidbits about President Lincoln’s tomb:

• It was rebuilt twice and subsequently enlarged.
• Lincoln’s body was moved 17 times in efforts to thwart thieves who were intent on stealing his body.

Other prominent individuals buried within the confines of Oak Ridge Cemetery include:

• Poet Vachel Lindsay
• John L. Lewis (president of the United Mine Workers of America)
• William “Billy” Herndon, (Lincoln’s last law partner)
• Governor and U.S. Senator Shelby Cullom
• William Donnegan, a black man from Kentucky who worked as a shoemaker in Springfield and counted President Lincoln as one of his customers. Donnegan also helped bring Blacks escaping from slavery into Springfield through the Underground Railroad. Donnegan, however, became a victim of the 1908 Race Riot, during which he was dragged from his home at Spring and Edwards streets and lynched.
• And, lastly, William Butler, who was Illinois state treasurer during the Civil War. He was honored when a former Union Army mustering center and later a Confederate prisoner of war camp was named after him. Camp Butler near Riverton now is a national cemetery.

In 1891, the Springfield Park District opened Forest Park on land that was once Hutchinson Cemetery. However, when the Springfield School Board needed a site for a new high school, the park district offered Forest Park to the schools free of cost. So, in 1917, Springfield High School (the same building that stands now at Lewis and Adams Streets) was built on the same former location of Hutchinson Cemetery.

It has taken 150 years of careful planning, maintenance, and I might add, devotion, to achieve and maintain the stunning landscape of this cemetery, which has grown from a few acres in 1855 to 180 acres presently. A part of that beautiful landscape afforded visitors to the cemetery a unique opportunity to enjoy ponds at a time before city parks even had ponds and before Lake Springfield was constructed.

In 1899 (while the Lincoln Tomb was undergoing reconstruction), the Oak Ridge Cemetery Board voted to move the main entrance to a newly paved Monument Avenue along with the erection of a stone and iron gateway.

Regrettably, though, the same positive energy and foresight dedicated to locating and physically beautifying the cemetery was lacking when it came to policy decisions relative to the assignment of segregated burial locations within the Cemetery for both local Jewish residents and Black residents. Thankfully, that practice was eventually discontinued, though a disproportionate number of Blacks (including my parents, grandparents, neighbors, and childhood friends) are buried in Blocks 5, 24 and 40 of the cemetery.

By 1940, the permanent cemetery population had grown to over 33,000 causing the cemetery board to purchase additional land to the west. One year later in 1941, the City Council authorized the widening and landscaping of Walnut Street from North Grand Avenue to the cemetery’s new western entrance.

I will close by acknowledging that the research for a significant portion of my remarks this afternoon comes from a book entitled “Images of America: Oak Ridge Cemetery”, co-authored by Edward J. Russo and Curtis R. Mann. Thank you!’

Allan L. Woodson, Ed.D.

Board member, Oak Ridge Cemetery Foundation

June 24, 2023