The story of the beginning of Lincoln Park overlaps with the story of the end of the City Cemetery. The graveyard, which had been under the jurisdiction of the Board of Public Works, was handed over to the new Lincoln Park Commissioners in 1869. The Commissioners inherited the responsibility and costs for the ongoing disinterments in the Milliman Tract, and later, after the 1871 Chicago Fire, they oversaw the vacation of the older burial grounds near North Avenue. For nearly twenty years, during evolving landscaping plans, bodies were being exhumed from the park grounds.
See information about the area before it was named Lincoln Park, here.