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The years 1851 through 1859 were the most active in the development of the cemetery grounds. These years also saw the majority of burial lots acquired, then filled with graves. In 1850, the City acquired the Milliman Tract to incorporate those twelve acres into the rapidly-filling burial grounds. In 1852, that area was subdivided and interments began. ______________ Chicago Daily Journal, January 25, 1851 The Cemetery Bell We notice a paragraph in a city paper, to the effect that the City Sexton has placed a fine-toned bell in the cupola of the new Cemetery Chapel, which will be tolled on the approach of funeral processions to the grounds. A mournful note of welcome to the silent guest, will swing out over those breathless billows of the dead – that bell on the confines of time. It should be plaintive, yet not gloomy in its tone – no startling peal, but soft and sweet and full, that it may not fall rudely on the hearts of the living, for thus it is that men hear funeral knells, and not with their ears. ______________ In 1852, a mile-long cemetery fence was constructed to surround the graveyard. Several documents throughout the 1850s and 1860s mention the need to repair the fence at the cemetery's northern boundary, to prevent pigs and cows from entering the burial ground. In 1854, there were complaints from citizens regarding the leaving of dead animals, raw sewage and other foul matter, at the northern end of the City Cemetery. An ordinance was suggested to bury dead animals in the city-owned lakefront grounds between today's Diversey and Fullerton Parkways. In June, 1854, burial lots were reduced in size from 9'x24' to 9'x12'. Half-lots had been sold prior to this date, to accommodate lesser needs. The last burial lots were sold in the City Cemetery in May 1859. Interments continued to be allowed in the previously-owned lots, and in the potter's field until March 1866. ____________________________ Various ordinances and other transcribed documents detailing visual aspects of the cemetery grounds, are presented chronologically, at the right. Scroll to the RIGHT ----->> |
 Courtesy of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository. |
(Transcribed document, original presented at left) June 6, 1851 To the Mayor and Aldermen in Council assembled Your communication on wharves and public grounds to whom was referred the two communications of the former city sexton with instructions from this body to report an ordinance in relation to the regulation of the cemetery and the sale of the herein beg leave to submit the following ordinance and order – Respectfully submitted John P. Haines Chairman Ordered that the committee on wharves and public grounds together with the Mayor be and they are hereby authorized to take such steps by the framing of an ordinance or otherwise as shall enable the Common Council to vacate such public streets as now run through or into the grounds designated as the Chicago Cemetery. July 23, 1851  Courtesy of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository. Ordered, That the Mayor be authorized to sell an old Barn now standing in the Cemetery grounds, for such sum, as he, or the City Superintendent may deem, for the interest of the City. April 25, 1853 June 27, 1853 February 27, 1854 | May 22, 1854 Courtesy of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository. (FROM ABOVE) To the Common Council of the City of Chicago The undersigned respectfully represent that persons unknown to them are in the habit of depositing dead animals, night soil and other offensive matter around the North end of the Cemetery grounds to the great annoyance of persons living or traveling in that vicinity and they respectfully ask your Honorable body to take such action in the premises as may be deemed advisable. They would suggest that the SE frct 1/4 of Sec 28, T. 40 R 14, belonging to the City be designated as the proper place for depositing such matter and that the parties making such deposits be compelled to bury them |
June 5, 1854  Courtesy of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository. (FROM ABOVE) To the Mayor & Aldermen of the City of Chicago, in common Council assembled Your Committee on Wharves & public grounds to whom was refered the petition of JH Rees and others in Relation to Deposits of Dead animals and other offensive matter in the north end of the Chicago Cemetery Grounds Beg Leave to Report that they have examined & find the same to be the case and would ask the passage of the following order Ordered that the city Marshall prosecute all persons who shall Deposit or cause to be Deposited any putrid or offensive substance Dead animals or other unwholesome matter of any kind Contrary to the ordinances of the City. and that the health officers cause to be removed or buried all Nuisance or nuisances that now exist adjacent to the Chicago Cemetery on any part of Said City that may come to his Knowledge hereafter. all of which is Respectfully submitted JD Outhet, Chairman Chicago June 5th, 1854 |
July 31, 1854 April 2, 1855 He further represents that said street has been afenced, and in excavating for the same, have undermined the fence which your petitioner caused be built around his lots. Your petitioner therefore requests that said area or protecting wall be constructed as agreed. Respectfully, |
Chicago, November 6, 1859 Gentlemen, At a meeting of Citizens, owners of lots in the Chicago Cemetery, held on the night of 22nd October last past, the undersigned were appointed, a Committee to Memorialise your Honorable Body in relation to the subject of permanently improving the Cemetery. They would therefore impress upon your attention a few facts and observations touching the matter. The ground constituting the original survey of the Cemetery, was acquired by the City in 1842 at a cost of $2425.00 and comprised about 35 acres. It was soon after laid off into lots and sold under the Direction of the Common Council, and was at the same time declared to be forever dedicated as a place of burial of the dead. And by an Ordinance upon the subject of it was provided that to each purchaser a deed should be executed containing the following covenants, viz: - “And the said City of Chicago hereby covenants with said__________his heirs and assigns, that the premises designated by Ordinance as the Chicago Cemetery, shall be Kept and preserved as a place for the burial of the dead of said City, and that all moneys which have been or which may be reserved for lots sold therin shall be laid out and expended in paying for said ground and in ornamenting and improving the same, and if necessary in purchasing and improving an addition thereto, and that said Cemetery shall be enclosed with a good and substantial fence which shall at all times be kept in good repair.” Since the selection of the original site large additions have been made to the Cemetery, and the whole ground now comprises about One hundred and twenty one acres, and has been acquired by the City at the aggregate cost of $5,715.00 The total number of lots sold to date is nearly twenty four hundred, and the total receipts on account of such sales about $40,000. And there are now remaining unsold, as we have been informed, somewhere about seventeen hundred and forty lots, besides about fifty acres of the land purchased for the Cemetery, which has never been surveyed. In short there is still unsold in the hands of the City nearly or quite Sixty acres or one half of the original purchase. |
(continued) ORIGINAL DOCUMENT PRESENTED AT RIGHT ----->> In consequence of this long indifference and neglect much will have to be done to make this place what it should be and what it would have been if attention to the matter had been given at an earlier day. A plan or system should be devised by the aid of persons of competent skill and taste to be worked up to as means will hereafter allow. And in this way we shall recover in time what has been lost by past neglect. It cannot be the work of a day or a year. Meanwhile, however, the main avenues should be graveled or otherwise improved and a permanent wall erected with gates of some appropriate design. We are authorised to assure your Honorable Body that individuals interested will cheerfully aid in carrying out any plan which may be adopted and also by the improvement of their own lots. We do not desire the extension of the present limits of the ground. Doubtless the greater portion of the remaining unsold land will have to be laid off into lots and public grounds, in developing the plan of improvement which may be adopted. Such lots can readily be sold and the moneys arising therefrom will materially aid in carrying forward this design. We appreciate the necessity which exists for other Cemeteries. Already others have been provided and others still will hereafter be found requisite for the future dead of the City. Nor is it our object to be more definite than we have been in suggesting what improvements should be undertaken without delay. We desire that the subject should be referred to a Committee of Your Honorable Body with a view to a more full consideration thereof, and with instructions to confer with the undersigned and report fully in reference thereto. All of which is respectfully submitted. George Manierre |
 Courtesy of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository. |
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| Pamela Bannos © 2021 |
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