Evergreen Cemetery (Bloomington, Illinois)
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Evergreen Cemetery, in Bloomington, Illinois, is also known as Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
The cemetery was originally two separate cemeteries, adjacent to each other. The first was the Bloomington Cemetery, founded in 1850 by the Bloomington Cemetery Association; the other was Evergreen Cemetery, founded in 1860. The Bloomington Cemetery was funded by city tax dollars, while Evergreen was privately funded and maintained.[citation needed] The website of the current cemetery claims Evergreen was founded in the early 1820s.[1]
Over the years, Evergreen suffered from vandalism and deterioration. Community action in the 1950s and 1960s forced the city of Bloomington to buy out the owners of Evergreen Cemetery in 1963, creating the merged Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
The grounds of Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, which are maintained by staff and community members, include a Civil War burial section.
[edit] Notable persons interred
- David Davis — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and United States Senator[1]
- Jesse Fell — founder of Illinois State University
- Dorothy Louise Gage — niece of L. Frank Baum and basis for Dorothy Gale in his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz[1][2]
- Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn[1] — Major League Baseball player, member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Adlai Stevenson I — Vice President of the United States[1]
- Adlai Stevenson II — United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Governor of Illinois, Presidential Candidate
- Carl Vrooman — Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e "History". Bloomington, Illinois: Evergreen Memorial Cemetery. 2010-04-13. http://www.evergreen-cemetery.com/history.html. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ http://www.thecemeteryproject.com/Graves/gage-dorothy.htm[dead link]
