Cemeteries | Rosehil | Calvary | Graceland | Oak Woods
Oak Woods Cemetery lies 3-1/2 miles due south of 39th street, which was the city limit in 1885. The cemetery was established in 1854, but the first burial didn’t take place till 1860. The cemetery was laid out in 1864 by M. A. Farwell, who at that time, owned 160 acres of land and has since added 40 additional acres. The cemetery is conducted entirely upon the lawn plan, and has many beautiful and attractive features. There are some splendid vistas of waterscapes from different points about the four ornamental lakes.
Four greenhouses supply flowers for the purpose of decoration and portions of the grounds are shaded by native oaks. Between 1864 and 1885, there have been 19,000 burials.
Oak Woods is the burial site for Enrico Fermi, Cap Anson and Jesse Owens. Six thousand of Confederate soldiers who died at the nearby Camp Douglas prison were buried together in a mass grave.
The address for this historic cemetery is 1035 E. 67th Street.
Chicago Evening Post, April 27, 1867
The Rebel Dead have al gone to Oak Woods Cemetery. Within two weeks 3,380 coffins were dug up and moved from the old City Cemetery. It is said that 800 of these coffins were empty, and it is shrewdly suspected that the resurrectionists emptied them.