Program

Illinois State Historical Society

Subject

Cemetery

Location

Griswold and Montana, Peoria, IL 61605, USA

Lat/Long

40.663172, -89.632535

Grant Recipient

Illinois State Historical Society

AQUILLA MOFFATT ARRIVED HERE IN 1822 AND BEGAN MINING AND MILLING VENTURES. ON RETURN FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, HE BUILT HIS HOME ON SOUTH ADAMS STREET AND SET ASIDE A SMALL BURYING GROUND FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR HE NAMED AN ADJACENT PARCEL ‘UNION CEMETERY” FOR THOSE VETERANS. IN THE 1870S HE SOLD THESE PARCELS ALONG WITH LAND BORDERING ADAMS AND GRISWOLD STREETS TO INVESTORS WHO FORMED THE MOFFATT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION. BURIALS INCREASED RAPIDLY UNTIL IT WAS ORDERED CLOSED IN 1905. THE CEMETERY WAS ABANDONED AND EFFORTS TO SAVE IT OVER FIVE DECADES WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. COURT ACTIONS IN THE 1950S GATHERED SHARE RIGHTS, THE PROPERTY WAS REZONED, GRAVESTONES AND TREES WERE CLEARED, AND PARCELS WERE SOLD TO BUSINESSES. CEMETERY RECORDS WERE THOUGHT LOST AND THOSE BURIED THERE RELOCATED, BUT ONLY ABOUT 100 TRANSFERS ARE KNOWN. UNDERTAKER REPORTS STORED FOR A CENTURY WERE FOUND, WHICH DOCUMENT BURIALS OF ABOUT 2,500 INDIVIDUALS. RECENT RESEARCH HAS FOUND MORE THAN 200 ADDITIONAL BURIALS. TODAY, 2,600 INDIVIDUALS KNOWN BY NAME STILL LIE BURIED THERE. ONE IS NANCE LEGINS-COSTLEY, THE FIRST ENSLAVED PERSON ABRAHAM LINCOLN HELPED FREE IN AN 1841 ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT CASE. FIFTY-TWO VETERANS WERE INTERRED: 49 UNION CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS, INCLUDING AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WHO WAS AT JUNETEENTH IN GALVESTON TEXAS, AND ONE EACH FROM THE 1792 VIRGINIA MILITIA, THE WAR OF 1812, AND THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. ALSO INTERRED ARE THE REMAINS OF UNKNOWNS BURIED IN A MASS GRAVE WHEN REMOVED IN 46 CRATES FROM PEORIA’S FIRST PUBLIC CEMETERY DURING WORK ALONG LINCOLN AVENUE. THOSE BURIED AT MOFFATT CEMETERY ARE A CROSS SECTION OF OUR COMMUNITY. MANY ARE INFANTS AND CHILDREN, MOST ARE HARD-WORKING IMMIGRANTS, AFRICAN AMERICANS AND OTHERS, WHO DESERVE TO BE “FORGOTTEN NO MORE.