Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery in

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census showed the city had a population of 78,680, making it the List of municipalities in Illinois, 13th-most populous ci ...

. It is also known as Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.

History

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. The website of the current cemetery claims Evergreen was founded in the early 1820s. 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.

Events

Since 1995, the McLean County Museum has offered tours of the cemetery the last Saturday & Sunday of September and the first Saturday & Sunday of October. The Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk combines historical research by Museum volunteers, costumed actors from Illinois Voices Theatre, and Evergreen Memorial Cemetery into a week-long outdoor theatrical production. People who contributed to central Illinois’ colorful history are brought to life through costumed actors assuming the intriguing characters of McLean County’s ancestors. Presented is not only the "who's who" of McLean County but also the regular day-to-day voices from the past, people who have contributed to the growth, diversity and success of McLean County in unique and innovative ways.

Notable persons interred

* David Davis –

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a Justice (title), justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the J ...

and

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

* Ulysses F. Doubleday –

U. S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of the ...

Jesse Fell Jesse Fell was an early political leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first Pennsylvanians to successfully burn anthracite on an open air grate. Anthracite differs from wood in that it needs a draft from the bottom, and Judge ...

– founder of

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public research university in Normal, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University and is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teachin ...

Louis Fitzhenry Louis FitzHenry (June 13, 1870 – November 18, 1935) was a United States representative from Illinois, a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a United States district judge of the United ...

–

* Benjamin F. Funk –

* Isaac Funk –

Illinois State Senator The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under th ...

* Asahel Gridley –

* John McNulta –

* William W. Orme –

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

General * Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn –

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player, member of the

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James Harvey Robinson James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with Charles Austin Beard, founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which ...

(1863–1936) – Historian, scholar, educator *

John M. Scott John Milton Scott (August 1, 1824 – January 21, 1898) was an American attorney, judge, politician and philanthropist from Illinois. Although he did not win election to the Illinois Senate from Bloomington, Illinois, he served on both the Illin ...

– Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the ...

* Julia Green Scott – President of the

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Giles Alexander Smith Giles Alexander Smith (September 29, 1829 – November 8, 1876), was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Biography Smith was born in Jefferson County, New York. When he was 18, he moved to southwestern Ohio, and for a d ...

–

General *

Adlai Stevenson I Adlai Ewing Stevenson (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 23rd vice president of the United States from 1893 to 1897 under President Grover Cleveland. A member of the History of the Demo ...

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Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

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–

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* Thomas F. Tipton –

Carl Schurz Vrooman Carl Schurz Vrooman (October 25, 1872 – April 8, 1966) was the Assistant United States Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson. He started the victory garden campaign during World War I. Vroomanwas born in Macon, Missouri, to Judge Hira ...

– Assistant

Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments The department includes several organiz ...

under

President Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era when Republicans dominated the pres ...

References

External links

* {{Find a Grave cemetery 1850 establishments in Illinois Cemeteries in Illinois Bloomington, Illinois Protected areas of McLean County, Illinois Tourist attractions in Bloomington–Normal Cemeteries established in the 1850s

History

Events

Notable persons interred

See also

References

External links