About this property
Oak Hill Cemetery is located in the city of Lewistown, Illinois. It lies along Illinois Route 97 and 100 in the 1000 block of North Main Street. The south part of the cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places. The first cemetery in Lewistown, Illinois, was located on city lot 16, on land donated for this purpose by Ossian M. Ross, the founder of Lewistown. This cemetery was abandoned after a few years due to pressures from commercial development, and many of the bodies were reinterred in what is now Oak Hill Cemetery. The first tract of land in Oak Hill Cemetery was located in what is now the southeast corner and was approximately one acre in size. The second tract of land, north and west of the original section, was deeded to the Lewistown Cemetery Association in 1865 by Reuben R. and Ruth McDowell. Subsequent additions have brought the total size to approximately 30 acres. Only the south portion of the cemetery, an area of approximately 13 acres, is included in the National Register of Historic Places. The first interment in Oak Hill Cemetery was Maria (Ross) Coulter, sister of Lewistown's founder, Ossian Ross. However, the dates of her death and interment are unknown. The earliest date of death on a headstone in Oak Hill Cemetery is 1829, but it is unclear whether that date refers to a new burial or to a body being reinterred from the first cemetery. Oak Hill Cemetery is still in active use. As of 2015, there are more than 5,000 individuals interred there. Among them are some of the early settlers of the Lewistown area, including members of the Beadles, Davidson, Phelps, Ross, and Walker families. Oak Hill Cemetery provided the inspiration for Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, and many of the characters in this work have been linked to individuals interred in the cemetery. Oak Hill Cemetery is often referred to as "The Hill," in reference to the first section of Masters' Anthology. A walking tour brochure is available from the City of Lewistown that lists the characters in the verse and their counterparts in the cemetery. This brochure also includes a map of the cemetery layout and the location of the gravesites of individuals linked to the Anthology. The gravesites of these individuals are indicated by numbered markers that are located beside the corresponding gravestones and are shaped in the silhouette of Edgar Lee Masters. There are 40 such markers, representing 52 characters from the Anthology (some of the individuals interred in the cemetery correspond to more than one character in the Anthology). However, there is still some uncertainty as to the exact relationship between the individuals interred in the cemetery and the characters in the Spoon River Anthology. According to Masters, 66 of the anthology characters correspond to persons buried in the cemetery.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Oak Hill Cemetery
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Questions about this property
When was Oak Hill Cemetery listed on the National Register?
Oak Hill Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1995.
What type of historic resource is Oak Hill Cemetery?
Oak Hill Cemetery is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Oak Hill Cemetery?
The period of significance for Oak Hill Cemetery is recorded as the pre_contact era, specifically around 1000.
Can I research the history near Oak Hill Cemetery?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Oak Hill Cemetery will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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