Greenwood Cemetery, Rockford, Illinois
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Location: Rockford Illinois
Surnames/tags: Illinois Cemeteries
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About
This free space page for the Greenwood Cemetery, Rockford, Illinois is part of WikiTree's Illinois Cemeteries Project, and was created to document the life and times of our ancestors that are interred there. The Illinois Cemeteries Project is a subproject of the larger U.S. Cemeteries Project.
Basic Information
Also known as West Side Cemetery, Greenwood Cemetery is a 100-acre cemetery in Rockford, Illinois. It is the largest and oldest cemetery in the city.
In 2012 the Cemetery Chapel and Crematory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Location
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| Greenwood Cemetery |
- Coordinates:42.290278, -89.077778
- GoogleMaps
- 1011 Auburn St
- Rockford, Illinois
History
Greenwood began in 1844 as a site along Kent Creek, located on the land now occupied by Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum’s Railroad Garden and the railroad yards. The cemetery trustees were prominent citizens; John Taylor, Richard Montague, Cyrus Miller, and Benjamin Kilburn. Mrs. Montague was the first person interred in the new cemetery.
In 1852, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad bought the land to build a railroad yard in Rockford. The trustees needed to move the cemetery to a new location. May of that year, the cemetery trustees bought a 33-acre tract for $1200.00 on the corner of North Main and Auburn Streets. Over time, the cemetery grew to its current size of over 100 acres.
Resources
- Greenwood Cemetery Map
- An indexed listing of burials through 1989 is available in the history room at the Rockford Public Library
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