Date: 20/29/00
Update: August 2, 2001
Cemetery: Root Cemetery
Other Names: Root Cemetery Nature Preserve
Street: North Hampton
City: Northampton
County: Peoria
State: Illinois
Nation: U.S.A.
Zip: 61523
Nearby: North Hampton Road
Land Type: Public
Status: Abandoned
Accessible: Yes
Unmarked graves: Yes
Graves within: 100
Oldest grave: cant tell
Newest grave: cant tell
Records: Unsure
Inventory: Yes
Records location: It's name is Root Cemetery and Nature
preserve. The state has made it a "nature preserve",
other wise it is 5foot weeds, knocked down stones, missing stone .
It is all about 1800 to 1900 stones,
Owner: State of Illinois
Condition: Cemetery destroyed
Vandalism
Overgrown-trees
Overgrown-ground cover
Overgrown-vines
Broken Headstones
Buried Headstones
Disintegrating Headstones
Fallen Headstones
Previous contacts: No one so far. Really would appreciate help.
My daughter is 12 years old and is ready to take the State on.
She is very, very upset when she saw that our history to pioneer days
has been trashed, there are a lot of babies and children buried there.
Work Status: No work started as of yet
Update -2
Date: August
2, 2001
This posting contains many errors, from the name
of the site and ownership to the dates of the graves. The site has been
regularly managed for the past dozen years, first by the Illinois Native
Plant Society and then by the Volunteer Stewardship Network. It is owned
by Hallock Township and a dedicated Nature Preserve. The only person in
the area who has relatives buried there is one of our volunteers. There
are no graves there from the 1700s; the first settlers in this part of
Illinois arrived around 1820. The first persons buried there were Jerial
Root's wife and daughter, and he later set aside the 2.5 acre plot for a
public burying ground. The missing stones were apparently sold by some
enterprising local person to a Peoria building contractor. The stones
that are stacked were place so by a group who wanted to "clean
up" the cemetery -- and then forgot where they had found them. I
have left them in that manner; since most of them belong to children
from the same family, this does not seem inappropriate. Vandalism
occurs, although it is less since we (following our management plan)
have allowed more overgrowth. Most occurs following an environmental
burn, when the graves are easily accessible. Signs have been posted on
the site explaining its status; a Natural Area sign was first posted
about 10 years ago. This is not an abandoned cemetery in any manner. The
last burial there was in the 1950s. The native plants that abound in the
cemetery are those that the persons interred there knew. Nor have we
removed any of the alien plants added by survivors: iris, graveyard
spurge, sedum, peonies, and day lilies. We respect the persons interred
in the cemetery, and feel that putting little paths to their stones so
that the curious can tromp on their graves is disrespectful. Those who
wish to volunteer time at the cemetery may contact me. We will have
several workdays this fall. Ann Frye VSN Steward, Root Cemetery Nature
Preserve
Update Submitted by / Contact for additional
Information:
name: Ann
Frye
Email: annfrye@mtco.com
Update
I am updating the section regarding the 6 foot weeds. Between last
week and today, they have had a controlled burn. They left a walking
path, but the cemetery looks even worse than last week. There are so
many broken stones, and sunken graves. The dates are in the 1800s, but
I did find one that the date of death was 1824 and he was 74 when he
died. My daughter who is 12 years old, has really taken this as a
cause for her. We took many pictures today. Could you please tell us
how and what to do next?
We have now found one civil war stone. We have also been informed by local "historians"
that there are Indians also buried there. We have found one stone as the date of death as
1754!!
Original Report and Update Submitted by / Contact for additional Information:
name: Laurie Heneger
Email: heneger@mtco.com
