Root Cemetery
Posted by: 
NoLemon
N 40° 55.787 W 089° 31.544
16T E 287346 N 4534034
Root Cemetery, established in the 1830s, was deeded to the township on March 22, 1848 for a sum of $10.00 to be "kept as a burial ground."
Waymark Code: WMRJ2
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/27/2006
Views: 64
This cemetery lies 1 mile northwest of the town of Chillicothe, IL in Hallock Township, Peoria County. The Jeriel Root family, along with several other pioneering families, arrived in the area and homesteaded in 1830. The families had come from the area of Chillicothe, OH and thus settled Chillicothe, IL. Jeriel's sons and son-in-law were veterans of the Blackhawk War. Jeriel's daughter, Lucia (buried in this cemetery without headstone) was the first school teacher in the area. More information on the Root family can be found here.
The last known burial was in 1933. By sometime in the early 1950s, the cemetery had been abandoned. An inventory of burials was conducted in 1959. This inventory listed 123 names of those interred. Another 21 individuals are thought to be interred here. At least 9 Civil War dead are buried here.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the cemetery was vandalized and many headstones were stolen. Since 1948 local residents utilized fire in a controlled burn to try to control brush and maintain access to the graves. These burns have darkened many of the stones. In 1994 the area was adopted by the Illinois Nature Preserve Commission. The area has been declared a sanctuary for native wildlife.
Today, there are paths through the shoulder-high (and above) prarie grass, brush and other plants. Following the paths will take you to many of the larger headstones that still remain in the cemetery. As this is now classified a nature preserve, no maintenance is performed and it is technically illegal to mow.
In 2001, an effort was made to arrange for care of the cemetery so that graves could be found and visited. That effort seems to have lost momentum and died.