Editor’s note: Local cemeteries are treasure troves of information, providing genealogical resources and insight into the community and its past residents. Two local historians were asked to share information about the historic cemeteries located throughout Bureau County.

Jessica Gray

Curator, Bureau County History Center

“Bureau County is dotted with beautiful cemeteries filled with fascinating bits of history that tell the story of the early days of the county, even going back to the founding of the country itself.

They make for perfect weekend drives and a quiet walk among the stones. Most are small plots, located just off the road, like the charming Limerick Cemetery that runs parallel to Rt. 26 in Ohio Township. Others are expansive and provide a serene respite among towering trees, like the 80 acres of Oakland Cemetery in Princeton with its over 15,000 burials, among them Rev. Owen Lovejoy whose home is a National Historic Landmark on the Underground Railroad; Nehemiah Matson, author and donor for Princeton’s first public library, whose stone happens to be the largest in the cemetery; poet and abolitionist John Howard Bryant; and Justus Stevens, Princeton’s first mayor, just to name a few.

There’s also Mount Bloom Cemetery, established on the hill west of Tiskilwa in 1865, whose land was donated by the Peter Bloom family, who first arrived in the area in 1842. The stairway entrance to the cemetery is a unique architectural structure in itself.

West Bureau Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in the county. It is a two-acre plot of land in Section 33 of Bureau Township, northwest of Princeton. It was first established over 190 years ago when “Dad Joe” Smith’s wife, Catharine, was buried there in 1835. Smith operated a tavern and hotel in northern Ohio Township along the Galena Trail. One of Smith’s most famous visitors was a 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln, who was then serving in the Illinois militia during the Blackhawk War. While traveling through the area, he spent the night on May 12, 1832. A stone was later placed to mark the spot of the tavern in 1907.

Also buried at West Bureau Cemetery are Henry Thomas and his wife, Mary, who first arrived in 1828 and are widely acknowledged as the county’s first white settlers. A photograph of one of his descendants, taken by Henry W. Immke on March 17, 1869, titled “Henry Thomas’ babe,” is currently on display at the Bureau County History Center in Princeton.

Searl’s Ridge Cemetery is a beautiful old cemetery, sitting up on the ridge between Princeton and DePue, and is bordered on two sides by a thick grove of maple trees that extend down the ridge. There, you can visit the graves of Judge William L. Hoskins and his family, after whom the early ridge settlement, Hoskins Prairie, was first named. He, too, hosted Lincoln in his home on the ridge when Lincoln visited Bryant Woods in Princeton on July 4, 1856, to give his famous speech before 10,000 spectators. Lincoln then spent the night with his old friend Hoskins, surely reminiscing about the days they had spent together as neighbors in Kentucky, when Hoskins’ mother taught Lincoln to read. The bed Lincoln slept in that night is a part of the collections of the Bureau County History Center.

A large portion of the cemetery is comprised of the descendants of Timothy Searl, who had twelve children. His five sons, Brown, Job, David, Timothy, and John, were all very large and athletic like their father and were reputed to weigh over 1,000 pounds. Their size was so well known that they were called upon to protect the ballot boxes when votes were cast to establish Bureau County out of Putnam County. Twenty years ago, the descendants of the Searl family gathered for a reunion and spent the weekend cleaning and stabilizing the stones that had toppled over.

Hills Cemetery, just outside of LaMoille in Clarion Township, has the graves of the prominent Norris family. The cemetery is small, so it is easy to locate the grave of Anna Norris Kendall. Kendall was a suffragist who marched on Washington, D.C., at the age of 72, and was one of the first women to be placed on the ballot for any office in the county when she ran for superintendent of schools on the Socialist Party ticket in 1910.

Also buried there is her father, Isaac H. Norris, who at one time was the largest landowner in the county with 8,000 acres split between Bureau and Knox counties, Nebraska, and Kansas. Norris, also an early settler who arrived near LaMoille in 1846, was a well-respected cattleman who built his own stockyard at Arlington to transport his cattle to Chicago. His farm outside LaMoille was where the famous trotting horse, Cleora, was born. She was later purchased for the record price of $15,000 in 1885 by none other than William Rockefeller.

Given that this year is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a visit to Miller Cemetery in Hall Township would be appropriate, as it is the final resting place of Edward H. Hall, a Revolutionary War soldier. Hall enlisted four times as a militiaman in various companies in North Carolina from 1779 to 1781, and fought in the Battle of Lindley’s Mill. A large marker, placed there just over 20 years ago by the Princeton Chapter of the DAR, can be found at his gravesite, acknowledging Hall and his wife, Rachel, both of whom died in 1838.”

Cecille Gerber

Current Board Member and Former Volunteer Director, Tiskilwa Historical Society

“One of the oldest cemeteries in Bureau County, Mount Bloom Cemetery has stretched across the crest of the west bluff above Tiskilwa since 1865. Its tranquil surroundings and dedicated maintenance not only honor those who are ‘sleeping on the hill’ but also reflect the cultural significance of a time when families would climb the 76 steps of its historic stairway to visit graves, place flowers, and perhaps enjoy a Sunday lunch in the serene, shaded setting. On special occasions in modern times, families still frequent the cemetery with flowers and memories.

Surprisingly, the Tiskilwa area has fourteen official cemeteries, some with only a few dozen graves, on the hills that surround the village. Add to that number the Potawatomi burial grounds of the area’s early residents in unmarked graves throughout the countryside.

In 1865, the newly formed Mt. Bloom Association purchased land from Peter and Jane Bloom east of their farmstead. Their daughter Catharine, who died in 1847, has the oldest gravestone in the property that later became Mt. Bloom. Over the years, additional property was purchased on the south side of the road, as well as seven acres on the north side. To date, almost 4,000 graves are in this cemetery.

The landmark feature of the old cemetery is a concrete stairway leading up the east bluff from the village. Completed in 1915 by G.W. Quick & Sons of Tiskilwa, these steps were preceded by two different sets of wooden steps. In the 19th century when the hilly road to the cemetery entrance was impassable with mud or snow, the coffins could be carried up the steps for burial.

In 2008, the quaint 1895 ‘Waiting Room’ was destroyed in a storm and local residents took action. They formed The Friends of Mount Bloom to ensure the preservation of several features of this historic cemetery, including the steps which had fallen into disrepair, as well as the original metal archway, given away during a scrap metal drive in World War II.

Between 2008 and 2023, The Friends raised more than $25,000 in private donations to pay for four major projects, with the added volunteer labor of local blacksmiths, concrete workers, landscapers, heavy-equipment operators, and many others. In addition to the stairway restoration and facsimile archway at its base, the group installed a gazebo as a replacement central structure on the south side and later added a gateway arch over the entrance to the north side, to identify it as part of Mt. Bloom Cemetery.

When the projects were finished, The Friends transferred the remaining $4,275 to the cemetery association for maintenance of these special features.

One new feature, the gravesite map installed in 2025, is a gift of Tiskilwa High School Class of 1973. Following their 50th high school reunion, class members donated funds to design, print, and install large metal maps at both Mount Bloom and St. Mary Catholic Cemetery, three miles south of the village. One class member, Pam Menery, became the driving force who logged all the graves in St. Mary’s and Mt. Bloom and coordinated GPS locations with findagrave.com. Pam plans to finish the project this summer to include numerous unmarked graves.

Today, when residents climb Mount Bloom’s steps for a nature walk or a fitness workout, many recall the site as their training ground as high school athletes or a hushed getaway for childhood adventures. Those who come throughout the year to honor family and friends or to research genealogy find a peaceful setting under a canopy of ancient oaks – a place not only to soothe the spirit but also to contemplate the past and future.”