![]() All the while, bodies lie in peace while a tennis court was slowly raised above bodies below.īy 1958, Van Meter Cemetery was visually, no more. ![]() Gates housing the hallowed grounds were removed, trees torn up, tombstones broken, scattered to the wind. The renovations saw the once quiet wooded landscape defaced by workers. Many of them later became interned here themselves.Īfter going unkempt for years following the last burial in 1919, the site became marked for a civil improvement project around 1953. Families named Goodwin, Lancaster, Richmond have all once owned the land, while United Brethren and Freemasons have had ties to burials conducted there.ĭuring its peak in 1896, members of United Brethren Church noticed it was in need of repair and organized to maintain it. Since the 1800s, multiple names coinciding with the people owning or organizations associated with it have held the namesake of the location. Unfortunately, official records have been lost to the winds of time, in part due to poor record-keeping by the many farmers that previously owned the land.Įveryone calls it something different over the years, but the word “Cemetery” easily keeps the story alive. Today we have documents showing at least 65 souls are buried there, with potentially up to over 100 calling the Park home. The entombment ground is home to residents influential to the formation of the County, their families, children, some as young as nine days old, and American Veterans. An old farm cemetery dedicated to some of the area’s earliest pioneer settlers in Kankakee County that now resides inside Blatt Park. Van Meter Cemetery was Kankakee County’s first organized burial ground. In part, the Cemetery was defaced in the 1950s, bodies left in the ground, while a tennis court was erected above them.Ī story that over time has run the stages of grief by countless people, but began as a story of arrogance, disgrace, and complete disrespect by some area locals. So many eulogies end with the phrase “Rest well on your journey,” but for the residents of Van Meter Cemetery in Bradley, Illinois, that rest has been in vain for half a century.
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