It is hard to imagine burials of the dead along the banks of our now beautiful Chicago River and its two branches, but both Native Americans and early Chicago settlers routinely buried their dead in or along the river just as Chicago was starting to grow..
Although I have been researching this cemetery since the 1980s, I finally found a map for the first time.
In Chicago’s River West and Fulton River District neighborhoods, there was a very early cemetery called the Common Acre circa 1832.
It was located on the West bank of north branch of the Chicago River, starting north of Kinzie Street (400 North), including the vicinity of Grand Avenue (500 North – formerly Indiana Ave) and possibly continuing as far north as the Ohio street extension (600 north) of the Kennedy Expressway. It is estimated to have been as much as five acres in size.
As early as 1897 The Tribune wrote:
“..that all along both sides and partly under its present bed, from Market Street to Dearborn or State, bodies of early Chicagoans are thickly laid.”
The Daily Democrat reported :
“Two coffins seen floating down the river (were) supposed to have been from some burying ground on the North Branch of the Wabansia Division.” One early observation was of a boatman paddling up the river who saw the ends of bark coffins projecting from the sand hills on the right bank…and even occasionally noted the contents.”
This cemetery as well as many Native American burials along and near the Chicago River predated both The North Side Cemetery, surveyed in 1835 once on a portion of prime North Michigan Avenue as well as the well-known City Cemetery at Lincoln Park, the primary municipal burying ground for Chicago beginning about 1837.
Fernando Jones, ( 1826 – 1911 ) an early resident and founder of a title abstract company, and alderman is quoted to say that burials between 1832 and 1836 were made in a Common Acre on the west side of the North Branch of the Chicago River, south of Indiana Street, (now Grand Avenue).
The Chicago Tribune article of October 7, 1900 describes the site as follows:
“On the west side, on the North Branch of the Chicago River, north of Kinzie Street, another old cemetery has been obliterated, the ground being taken up for manufacturing sites and business blocks. The remains buried there were taken to burial grounds outside the city limits, as they were at that time, the cemeteries are now incorporated within the legal precincts of the city.”
The Daily Democrat refers to “…some burying ground on the North Branch of the Wabansia Division”
. Both the 1909 Chicago City Manual and the History of Chicago by Andreas mention this burial site as serving early settlements along the banks of the Chicago River.
Andreas, in his History of Chicago, used the phrase:
“..all along the borders of the two branches….on or near the residence of the friends of the deceased.”
Despite reports of attempts to remove bodies upon closing this graveyard, human remains were unearthed during construction of the Ohio street extension (600 north) of the Kennedy Expressway.
As shown above, The only map I have ever found showing the Common Acre was published June 17, 1900 in the Chicago Tribune, the shaded portion which represents the cemetery. Below is a current map, the cemetery marked in yellow.
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Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries 