Back in the day announcing the death of a family member was quite different. There was no telephone and of course no Internet.
Although notifying friends and family members in person was best, Mourning cards, edged in black were often hand delivered or mailed.
Some were sealed with black sealing wax. Victorian families often posted a similar mourning card to the front door to let neighbors and visitors know there had been a death. Sometimes the door was adorned with a black bow, black crepe, a wreath of laurel, or a bundle of yew branches .
Black seemed to be the universal color of death. For at least a year after the death, Victorian relatives some time used stationery and handkerchiefs with a black border. Widows wore black and many would not leave their homes without covering their faces with a dark veil. Some restricted their jewelry to what was called “mourning jewelry” , limited to jet black there were lockets, bracelets, or brooches woven or braided from the hair of the deceased. Men’s mourning practices could generally go about their lives, sometimes wearing a black arm band to signify their loss.
Back in the day, if you were a farmer bringing your goods into the city to sell , your horse and wagon would often sink deep into muddy rutted roads. This was especially true during the spring snow melt and torrential summer rains.
The solution were Plank roads radiating out of the city often called “the farmers railroad”. They were a very important part of Chicago’s transportation for a few years, with 50 miles were built between 1848-1855 at a cost of approximately $150,000. Although they were a huge improvement over mud and ruts, Plank roads were so rough that they were often called “corduroy roads”.
Plank roads were cheap to build, usually heavy planks a few inches thick and eight feet long attached crosswise to wooden stringers set into the roadbed.. Pine and hemlock were sometimes used for planking, but oak and black walnut, although more expensive, were more durable and long-lasting.
Plank Road companies recouped their investments by collecting tolls at toll gates at regular intervals infuriating farmers who needed to bring their products to market without added costs. As one example, Amos J Snell made a ton of money charging farmers on the Elston and Northwest (Milwaukee Avenue) plank roads. More about him later. Some farmers were really good at finding ways to bypass the toll roads, hence streets named Dodge. Other farmers simply burned down the toll house.
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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He and his wife are buried beneath a glacial boulder on the very small island in Lake Willowmere. The seven-acre lake was designed by Ossian Cole Simonds (1855-1931) and William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907) and was one of three planned and constructed water features on the grounds, Lake Willowmere is the only remaining one today.
Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries 