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Evergreen Cemetery | |
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Details | |
Established | 1850 |
Location | |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 40°28′10.7″N88°59′26.3″W / 40.469639°N 88.990639°W |
Type | Public |
Owned by | City of Bloomington Township |
Size | 87 acres |
Website | www |
Find a Grave | Evergreen Cemetery |
Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois. It is also known as Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
The cemetery was originally two separate cemeteries, adjacent to each other. The first was the Bloomington Cemetery, founded in 1850 by the Bloomington Cemetery Association; the other was Evergreen Cemetery, founded in 1860. [1] The Bloomington Cemetery was funded by city tax dollars, while Evergreen was privately funded and maintained.[ citation needed ] The website of the current cemetery claims Evergreen was founded in the early 1820s. [2]
Over the years, Evergreen suffered from vandalism and deterioration. Community action in the 1950s and 1960s forced the city of Bloomington to buy out the owners of Evergreen Cemetery in 1963, creating the merged Evergreen Memorial Cemetery. [3]
The grounds of Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, which are maintained by staff and community members, include a Civil War burial section.
Since 1995, the McLean County Museum has offered tours of the cemetery the last Saturday & Sunday of September and the first Saturday & Sunday of October. [4] The Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk combines historical research by Museum volunteers, costumed actors from Illinois Voices Theatre, and Evergreen Memorial Cemetery into a week-long outdoor theatrical production. People who contributed to central Illinois’ colorful history are brought to life through costumed actors assuming the intriguing characters of McLean County’s ancestors. Presented is not only the "who's who" of McLean County but also the regular day-to-day voices from the past, people who have contributed to the growth, diversity and success of McLean County in unique and innovative ways. [5]
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was an American politician and diplomat and who was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower in landslides. Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, the 23rd vice president of the United States. He was raised in Bloomington, Illinois and was a member of the Democratic Party. He served in many positions in the federal government during the 1930s and 1940s, including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Federal Alcohol Administration, Department of the Navy, and the State Department. In 1945, he served on the committee that created the United Nations, and was a member of the initial U.S. delegations to the UN.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson I was an American politician who served as the 23rd vice president of the United States from 1893 to 1897 under President Grover Cleveland. A member of the Democratic Party, Stevenson served as a U.S. Representative for Illinois in the late 1870s and early 1880s. He was the founder of the Stevenson political family.
McLean County is the largest county by land area in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 Census, it had a population of 170,954. Its county seat is Bloomington. McLean County is included in the Bloomington–Normal, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. The 2020 census showed the city had a population of 78,680, making it the 13th-most populous city in Illinois and the fifth-most populous outside the Chicago metropolitan area. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, which has a population of roughly 170,000. Bloomington is 135 miles (217 km) southwest of Chicago and 162 miles (261 km) northeast of St. Louis. Bloomington is home to Illinois Wesleyan University and the headquarters for State Farm and Country Financial.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson III was an American attorney and politician from Illinois. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1970 to 1981. A member of the prominent Stevenson family, he also served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Treasurer. He unsuccessfully ran for governor of Illinois in 1982 and 1986. He had been awarded Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure with gold and silver stars and was an honorary Professor of Renmin University, China.
Lewis Green Stevenson was an American politician. He was the Illinois Secretary of State from 1914 to 1917 and a member of Illinois's political Stevenson family.
The Stevenson family is an American family from Illinois that has included notable politicians in the Democratic Party, many of whom have been named Adlai E. Stevenson.
Jesse W. Fell was an American businessman and landowner. He was instrumental in the founding of Illinois State University as well as Normal, Pontiac, Clinton, Towanda, Dwight, DeWitt County and Livingston County in Central Illinois. He was also the founder of the newspaper The Pantagraph. As a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, it was Fell who urged him to challenge his opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, to their famous series of debates.
The Illinois Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Illinois founded on May 29, 1856. It is run by the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, which consists of 17 members, one representing each of the state's congressional districts. Once the dominant party in Illinois, the state GOP has become a minority party within the last few decades, holding little power in the state. The current chairman is Kathy Salvi, who has served since 2024.
Franklin Square, or Franklin Park is located in Bloomington, Illinois, McLean County. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Franklin Square contains the homes of former Vice President Adlai Stevenson I and former Governor Joseph W. Fifer. In 1979 the square was designated as a local historic district. Located northeast of downtown Bloomington, the square encompasses the 300 and 400 blocks of E. Chestnut and E. Walnut streets and the 900 block of N. Prairie and N. McLean streets.
Frank Hamilton Funk was a U.S. Representative from Illinois, son of Benjamin F. Funk and grandson of Isaac Funk.
Martin Adlai Brennan was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
John Milton Scott was an American attorney, judge, politician and philanthropist from Illinois. Although he did not win election to the Illinois Senate from Bloomington, Illinois, he served on both the Illinois Circuit Courts (1862-1870) and the Supreme Court of Illinois (1870-1888), including three one-year terms as chief justice. The trust he established in his will funded the first hospital in Bloomington and continues to fund local healthcare today.
Letitia Green Stevenson was the wife of Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson I, and thus second lady of the United States from 1893 to 1897.
David Davis was an American politician and jurist who was a U.S. senator from Illinois and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He also served as Abraham Lincoln's campaign manager at the 1860 Republican National Convention, engineering Lincoln's successful nomination for president by that party.
The Funk Family is composed of Midwestern United States pioneers who did business in the fields of agriculture, politics, finance and civic life. Abraham Lincoln was one of Funk Farms' first attorneys and later served in the Illinois House of Representatives with Isaac Funk, who was a friend of Lincoln's and a booster when Lincoln ran for president. Funk and Lincoln were also responsible for bringing the Chicago & Alton Railroad through Bloomington-Normal in McLean County, detouring it from its originally planned route through Peoria.
The McLean County Museum of History is an AAM accredited institution located in Bloomington, Illinois. It is the principal asset of the McLean County Historical Society, an Illinois nonprofit organization, which was founded in 1892 to study local history. The Museum moved into its current location in 1991.
The 1908 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1908.
The 1948 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Governor Dwight H. Green, a Republican seeking a third term, lost reelection to Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II.
Julia Green Scott was an American socialite, philanthropist, businesswoman, and landowner who served as the president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution from 1909 to 1913. She was one of the largest landowners in the American Midwest, running multiple farms and owning tens of thousands of acres of land. After her husband, Matthew T. Scott, died in 1891, Scott took over as the largest shareholder and president of the McLean County Coal Company. She was presented the Medal of French Gratitude of the First Class in 1921 by Jean Jules Jusserand for her efforts to rehabilitate the French commune Tilloloy after World War I, and for helping find homes for over 4,000 French children left orphaned by the war.