Hutchinson Cemetery & Springfield High School

Hutchinson Cemetery and Springfield High School. . On this site in 1843, John Hutchinson, undertaker, cabinetmaker, and businessman, established the first private burial ground in Springfield. Located on the western edge of the then-newly-incorporated city. Hutchinson Cemetery operated for several decades and received the remains of more than 700 of Springfield's earliest and most respected citizens, including land developer Pascal P. Enos, Rev. Charles Dresser, and early Springfield merchant Robert Irwin. Edward Baker "Eddie" Lincoln, the three year old son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, was buried here in February 1850, as were many other Springfield children who succumbed to infections and diseases no longer considered life-threatening by modern medical standards. The cemetery continued to receive burials through the Civil War, but in 1874 a city ordinance closed Hutchinson. Eventually most of the bodies were exhumed and removed to Oak Ridge Cemetery on Springfield's north side., The Springfield School District acquired the former cemetery lot and constructed the present and fourth Springfield High School here in 1917. built in the Beaux Arts style, the school was considered at the time the most modern public educational facility in the state. Most of the original exterior architectural details and mosiacs remain intact. Notable graduates include: Poet Vachel Lindsay; Homer translator Robert Fitzgerald; educator Susan Wilcox; scientist and Presidential Advisor Dr. J. Lee Westrate; World Bank Director E. Patrick Coady; and Medal of Honor winner Brigadier General Edward J. McClernand.