Peoria in Peoria County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Peoria's Moffatt Cemetery

Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, December 29, 2023

1. Peoria's Moffatt Cemetery Marker

Inscription. Aquilla Moffatt arrived here in 1822 and began mining and milling ventures. On return from the Black Hawk War, he built his home on South Adams Street and set aside a small burying ground for family and friends. After the Civil War he named an adjacent parcel Union Cemetery for those veterans. In the 1870s he sold these parcels along with the land bordering Adams and Griswold streets to investors who formed the Moffatt Cemetery Association. Burials increased rapidly until it was ordered closed in 1905. The cemetery was abandoned and efforts to save it over five decades were unsuccessful. Court actions in the 1950s gathered share rights, the property was rezoned, gravestones and trees were cleared, and parcels were sold to businesses. Cemetery records were thought lost and those buried there relocated, but only about 100 transfers are known. Undertaker reports stored for a century were found, which document burials of about 2,500 individuals. Recent research has found more than 200 additional burials. Today, 2,600 individuals known by name still lie buried there. One is Nance Legins-Costley, the first enslaved

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person Abraham Lincoln helped free in an 1841 Illinois Supreme Court case. Fifty-two veterans were interred: 49 Union Civil War soldiers, including an African American who was at Juneteenth in Galveston Texas, and one each from the 1792 Virginia militia, the War of 1812, and the Spanish-American War. Also interred are remains of unknowns buried in a mass grave that were removed in 46 crates from Peoria's first public cemetery during work along Lincoln Avenue. Those buried at Moffatt Cemetery are a cross section of our community. Many are infants and children, most are hard-working immigrants, African Americans and others, who deserve to be “forgotten no more.”

Erected 2022 by United Union of Roofers Local #69 • City of Peoria • Peoria Park District • The William G. Pomeroy Foundation • Illinois State Historical Society.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Cemeteries & Burial Sites. In addition, it is included in the Illinois State Historical Society series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1822.

Location. 40° 39.794′ N, 89° 37.956′ W. Marker is in Peoria, Illinois,

Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, December 29, 2023

2. Peoria's Moffatt Cemetery Marker

Featured marker is on the left.

in Peoria County. It is at the intersection of Southwest Adams Street and South Griswold Street, on the right when traveling west on Southwest Adams Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 3917 SW Adams St, Peoria IL 61605, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Illinois River Valley.

It is also in the American Midwest

and in the Corn Belt.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Moffatt Cemetery Veterans Memorial (here, next to this marker); Nance Legins-Costley (a few steps from this marker); Fort Crevecœur (approx. 1.8 miles away); Frank Lloyd Wright / The Francis W. Little House (approx. 2.2 miles away); Pettengill-Morron House (approx. 2.4 miles away); George Washington Carver Community Center (approx. 2½ miles away); Woodward Home (approx.

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2½ miles away); Bradley University Football (approx. 2.6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Peoria.

Also see . . . Forgotten stories no more: Remembering 2,600 Peorians still buried under the razed Moffatt Cemetery. When the Moffatt cemetery on Peoria's South Side was razed in the 1950s, it was more than just tombstones that were lost. It was the stories of the hundreds of people buried there. The rediscovery of the old Moffatt Cemetery begins with Bob Hoffer's genealogical quest to find out where his wife's great-grandfather was buried. (Tim Shelley, WCBU-FM, June 30, 2022) (Submitted on January 12, 2024, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.)

Credits. This page was last revised on May 1, 2025. It was originally submitted on January 12, 2024, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 355 times since then and 52 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on January 12, 2024, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.