Dunning in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Cook County Cemetery at Dunning — 1854

Photographed By Sean Flynn, May 2, 2024

1. Cook County Cemetery at Dunning - 1854 Marker

Inscription. An institutional cemetery was established on this site in 1854 on land that was a part of the 520-acre Cook County Poor Farm. It soon became the potter's field for the forgotten and poor of Chicago and Cook County.

Buried here are as many as 38,000 people including children, inmates of the poor house and insane asylum, 117 victims of the Chicago Fire of 1871, and Civil War veterans.

Official records list burials through 1922, although they probably occurred for a much longer period, possibly into the 1930s.

This marks the site of the main section of this historic burial ground. Another section of the cemetery is located west of the intersection of Irving Park Road and Oak Park Avenue.

As you walk through this three acre memorial park you will come across markers dedicated to those who died at various periods in Cook County's history. Our peace be upon them all.

Erected 2001.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Parks & Recreational Areas. A significant historical year for this entry is 1854.

Location. 41° 57.316′ N, 87° 47.461′ W. Marker is in Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County. It is in Dunning. Marker can be reached from West Belle Plaine Avenue near

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North Neenah Avenue. The marker is in Read Dunning Memorial Park. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Chicago IL 60634, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 15 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Unknown and Itinerant Poor of Cook County (here, next to this marker); Unidentified Victims of the 1871 Chicago Fire (here, next to this marker); Cook County Poorhouse (here, next to this marker); Civil War Veterans (here, next to this marker); Orphaned and Abandoned Infants and Children (a few steps from this marker); The Cook County Insane Asylum (a few steps from this marker); The Sick and Infirm at Dunning (a few steps from this marker); Veterans Memorial (approx. 0.3 miles away); Read-Dunning Cemetery No. 3 (approx. 0.3 miles away); Henry Horner (approx. 0.7 miles away); Portage Park (approx. 1.2 miles away); Romanian American War Memorial (approx. 1.2 miles away); a different marker also named Portage Park (approx. 1.3 miles away); Jacob A. Riis (approx. 2.1 miles away); Montclare World War I Honor Roll (approx. 2.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Chicago.

More about this marker. The marker is one of eight that surround an 1884 dedication stone in the center of this park. The park features seven concrete circles dedicated to seven groups spread across the 3 acres,

The entrance to Read Dunning Memorial Park image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, May 2, 2024

2. The entrance to Read Dunning Memorial Park

each circle representing a group referenced on one of the circle of markers. While these markers were originally intended to be at each of the circles, it's not certain whether the markers were ever there at all, or if were moved at a later time.

Regarding Cook County Cemetery at Dunning — 1854. More than 38,000 people are believed to have been buried in potter's fields, called Cook County Cemetery, that cover an area roughly bounded on the south by Irving Park Road, on the north and west by Harlem Avenue and Forest Preserve Drive, on the north by Montrose Avenue, and on the east by Narragansett Avenue. In the 1930s, Cook County extended Oak Park Avenue through these unmarked gravesites, and they went largely forgotten until the 1980s, when developers building new homes in the area accidentally unearthed human remains in the neighborhood. This 3-acre park was the culmination of more than a decade's worth of efforts by local citizens and amateur historians, who pieced together the story of this cemetery after the discovery of the remains and sought a place to honor those who had been buried here.

Improvements to Oak Park Avenue (about a third of a mile west of here as the crow flies) in the mid-2010s brought this graveyard back in the public memory as more remains were found, as did the 2018 building of a new school on Oak Park

Central memorial at Read Dunning Memorial Park image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, May 2, 2024

3. Central memorial at Read Dunning Memorial Park

This marker is one of eight that encircle an original 1884 dedication stone from the Dunning complex.

Avenue.

Also see . . .
1. Grave Mistake-the Story of Cook County Cemetery at Dunning. A reprint of a 1989 article in the Chicago Reader looking at the history of the Cook County Cemetery and how developers in the 1980s bumped into the nearly forgotten graves on Chicago's northwest side.

Excerpt: "Nowhere else in the country has a cemetery with hundreds or thousands of graves been so nearly forgotten that a developer had to rediscover it by accident. 'It is a very unusual situation,' says assistant city corporation counsel Nancy Marin, with characteristic understatement."

(Submitted on May 3, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)

2. Cook County Cemetery. A website with a history of the cemetery and this memorial park. (Submitted on May 3, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)

3. Hidden Truths: Potter's Field. This project by Pamela Bannos is focused on the old city cemetery that was once located in what is today Lincoln Park on the north side of Chicago. Many of the bodies in the Potter's Field would be sent to Jefferson Township, the area that would eventually become known as Dunning.

Excerpt: "The unclaimed bodies from the City Cemetery's potter's field were reportedly exhumed and moved to the County Farm beginning in September 1872. The County Farm, also known as
Photographed By Sean Flynn

4. Cook County Cemetery at Dunning
At the center of the memorial with the eight plaques is this dedication stone, which dates to 1884.
the County Poor Farm, located in the township of Jefferson (today's Jefferson Park within the Chicago city limits) has a confusing history of its own. The dead who were buried within these grounds, include those who died in the county's 'Insane Asylum', unclaimed victims of the Chicago Fire, and others, including 'inmates' who lived within the grounds during its various functions. It later became known simply as 'Dunning', the family name of the original owners of the town of the same name located within Jefferson Township.

(Submitted on May 6, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)

Credits. This page was last revised on May 7, 2024. It was originally submitted on May 2, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 57 times since then. Photos: 1. submitted on May 2, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 2, 3, 4. submitted on May 3, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.