Oak Woods Cemetery

Confederate Mound

Oak Woods Cemetery was established in 1854; it covers an area of 74 hectares (183 acres) and is located at 1035 E. 67th Street in Chicago. The first burials took place in 1860. Soon after the American Civil War, between four and six thousand^[1] Confederate soldiers, prisoners who died at Camp Douglas, were buried here. These bodies had originally been buried at City Cemetery but were exhumed and reburied together in a mass grave at recently opened sections of Oak Woods, when Chicago decided to close its former cemetery and convert part of it to Lincoln Park. A monument known as the Confederate Mound was erected in their memory.

Notable monuments

• Cap Anson (1852–1922), Major League Baseball Hall of Famer
• Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), social reformer, civil rights activist
• James "Big Jim" Colosimo (1877–1920), mafioso
• William Craig (1855–1902), first United States Secret Service agent to die on duty
• Charles S. Deneen (1863–1940), politician
• Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993), composer, the "father of gospel music"
• Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), physicist
• Louis H. Ford (1914–1995), Presiding Bishop, Church of God in Christ; social activist
• Jake Guzik (1886–1956), gangster, "Greasy Thumb"
• William Draper Harkins (1873–1951), nuclear chemist
• Monroe Heath (1827–1894), mayor of Chicago
• Charles Johnson (1909–2006), pitcher and outfielder for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro League
• John Christen Johansen (1876–1964), portraitist and landscape painter
• John H. Johnson (1918–2005), founder and publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines
• Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866–1944), Hall of Fame, First Commissioner of Baseball
• Richard Loeb (1905–1936), crime figure
• Little Brother Montgomery (1906–1985), blues piano player and singer
• Jesse Owens (1913–1980), Olympic track and field champion
• Eugene Sawyer (1934–2008), second African-American mayor of Chicago (1987–1989)
• J. Young Scammon (1812–1890), attorney, banker, newspaper publisher
• Maud Slye (1879–1954), University of Chicago pathologist
• Roebuck "Pops" Staples (1915–2000), gospel singer
• William Hale Thompson, mayor of Chicago
• Bill Veeck (1914–1986), Major League Baseball owner
• Albertina Walker (1929–2010), Singer, Songwriter, "Queen of Gospel"
• Harold Washington (1922–1987), lawyer, politician, first African American mayor of Chicago
• Junior Wells (1934–1998), blues musician
• James Hutchinson Woodworth (1804–1869), mayor of Chicago

Roland Burris tomb

Roland Burris tomb in 2008

Roland Burris, the U.S. Senator appointed by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, constructed a family tomb at 41°46′16″N 87°36′08″W / 41.77122°N 87.60215°W / 41.77122; -87.60215 in the Oak Woods cemetery, in preparation for his and his wife's eventual interment. The tomb has received considerable publicity (generally negative) since Burris' appointment by the indicted governor.^[2][3][4] The rear portion of the large stone structure resembles a triptych, forward of which are two burial vaults; the left one is engraved with Burris' name and birth date and the right vault with the name of Burris' wife. The central segment of the triptych includes a large inscription of the words "TRAIL BLAZER" along the top. The segments of the triptych also include accomplishments of Burris and his wife, both of whom are still living. These note that Burris was the first African-American to be Attorney General of Illinois, the first African-American exchange student from Southern Illinois University to the University of Hamburg, Germany, and the first non-CPA to be on the board of the Illinois CPA Society.^[5]

External Links

Department of Veterans Affairs page on the Confederate mound

See also

• List of cemeteries in the United States
• List of mausoleums

Cemeteries in Chicago

• Acacia Park Cemetery
• Bohemian National Cemetery
• Forest Home Cemetery
• German Waldheim Cemetery
• Graceland Cemetery
• Mount Olivet Cemetery
• Rosehill Cemetery
• Westlawn Cemetery

References

1. ^ Although the memorial, erected in the late 1800s, claims 6000 dead, this is unlikely to be true as significantly fewer (4,454) Confederate prisoners died at Camp Douglas. Wagner, Margaret E., Gallagher, Gary W. And Finkelman, Paul, eds., The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference. Simon and Shuster Paperbacks, Inc., New York, NY, pp. 605–6, 609. 2009 edition. ISBN 978-1-4391-4884-6.
2. ^ http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1208/Roland_Burriss_Monument_to_Me.html
3. ^ http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1356758,w-roland-burris-tombstone.article
4. ^ http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/12/roland_burris_monument_to_hims.asp
5. ^ http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=30337

External links

• Oak Woods Cemetery at graveyards.com
• Oakwoods Cemetery Corporate Site

Coordinates: 41°46′10″N 87°35′57″W / 41.76944°N 87.59917°W / 41.76944; -87.59917