Oak Hill Cemetery, historic cemetery in Lewistown, Fulton County, Illinois, USA
Oak Hill Cemetery is a burial ground in Lewistown with roughly 30 acres of land dotted with mature trees and rows of headstones spanning different eras. The grounds feature flat terrain with maintained walking paths and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cemetery was established as Lewistown grew, with founder Ossian M. Ross donating the initial acre of land. Expansion continued over time, with additional land added through the late 1800s, creating a burial ground for the town's early settlers and their descendants.
Oak Hill Cemetery inspired Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, and many characters in the work are linked to people buried here. The cemetery is often called "The Hill," after the first section of the Anthology. A walking tour brochure from the City of Lewistown maps the gravesites, which are marked by 40 numbered markers shaped in Masters' silhouette and represent 52 characters.
The cemetery lies along Illinois Route 97 and 100 in the 1000 block of North Main Street, with the south entry holding the Edgar Lee Masters memorial. A walking tour brochure from the City of Lewistown maps the layout and the gravesites tied to the Spoon River Anthology. Look for numbered markers shaped in Masters' silhouette beside the corresponding gravestones; there are 40 of them.
Sandstone columns from the old Fulton County courthouse, which burned down in 1894, now stand around the cemetery grounds. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas delivered speeches from those columns, making them a tangible link to pivotal moments in the nation's political past.
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