A Garden for the Dead in the Big Grove

By Gabriel Foster

Winner of the 2025 Adele Mazurek Suslick Award for Excellence in Research

Early burials and the Old Urbana Cemetery

The first known settler to die in what would become Champaign County was Isham Cook in 1830. Like most people in rural areas, he was buried on his land with a simple marker. Among the pioneers, the dead were buried somewhere close and convenient, sometimes right where a person died if the ground was soft enough. Outside of church graveyards, gatherings of graves were usually on family farms or in clearings in the groves that had no other use.

When Champaign County was incorporated in 1833, the Busey and Webber families in Urbana provided some of their land for what would become known as the Old Urbana Cemetery. (1) The area was already used as a grave site by local indigenous peoples since at least the 1820’s. Over time, this informal use by settlers led to a disordered sprawl of graves. With no official records, it was left to friends and family members not only to dig and care for the graves, but to remember where they were, and many graves were unmarked or quickly fell to disrepair. The railroad came to the county in 1854, and with it would come a boom in Urbana's population and urban development. Already suffering from neglect and overcrowding, the Old Urbana Cemetery became a public health concern as vandalism, shallow graves, and the lack of grave markers raised fears of disturbing and exposing corpses. It was obvious the old cemetery would not be adequate to hold the dead of a growing city. 

Founding of Mount Hope Cemetery

In 1856 a group of eminent local citizens including W.N. Coler, E. Harkness, J.D Wilson, A. Campbell, and Jesse Burt, incorporated the Mount Hope Cemetery Association to establish a new cemetery to provide a large and well-organized final resting place for Urbana and West Urbana (2), which was incorporated as Champaign in 1860. Mount Hope Cemetery went beyond a solution to the functional problem of disposing of the dead. It was to be a place of rest for the living and dead, with a beautiful landscape the twin cities could take pride in.

Its purpose and style followed the rural cemetery movement which had been popular in the United States for decades. The movement responded to the overcrowding of urban cemeteries, moving the burial grounds outside the city. Rather than distancing Americans from their dead loved ones, the rural location was joined with a hopeful attitude towards death and a romantic view of nature. (3) Natural contours of the earth were carefully landscaped to accentuate a pastoral beauty that was harder to find in an increasingly industrialized world.

Fig 1: Whitcomb Family Lot at Mount Hope Cemetery. The elaborate sculpture and nature motifs are common elements of monuments and markers during the rural cemetery movement. Photograph by Gabriel Foster.

On October 25, 1856, the Burt Farm was platted as Champaign County’s first official cemetery, between what is now Pennsylvania and Florida Avenues. Starting at around 13 acres, it was landscaped in the classic rural cemetery style, transformed by planting hundreds of new decorative plants with footpaths and winding streets named after trees. Jesse Burt personally took over Mount Hope’s management and lived with his wife Alma near the cemetery grounds. It is believed Rachel Hall, Alma's mother, was the first burial. (4) Soon after, families from all over Champaign County moved their ancestors from their original graves to Mount Hope Cemetery, establishing it as the area’s primary burial ground for decades.

Fig 2: Plat map of Mount Hope Cemetery by Godfrey Sperling. Red area indicates the original cemetery plat.

Courtesy of Champaign County Historical Archives.

The property was broken up into blocks of about 50 lots of about 10’ by 27’. They were available for families or individuals to purchase, regardless of race, creed, or nation of origin, and Burt promised one-quarter of each sale would go directly to beautifying the cemetery. (5) Even if these were too expensive, several lots on the west side were dedicated to the public as a potter’s field, a place of burial for the poor, criminal, and unidentified. All roads and pathways were also public, so no one would be barred from accessing their loved ones’ graves or from merely enjoying the beauty of the grounds.

Burt worked continuously to improve and expand the cemetery grounds, laying out its first addition in 1859. (6) Development continued through the end of the 1860s, laying new streets for access, planting hundreds of trees, and erecting a cottage on the cemetery grounds for a permanent caretaker. In 1875, Jesse Burt and George Beardsley deeded even more land to Mount Hope, expanding its capacity again.

Fig 3: Plat map of Mount Hope by Godfrey Sperling. Red area indicates the Burt and Beardsley.

Courtesy of Champaign County Historical Archives.

The same things that made rural cemeteries attractive also made them difficult to manage and unprofitable. Buyers of lots were full legal owners of their piece of the cemetery, allowing them to care for and decorate the grave however they saw fit. However, they were under no legal obligation to maintain it – and often did not. Once a lot was sold, it no longer generated revenue, and maintaining it would be a perpetual loss for the cemetery.

Burt's expansion created new space to sell for revenue but brought more upkeep costs, and managing Mount Hope Cemetery to the high standards of its conception was simply unsustainable. In 1879, a reporter from the Champaign County Gazette lamented the increasingly overgrown and disorderly appearance of Mount Hope, comparing it unfavorably with the newer cemeteries of Paris, Bloomington, and Springfield. The reporter hoped it could be made beautiful again with improvements, but "until then, it is not a place to which we should like to take a stranger to visit." (7) Complaints about the neglected state of Mount Hope continued for several years and the city of Urbana considered purchasing it in 1883, but with little enthusiasm.

Fig 4: Champaign Daily Gazette Article

Courtesy of Champaign County Archives

The Jesse Falls Era

Fig 5: Portrait of Jesse Falls. Taken from The History of Champaign County by J.O. Cunningham.

In 1884, local businessman Jesse Falls bought Mount Hope’s unsold lots from Burt and took on the responsibility for the city’s dead. Falls moved to the Champaign area from Ohio and his first wife, Martha Ellen, was interred in Mount Hope in 1871. Few records exist from Falls’ time managing the cemetery as a fire burned down the caretaker’s cottage in 1892, destroying the original records (8), but he appeared to have run Mount Hope with a charitable spirit. He and his business partner Frank Walker donated a lot to the Deaconess home in case tragedy should strike the orphanage (9) and reburied 18 veterans from the potter’s field to a new lot with headstones for no charge. (10) The same year that Falls took charge he and George Beardsley deeded more land to the cemetery for another addition.

Fig 6: Plat map of Mount Hope by Godfrey Sperling. Red area indicates the Beardsley and Falls addition.

Courtesy of Champaign County Historical Archives.

Whatever opinions may have been on the beauty of Mount Hopes' grounds, the cemetery remained central to life and death in the CU area. Even though the cemetery was on the outskirts, funeral processions still marched through town when a prominent citizen died. As the University of Illinois grew, it would maintain the road south to Mount Hope to ease the way for mourners and visitors. (11) Fraternal organizations like the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Oddfellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America held frequent memorials for their departed brethren, buying several lots to ensure their members a place of rest.

Mount Hope always held the remains of veterans, from as far back as the Revolutionary War, but in 1892 thirty-five lots in block 25 were purchased by the Colonel Nodine Post of the Grand Army of the Republic to be dedicated to veteran burials. (12) This space was initially reserved for Civil War veterans, though veterans from other wars would be buried as new conflicts arose. The war created an unprecedented need for cemeteries across the United States, and Champaign County was no exception. In 1899, a 32-pound cannon presented to the G.A.R. post was placed at the memorial. Responsibility for maintaining the site was shared with the Black Eagle Post before being passed on to the American Legion after the GAR’s dissolution.

Fig 7: Decoration Day at Mt. Hope Cemetery, May 31, 1930.

Courtesy of Champaign County Historical Archives.

A dedicated Jewish cemetery had been in operation since 1870, on what is now the corner of Cunningham Avenue and Perkins Road in Urbana. In 1899, B'nai B'rith, with the help of several other local Jewish organizations, purchased 14 8-plot lots from Mount Hope in lot 24 of the original plat. After a year, all graves from the old Jewish cemetery were transferred to the new Jewish section of Mount Hope. (13) The section is now the resting place of most of Champaign County's Jewish community and contains the graves of many of the earliest Jewish settlers.

By the end of the century, Mount Hope Cemetery was being complimented on its beauty again. As one reporter described it after a stroll down Burrill Avenue: 

"The numerous rains this summer have kept the grass fresh and it presents a very soft, velvety appearance and forms a delightful base on which one may wander whiling away the long hours of a Sunday afternoon and evening. Mt. Hope is certainly one of the most beautiful cities of the dead to be found anywhere, and the scrupulous care with which it is kept should be a source of congratulation to Champaign people, and is no doubt appreciated by them, judging from the number who make it such frequent visits." (14)

Despite the praise and its importance to the Twin Cities, Mount Hope continued to struggle to turn a profit from the sales of lots. On September 22, 1899, Falls and Walker offered Mount Hope for sale, but there were no buyers. Falls continued to own and manage the cemetery until his death on January 15, 1901. He was buried on a family plot in Mount Hope. The interests and remaining unsold lots were divided equally between his wife, Elizabeth, and their two daughters, Ida and Mary. (15) Falls’ passing coincided with a shift in American attitudes towards death and expectations of cemeteries, though it took some time for Champaign-Urbana to fully enter this new era.

Fig 7: Grave marker of Jesse Falls. Photograph by Gabriel Foster.

Read the rest of the story of Mount Hope Cemetery in Part 2!

Bibliography

1. Gerdes, Karla. “Uncovered Gravestones in Leal Park.” Local History & Genealogy Blog. Urbana Free Library, October 16, 2018. https://urbanafreelibrary.org/local-history/blog/uncovered-gravestones-leal-park.

2. Sperling, Godfrey. Plats of Cemeteries and Locations of Burial Places, Champaign County, Illinois, 1936. Urbana, IL, 1936.

3. Greene, Meg. Rest in Peace: A History of American Cemeteries. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008.

4. “Obituary.” Urbana Daily Courier. December 8, 1921.

5. “New Cemetery Grounds.” Urbana Union. August 14, 1856.

6. Sperling. Plats of Cemeteries.

7. “Mt. Hope Cemetery: Some Observations On Things As They Are, and Things as They Should Be.” Champaign County Gazette. August 20,1879.

8. “Fire at Mt. Hope Cemetery.” Champaign County Gazette. March 30, 1892.

9. “First Death at Deaconess Home.” Champaign Daily News. August 6, 1897.

10. Champaign County Gazette. May 25, 1887.

11. Miller, Laura. “Mount Hope Cemetery.” ExploreCU. Last modified July 31, 2021. http:/explorecu.org/items/show/278.

12. Sperling. Plats of Cemeteries.

13. Avern, Allen. “Jewish Section of Mount Hope Cemetery in Champaign-Urbana Illinois.” Champaign, IL: Sinai Temple Cemetery Committee, 2018.

14. “Mt. Hope Cemetery: Beautiful Appearance of the City of the Dead.” Champaign Daily News. August 3, 1896.

15. Estate Papers of Jesse Falls, Champaign County Probate Court Case 2586.

Image Bibliography

1. Foster, Gabriel. Digital photograph. January 25, 2025.

2. “Mount Hope Cemetery (Urbana Township)” In Cemeteries of Champaign County: a Location Guide with Plat Maps, A ILLINOIS (Champ) BAS, Page 115, Champaign County Historical Archives, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana, Illinois.

3. “Mount Hope Cemetery (Urbana Township)” In Cemeteries of Champaign County: a Location Guide with Plat Maps, A ILLINOIS (Champ) BAS, Page 115, Champaign County Historical Archives, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana, Illinois.

4. “A Grave Meeting,” Champaign Daily Gazette, December 11, 1883, page 1, Champaign County Historical Archives, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana, Illinois.

5. Cunningham, Joseph Oscar. History of Champaign County. Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, 1905, page 923, Champaign County History Museum, Urbana Illinois.

6.“Mount Hope Cemetery (Urbana Township)” In Cemeteries of Champaign County: a Location Guide with Plat Maps, A ILLINOIS (Champ) BAS, Page 115, Champaign County Historical Archives, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana, Illinois.

7. Foster, Gabriel. Digital photograph. January 25, 2025.