Cook County Cemetery

The "rediscovery" of the cemetery has been the subject of hundreds of newspaper articles, as well as news coverage in magazines, three major Chicago television channels, cable, and Chicago radio. In addition the rediscovery story went out on Associated Press (AP) wire services and Associated Press (AP) Radio , resulting in news coverage from coast to coast. Many newspaper in cities such as Lewiston Idaho picked up the story.

There were several major events where the cemetery was “rediscovered” and violated spanning seven years.

March 1989 Sewer line at Ridgemoor Estates

April 1989 Peoples Gas at Ridgemoor Estates

May 1989 Peoples Gas at Ridgemoor Estates

May 9 1989 Repair of steam line near Oak Park Avenue exposes New Grounds

June 1990 125 bodies on “Lot 30” Condominium

September 1995 An attempt to build houses Ridgemoor Estates - 186 human remains

Here is a narrative summary of events, sourced from the news accounts. The images of most of those news accounts are part of this website.

REDISCOVERY OF COOK COUNTY CEMETERY (OLD GROUNDS)
Tuesday, March 9, 1989 - Thursday March 11, 1989

Paul Ganziano, was the construction foreman for Mercuri Inc., a sewer and water contractor hired by the City of Chicago Sewer Department to excavate and lay sewer lines. His day would not be an ordinary one. Human bones and at least one mummified partial torso and head, were unearthed by his construction workers digging a sewer line for a planned luxury home development, Ridgemoor Estates, north of Dunning Square Shopping Center.

He and his employees were shocked to find what looked like a fresh corpse. Earlier in the day, they had been finding “little pieces of bone” near a section of pipe some 250 feet long. The bones were four to six feet underground. They then dug into an area where there were “solid bones for two feet”. One of the construction equipment operators found a body lying on a pile of soil that had been excavated the previous day. “It had an ear and a nose, the top teeth, and a hand,” said Ganziano. “All the hair was on it. From the hand, it looked like a man. It looked like it had a jacket on or it was wrapped in something.”

Very bothered by the human remains that he had encountered, Paul Ganziano called Chicago Police from his home in Elk Grove Village later that evening. He then returned to the construction site at 7 PM Thursday to show the police where he and other construction workers had discovered human bodies.

Police from the Jefferson Park District Station and Area 6 (Grand-Central) Violent Crimes detectives reported that at least one human torso containing “some tissue” and one human skull were found seven feet deep. In actuality, two torsos, as well as many bones and bone fragments were found and later removed to the Medical Examiner’s Office for further study. Scores of other remains remained in the bottom and sides of the sewer trench.

The site was cordoned off and officials from the Medical Examiners Office were called to the scene.

Police initially handled it as a death investigation awaiting a report from the Medical Examiner’s office. Chicago Police Sgt. Dennis Porter of the Area Five Violent Crimes unit said "…We’ve heard that people digging in the area before had found bones here.” Work in the immediate area of the bodies was halted.

FIRST MAP FOUND

On Wednesday, March 10, 1989, Emily Clark of the Chicago Historical Society found Cook County Cemetery (Old Grounds) clearly shown on the 1883 Snyder map.

On the map, the cemetery was located just to the south of the “home for the poor and criminally insane”.

Preliminary examination by forensic Pathologist, Dr. Clyde Snow, beginning about March 16, 1989 produced findings consistent with "the known history of the site" He narrowed the number of remains recovered so far, to between five and ten people. None of the remains represented a whole person. Remains included some males, some females, and some children, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. One of the mummified preserved torso’s had a button on a garment that dated sometime after 1870, consistent with burial records later found by Barry Fleig, a cemetery historian.

EARLY LEGAL OPINION SOUGHT – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office contacted the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office seeking an opinion responsibility for the bones and reburial and the legality of digging up what was now known as an old cemetery. Roy Dames, Adminstrator of the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said “They obviously can’t keep digging up bones and pushing them to the side”.

The City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois, and the developers of the property were all mentioned early as having potential responsibility for the reburial and preservation of the site.

Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy said that his office had no jurisdiction with the quote “We only take care of live people. These people don’t seem to be alive”

Dennis Biedron, Vice President for Pontarelli Builders said that the human remains belonged to the city because they were found underneath what will later be a Chicago city street. He further said that construction work would continue.

WHO IS BURIED HERE – EARLY SPECULATION

Early speculation by various officials on who actually had been unearthed ranged from American Indians, early settlers, Chicago Fire victims, the poor, the insane and the tuberculosis patients. Many of these speculations would later be proved to be true.

According to an article by David Greising in the Chicago Sun Times on March 13, 1989, a spokesperson for the Wilmette based Alter Group was commented on the discovery of the bodies, “Maybe it’s Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa”. Other observers compared it to the movie “Poltergist” WHO OWNS THE LAND?

PROPERTY OWNERSHIP

Cook County 1851 – July 1912
State of Illinois 1912 –
Certain surplus land sold for development 1988

Questions surfaced about who owned the land, and how developers could have legally been able to dig up portions of Cook County Cemetery.

The land was formerly the County Farm, where the bodies were discovered. The Dunning Square Shopping Center was built first. The next section of the land was being developed as “Ridgemoor Estates”, many luxury single family private houses at about $200,000 each, ten two-flats, and condominiums by a partnership of Norwood Builders and Ponterelli Builders. The Alter Group was planning an Industrial park on another portion of the land.

The State of Illinois Central Management Services held the title to some 28 acres of surplus state land, extending north and west from the intersection of Irving Park and Narraganset Avenue. Prior to that, the land was owned by the State Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, which operated the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center at 4200 North Oak Park Avenue.

In a politically charged deal, the State sold the surplus land to the Village of Norridge for $5.1 million dollars in 1988. The Village of Norridge held title for minutes, then immediately resold the land to Harlem-Irving Realty for the purposes of development, earning the village a $200,000 “finders fee”.

The Norridge Village President Joseph Seib said “Nobody was aware of it (the cemetery) at all. It came as a surprise to everybody. I’ve lived here since 1920 and I’ve never heard of one”

He was asked if he checked the title to the land to see if there was mention of the cemetery before he resold it to Harlem-Irving Realty. He replied “I never read the fine print on it. There was no need to. The village attorney is responsible for such matters," he said. To his knowledge, there was no mention of Cook County Cemetery. If there was, he said, “somebody would have told me about it.”

SERIOUS RESEARCH BEGINS

In the later weeks of March 1989, Barry Fleig, a Chicago area historian specializing in cemetery research began to assemble a profile of the cemetery and the burials made there. He examined books, maps and plats from the Chicago Historical Society, death certificates, Cook County official records, records of Chicago Common Council (now known as the Chicago City Council) voting, and annual reports from the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Additional records from the County Agent (the welfare office at the time) show that it was not simply an institutional cemetery but many paupers and unclaimed bodies from Chicago were also sent to Cook County Cemetery for burial monthly. In just one year alone, 1876, reports show that the dead came from many Chicago hospitals, the Home for the Friendless, the House of Corrections, and the Foundlings home. In all there were 25 different institutions that sent bodies to Cook County Cemetery for burial at County expense.

Some Newspaper references for MARCH 1989 include:

"Human Bones may be Ancient"
"Unearthed Bones are dated to 1900" PHOTO
"Remains Apparently from Early Cemetery"
"Remains Found at Dunning Work Site"
"Century Old Gravesite Unearthed"
"Dig Reveals Remains of Northwest History"
"Expert to check 19th century bones here"
"Expert Examines Dunning Remains"
"Unearthed remains from the Great Chicago Fire?"
"Do bones belong to 1871 victims of Chicago Fire?"
"Uncovered bones may be clue to site of old county cemetery"
"Human bones still unburied at Read Site"

RESPECT (AND THE LACK OF IT)

By the beginning of April, 1989, local newspapers report that the bones remain unburied, and that legal wrangling has begun in earnest among the governmental agencies, lawyers, and the developers. Nobody seemed willing to accept responsibility and do something. The dead were simply a nuisance to construction, business deals, and politics. And the dead had no voice. They were simply in the way but would not go away.

Neighbors, onlookers, and souvenir hunters easily found additional human remains in and around the construction site. The problem became so obvious and callous that an editorial entitled “Paying respect to cit’y dead” appeared in the April 6, 1989 issue of the Jefferson Mayfair Times. It was a passionate plea by Walter Kelly, the managing editor, for the builder , the city, the state, and the county to do the right thing, even before arguing over who was legally responsible.

ESTIMATED BODY COUNT CALCULATED

As many as 38,000 bodies were found to have been buried on the Cook County Farm property. In Mid-April Barry Fleig had completed a preliminary inventory of bodies buried in Cook County Cemetery using detailed official records and death certificates.

He also provided details of two major locations of Cook County Cemetery, the “Old Grounds” circa 1854-1890, and the “New Grounds” opened 1890, located west of the original cemetery.

The old grounds consisted of as much as 20 acres of cemetery and was located east of the railroad tracks that cut through the property. Part of this cemetery is under, and being disturbed by the single-family home development and the condominiums.

The new grounds consisted of 5.739 acres of land west of the old grounds partially below what is now partially Oak Park Avenue. He found an official map that shows the exact boundaries of this cemetery as originally laid out in 1890.

Fleig found statistical information on 15,000 to 16,000 bodies interred in Cook County Cemetery. The total estimate of 38,000 burials was extrapolated from the actual burials using conservative estimates for missing reports of specific months or years.

April 6 1989
Editorial

One month after scores of century-old human skeletonswere discovered at the site of shopping center constructionnear Irving Park Road and Narragansett, the bones remainexposed to the weather and available to animal predatorsand human vandals.

Bones can be found in piles of dirt on the ground and at thebottom of a six-foot trench, where they have remained because the County Medical Examiner’s Office is unclear whohas responsibility for their removal or interment. Complicating the matter further is the issue raised by one of the shopping center landowners over whether the bones are underprivate property or the site of a future city street.

About the most straightforward comment on the situationhas come from Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, who said his office is only responsible for living‘ human beings and that “these people don’t look like they’re too alive.”

Removing old skeletons can be unpleasant and expensive.So we understand how the developer. the county and the city all might be reluctant to accept overall responsibility and do something about the mess. Yet the fact is that the remains of human beings — good city residents of nigh on a century ago— are lying about where wandering dogs and souvenir hunters have access to them.

It might be nice if the builder, the city, or perhaps a local church assumed responsibility for returning the bodies to the ditch from whence they came, and covering it while everybody’s lawyers proceed to resolving who ultimately s responsible fortheir removal.

Reference: Paying Respect to city’s dead
Editorial Jefferson Mayfair Times April 6 1989

APRIL – MAY 1989 - MORE BODIES UNEARTHED

On April 26 and 27, 1989, Peoples gas, Light, and Coke Co. encountered bones while installing a gas line. A company spokesman said the they called police, and that authorities “… came out, removed bones, and said to go ahead”

The Public Works Department of the City of Chicago said it had ordered Peoples Gas to stop digging and to explain why it was digging with a permit issued by the city.

The gas company claimed that the developer had told them that the streets were private property, and therefore no permit was needed. Public works informed the gas company that the street were indeed dedicated, made part of the City of Chicago, by the City Council on October 27, 1988.

On Monday May 1, 1989, Peoples Gas, again apparently without proper permits, began digging for a gas line on the site. Some four to six graves were uncovered.

Gas officials notified authorities. Craig Wolf, A City of Chicago Public Works Department spokesman said that his department’s records show that Public Works had never issued a permit to Peoples Gas.

On Friday May 5, 1989, Roger Cieslik of the Chicago Board of Health, halted all construction of single family homes. He issued a stop order to the developer, Pontarelli Builders and Realty Inc., from doing any further work in the area until the company gets a funeral director to move the remains to another cemetery. The builder quietly approached at least one funeral director who declined to accept the task.

Roger Cieslik, Supervisor of health Codes for the Chicago Health Department said, “They have uncovered at least one mass grave, exposing several hundred bodies.” The Board of Health did not halt construction earlier, (back in March) because they assumed that the Cook County Medical Examiner had taken charge.

On the weekend of Saturday May 6 and Sunday May 7, 1989, despite the presence of human remains, Pontarelli Builders held a “Grand Opening” for one of its Condominiums, located east of the single family homes on the north side of Belle Plaine Avenue. When a news reporter inquired about the cemetery below, Dennis Biedron, Vice Presiident of Pontarelli, suggested that the reporter leave the premises.

On Monday May 8, 1995 the City, the builders, and the county met to discuss the events.

Henry Henderson of the City of Chicago Law Department said that the developer had agreed that no more work would be done on the site until the legal problems had been answered.

Barry Fleig began to receive many phone calls from concerned people that felt the dead should not be disturbed for a housing development. “Our culture doesn’t allow for that”, he said. “It is one thing to forget about a cemetery, and quite another to desecrate it with sewer lines”.

Henderson said that the City had contacted the National Center of Disease Control and were told that Cook County Cemetery “poses no public endangerment”.

EVERYONE BEGINS TO WEIGH IN

The City said that they are unclear whether the site is still legally a cemetery. Discussions were being held between the Board of Health, the city Corporation Counsel, the mayor’s office, and the Departments of Public Works and Inspectional services. The city contacted the State of Illinois asking them to provide any information that they may have.

The Cook County State’s attorney continues to research the legal issues since the first bones were found in March, but have yet issued any legal opinion. The County was the previous owner of the land and had begun Cook County Cemetery in 1854 and continued to use it until they sold the property to the State of Illinois in July of 1912.

STORY GOES NATIONWIDE

In addition to the fine local coverage by Theresa “Terri” Kruszczak of the Lerner Papers, and other local newspapers, the uncovering of such a large cemetery began to attract the attention of news media both local and nationwide. Associated Press sent the story out to papers across the country, and articles began appearing as far as Los Angeles, California.

COMPLAINING TO STATE INACTION

On May 3 1989 the Lerner Newspapers published an editorial in which delays and inaction were exposed. Bones of Human skeletons have remained laying on the ground for over two months after they were uncovered during excavation work. The Chicago Tribune of May 6 1989 relate that “bones litter the site. Long leg bones and pieces of skulls protrude from piles of dirt. Outlines of bodies can be seen in trenches.”

Roger Cieslik of the Chicago Board of Health asked Pontarelli Builders to hire a security guard to stop curiosity seekers who had been removing a large number of bones and skulls from site being developed (Cook County Cemetery (Old Grounds).

Unknown to the media, and at the quiet request of officials, a local funeral home across the street on Irving Park Blvd. came and filled several large black plastic trash bags with bones and other human remains, storing them in their back room. Unfortunately bones and fragments could be found just about anywhere even after the work by the funeral director.

MAY 9 1989 - REDISCOVERY OF A PORTION OF OR NEAR COOK COUNTY CEMETERY (NEW GROUNDS)

Just when it seemed that things could not get much worse for the developers, the State, the County and the City, human remains were found in a totally different area of the Chicago-Read property and under a whole different set of circumstances.

The State of Illinois had to make some emergency repairs to a steam line that ran underneath the ground between the Durso building (east of Oak Park Avenue) and the main campus of the Chicago-Read Center on the west side of Oak Park avenue A contractor, Douglas and Company had begun digging on Tuesday morning, May 9, 1989. Within a few hours they too, began to encounter human remains and caskets. Chicago-Read Facilities Director John Steinmetz said that workers notified the institutions security officer who in turn notified him. Work was stopped, and both the Chicago Police and the Chicago Board of Health representative Roger Cieslik responded .

What they did not know at that moment is that they had unearthed the northeast corner of Cook County Cemetery (New Grounds), platted and mapped in 1890 as 5.739 acres (500 feet x 500 feet). Ironically, this new intrusion into Cook County Cemetery was made by the State of Illinois, on land still owned by the State of Illinois.

By the middle of May 1989, The Board of Health had met with Barry Fleig who provided approximate bodies of the Old Grounds, a copy of a map for the New Grounds, and copies of over 100 death certificates showing burials in both the Old and New grounds between 1871 and 1922.

ALTER GROUP INDUSTRIAL PROJECT

New concerns began when it appeared that a portion of the 20 acres of Cook County Cemetery (Old Grounds) might overlap thea portion of the 16 acre site designated by the city and the state for industrial development.

References from news articles to this point, during May 1989 include:

"Stolen Map key to Cemetery Mystery"
"Gas Line Invades Graves"
"The Claims of the Dead"
"Mass Grave found at Construction Site"
"Cemetery is found from Chicago Fire"
Friday March 10 1989 channel 7 ABC 5 PM News broadcast "Mysterious Bones"
Associated Press (AP) Radio News Service Interview May 5 1989 with Barry A Fleig,
WBBM Radio News of cemetery rediscovery
WMAQ Radio news of cemetery rediscovery
Channel 32 News news of cemetery rediscovery
Channel 2 News news of cemetery rediscovery and interview of Barry Fleig
Channel 5 Television NBC
news of cemetery rediscovery and interview of Barry Fleig
"Unmarked paupers' Cemetery may stall major Chicago Project"
"Old Cemetery found in Chicago"
"Home buyers undeterred by Grave Problem"
"Dunning Work stopped after more Human Remains Found"
"Dudycz offers assist on Cemetery"
"Bone Sites Multiply at Read"
"Developer Unearths a Grave Situation"
"Construction of Homes halted on Dunning Site"
"Graves Impact Alter Project"

The Nadig Newspaper, Chicago’s Northwest side press reported on a woman remembers looking across the farm fields that would become Austin Irving important part communities to the Dunning mental hospital, where her parents worked until after the turn-of-the-century. She remembers the high spiked iron fence that separated the inmates from the rest of the world, the fence through which the inmates used to thrust money at passersby during the summer months the requests they cross Irving Park Road and bring them back ice cream she remembers the specially built streetcar or the "green card" which brought inmates from the courthouse at 26 street in California where they had been judged either to indigent or too insane to remain in society. Her mother worked there as a nurse, and her father was an engineer in the powerhouse in the Northwest corner of the property.

Official records suggested that burials were billed discreetly in the morning hours to avoid upsetting the other patients. One record of a contract. For on-site undertaking services from 1874 specified the bodies would only be handled between 4 and 6 AM during the summer months in between 7 AM and 5 PM. Winter months.

Reference: Dunning Memories surface as Cemetery History builds"

The Alter group plan to build a light industrial Park, but because it was farther north it may not be threatened by the presence of human Graves. The industrial park would be a 16 acre parcel and would include the site of the new Wilbur Wright College Montrose and Narragansett. It would later turn out that human bones were indeed discovered on the right college site. Randy Thomas, senior vice president of the alter group could only say that discussions were taking place in a plan to exchange some of the land were being discussed.

Reference: Graves might not peril Industry Plan"

Walter Kelly, managing editor of the Lerner newspapers wrote historian editorial, published on May 24, 1989. In it he said that the story of Stalin's been uncovered in the REITs own property seems more real and tragic when we can begin to attach names to them, some line within the potential path backhoes and some not. He said that the dead have often stood in the way of progress in society is generally attached a high-priced removal their bones to do location perhaps to ensure that progress is truly worth having. But in this case he wondered who pay that price, and if it's worth paying. He said that we have always expected more of our public entities. They are after all intended service rather than simply turn a quick buck in profit. He entitled this editorial as "call it a debt owed". The final service to the folks who once walked and talked in cook County state of Illinois and on the state and the county then dumped into unmarked graves because these residents could afford better. He urged the state and the county Jack quickly, before goalie scavengers have devastated the grave sites in their callous search for macabre souvenirs

Reference: EDITORIAL "Call it a Debt Owed"

Terri Kruszczak wrote an article published May 24, 1989 in which she interviewed Lee Pojasek we had memories of she and her mother of visits to the Dunning hospital in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Her mother's aunt was living in one of the cottages. "They had a cemetery there, and a farm for vegetables to", she said there were no headstones in the graves, but there were markers. "I'm certain that there were grave markers there is that how I knew it was a cemetery. But not all of them had markers". Barry Fleig informed the newspaper that he received a letter Waukegan area woman who identified herself as a descendent of a German born carpenter. The cemetery. She identified Adam Huber as her great-grandfather died age 44, the victim of a shooting in 1894 in his home. She found it very upsetting to read the burial site was on earth especially when they claimed they didn't have our job, whoever they are, we knew it was there. She enclosed a copy of her great rent father's death certificate prepared by then County coroner. Scribbled across the death certificate with the words County undertaker,. This is a typical way that place of burial was marked on death certificates during that time. A separate line of the form of a certificate did not begin to appear on death certificates: 1900. This woman represents a living relative of someone. Cook County cemetery at Dunning.

Reference: Cemetery Sparks Women's Memories"

On May 31, 1989 the Rev. William H Brower of the portage Park West. Church wrote a lengthy reader forum for the Lerner Times. He did not spare much of his feelings. He wrote, "to ruthlessly with this bearing wastes a part in order to cater to purchasers of luxury homes, under the cover of an American flag being waved with by superpatriots, is to me almost as hypocritical and act as I can imagine". And it did not get much easier than that. He invoked biblical truths, and began to dream about some kind of a Memorial Park.

Reference: Reader Forum: "Serving Mammon or Saving our Souls?"

A lengthy article in the Norridge news was written profiling the research done to date by Barry Fleig. It also contained some history of the land in which David Andrew Dunning owned a farm across the street south of Irving Park.

"Historian Unearths Cemetery Facts"

An announcement about the Austin – urban community councils final meeting of the year was held on Wednesday, June 7, 1989. Guest speaker will be local historian Barry Fleig will talk about the cemetery in the history of the area. The meeting was held at Merrimack Park Fieldhouse.

References:
"Council to hear talk on Dunning Cemetery"
"Dunning Cemetery Group to meet"
"Austin Irving Council"

Assistant Corporation counsel Nancy Marion would not comment on research and the legalities and responsibilities attendant to the cemetery, but city law department spokesman Terry Levin them so the research is still proceeding in the city as well as the Cook County states attorneys office and issues booting whether the cemetery was legally abandoned. "Our utmost concern is that the remains are handled with dignity", Levin said. He added that Pontarelli had agreed display security to the site to Bertha and souvenir hunting and any "other skulduggery, literally," and that there had been no work stoppage at the site because the builders have plenty to do with construction that is off the burial site.

Reference:
“Council to hear talk on Dunning Cemetery”
“Austin Group hears Cemetery History”

Norridge News bravely wrote an editorial entitled restoring dignity. They said that something needs to be decided soon. Either the bones must be removed and reburied, and the location where where the state and County won't forget about them, or the bodies should remain in place, left at peace, with their resting place properly marked so they won't be forgotten again. Either way the state and the county must bear the responsibility of the mayhem that was caused. Both had possession of the land when people were still being. There. There is no excuse for getting the cemetery, for not marking it in documenting it, especially governmental bodies. The state which owned the land last, should work with the county and find a solution . The governments must take swift action to restore dignity to those people and their families, who were buried and forgotten. Consideration must also be given to the developer, apparently an innocent victim of what must be a public relations and economical nightmare.

Reference: EDITORIAL
“Restoring Dignity”

Barry Fleig polled 42 residents at the Austin urban community Council meeting. None of the 42 said they believe the developers build houses over the cemetery. 75% favored restoration of Cemetery. They were evenly divided on whether it should be preserved as a traditional cemetery or a Memorial Park with limited recreational use. 21% said all of the human remains be removed and buried in another Cemetery. Respondents were divided over whose fault it was that the cemetery was forgotten. Most blamed either the state of Illinois, Cook County, the private developer. Few blamed the city Chicago, or the village of Norridge, Fleig asked residents for their personal recollection of the area. 16 people said they remembered the hospital, forcing the remembered the cemetery, and five said they thought members of the family might be buried in the cemetery. Fleig opener views were important and should also be considered, they are like a silent majority.

Reference:
“Residents Favor Halting Development”

Another editorial Wednesday. Raised reference Brauer for having taken a unique and welcome interest in the fate of the paupers and state mental hospital inmates skeletal remains were discovered on surplus land slated for development. The board of elders of the church say that morally speaking, the cemetery should be accorded proper dignity and respect and should be preserved as a Memorial Park. The editorial stated that the church view has listen to it. And it represents a good alternative to removing the stones in according state and county codes regulating the development of graveyard property. The editorial ended saying "meanwhile we think everyone should give serious consideration to the Presbyterians proposal. It doesn't emigrate deal of credit for caring."

Reference:
“Good for Rev. Brauer”

June 28, 1989 Chicago's Northwest side press, the Nadig papers reported on a significant find. Local historian Barry Fleig uncovered ledgers dating from 1898 to 19 worked which register the deaths and burials of patients at the tuberculosis hospital at the Dunning site, some of the burials being recorded on the grounds of the cook County cemetery are very important as they are the worst listings of people buried on the site the grave numbering system, identifying the people, where they were born, where they lived, their occupations and where they were buried. College was found at Oak forest hospital in their records department. He found the ledgers contained 5901 people who died at the Dunning TV facility. Being of a different nature than the insane asylum and poor house. Most of the TB victims were picked up by their families and buried elsewhere. Some however were listed as having been buried according to the grave numbering system on the Dunning grounds. The first pages of the death register carries the note “COPY-originals in poor house death book"

Reference:
“Ledgers Record TB Victims Interment on Dunning Land”

The Presbytery of Chicago recently agreed to appoint a task force to review all available information on the history of the cemetery. They expect to make a recommendation at their August 1 meeting in response to a call for action from the elders of the portage Park Presbyterian church and 5757 W. Windsor Ave. The resolution was read for dinner social ministries division. Pastor Brauer said it was necessary to sort out a deep matter of principle questions responsibility.

Reference:
"Church Group to Study Graves”

On June 28, 1989, it was written in Wauconda electrician once installed electrical cables on the property said human bones were discovered there in 1959. Clifford Ambrowski said he and other coworkers of the now defunct Raffel construction company found human skulls and other skeletal remains while they were digging trenches for electrical cables between the buildings for more hospital. The bones were discovered near the old old buildings in the center of the property. Workers were digging the trenches 810 feet deep but found human bones about the found the surface. He said that it appeared that the bodies than buried side-by-side and wouldn't ask its which had mostly rotted away. He found high-yield boobs breasts but is among the remains.

Reference:
“Man Recalls Bone Discovery at Read”

A major article on Eli’s Chicago Finest Inc (commonly known as Eli’s cheesecake) appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Monday, July 3, 1989 in the business section the article discussed the fact that Eli’s had outgrown their facility and 6510 W. they can and was seeking for acres from theAlter Group in the industrial section planned for the Dunning redevelopment. Originally the industrial park was proposed to be between the former Cemetery and the right college site, but ultimately it would be moved farther north and west near to forest preserve drive.

Ald. Cullerton stated that he does not consider the cemetery to be an obstacle to know. He said "I have as much respect for the dead as the next person" but "if the cemetery exists fine. But there's no way to prove it so long as the Board of Health holds up digging".

Barry Fleig says that according to his maps most of the land that the altar group seeks from the state does not conflict with the cemetery.

Reference:
“Eli's Hungers for Space”

On Wednesday, July 5, 1989 the Times newspaper ran a letter from James E Davis of Elmwood Park. He said that it was with four that I hear of graves being open the remains of the deceased being carried away. It's morbid action in a civilized society is not comprehendible. It is my view that the burial plot of every human being is hallowed ground. He closed the article saying that it would be a tribute and lasting memorial to those. They have the iron fence of the Dunning asylum to be moved and placed around County cemetery.

Reference:
“Save Graves”

Newsletter of the North suburban genealogical Society for July and August 1989 carries an article in which Barry Fleig Cemetery chairman of the Chicago genealogical Society will give a slide presentation on cook County cemeteries Saturday, July 8 in the Willamette public library.

Reference:
“In July. Fleig will discuss cemeteries of cook County”

On Wednesday, July 5, 1989 in the times newspaper Rev. William Brower of portage Park press. Church wrote a lengthy article in the reader forum. In the lengthy article he states that the existence of the cemetery is beyond question, no matter what anyone, official or businessman, chooses to say on that score. He ends the article with a statement made by Indian chief, chief Seattle. In 1954 he made a reply to one offer by Pres. Franklin Pierce to buy from the Puget Sound Indians a large area of land in western Washington.

“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? We know that the white man does not understand her ways. One portion of the land is the same VM is the next. Three is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land where every needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he is conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's graves and his children's birthright forgotten. He treats his mother the Earth, and his brother the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or break the. His appetite will devour the Earth and leave behind only a desert.”

Reference:
“By selling a Cemetery, do we lose our soul?”

In the July 5, 1989 edition of the times, Terri Kruszczak interviewed Jeanne Read will married son of Charles F read who was the assistant superintendent at the state hospital for two years in the early 1910s. The state was so impressed by his work that officials decided to name the institution after him when they build a new complex in the late 1960s. The article recalls some information about Charles Read.

Reference:
“Visit Recalls Hospital's History”

On Wednesday, July 5, 1989 times wrote an article based upon interviewing Tom James, an administrator at work today is known as the Chicago Reid mental health Center. Back in the day it was commonly thought that the insane were "possessed of devils" and the best remedy in the locks them up in dungeons or tie them to trees, as published in the March 31, 1914 issue of the institution quarterly mental health Journal.. In a visit to Dunning in 1914, one inspector wrote "the thousands of our insane, the only breaking the monotony of their dull existence is a weekly or monthly call a friend or relative, or the arrival of an occasional letter. A stranger on the Ward who has a kind word, a cheerful expression, and perhaps a joke or two, marks and epoch."

Reference:
“If you were Insane, you lived here”

A site plan for the industrial park is essentially complete, according to the owner Department of Commerce and community affairs. The Jay Hedges the agency's executive director refused to give any details about the tentative site plan saying that premature publicity might jeopardize final negotiations. He said that the site plan when formally announced, must be approved by residents of the surrounding community and Ald. Thomas Cullerton. The state Department of central management services is working with the economic development partner to hammer out the terms of the land transfer to the altar group, Hedges said. Once finally grocery nations are complete, the site plan must be approved by DECA the city Department of economic development, and the state's central management services. He acknowledged the process was cumbersome and added frankly I think were moving along real well.

Reference:
“State Mum on Industrial Site Details”

Elizabeth Voss a staff writer for the Norridge news wrote about Rev. Brower was fighting to preserve forgotten cook County cemetery. He said "I'm just asking people to look at what is happening and judge it on the basis of history, ethics, law and religion and see what is the right thing to do"

“That's something that isn't so popular now, to talk about right and wrong. It's more popular look at what is profitable, but I feel as members of the church, part of our task is to look at issues of right and wrong, justice and equity.”

“The longer you think about this a stranger it seems, how does one lose a cemetery where thousands are buried is dumbfounding to me that we should forget cemetery for a developer to dig up bones”. Brower believes there is a theological and historical basis for preserving the cemetery. Presbyterians believe the dead should be treated with dignity. He said" there are some things that ought not to be for sale. Burial ground is not something you can buy and sell and build on for profit. I see this kind of a modern peril".

Reference:
“Preserve Cemetery: Pastor”

On July 12 Norridge news stated that the Chicago health Department has loosened restrictions on the builder who dug up bones while building luxury housing. City officials told Pontarelli builders and realtors that construction workers are now allowed to dig for gas, sewer and water lines as long as they do it away from the area were bones been found, said Roger Seesmic, supervisor for health code enforcement.. This follows when the health department halted excavation on may fifth till attorneys could determine what should be done about the cemetery. Bones and pieces of mummified bodies were found at the site of three occasions in March April May. The builder is expected to seek a judge's order to allow completion of the development. "It's a very confusing issue when dealing with an abandoned cemetery", Levin said. "You can't build on active existing cemetery. But in this case the cemetery was abandoned. There is very little case law on abandoned cemeteries."

Reference:

“Developer Given Go Ahead for work near Cemetery Site”

In an article in the Jefferson Park portage Park times on July 13, Terri Kruszczak wrote that cemetery researcher Barry Fleig discovered more death certificates dating back to 1886, offering further proof that burials took place in the 20 acre cemetery believed to exist on a construction site near Irving Park and Narragansett. He obtained the death certificate copies Wilmot branch of the family history library. They paint a brief portrait of those authorized to be buried in cook County cemetery. The death certificates are significant, Fleig said because they document deaths at the cook County hospital and some privately run institutions such as Alexian Brothers Hospital. They were not institutional investors at Dunning. The certificates clearly document burials in the cemetery were residential housing development is slated to development.

Reference:
“Fleig Unearths Grave Evidence”

In the Jefferson Park portage Park times July 13 the article talks about the local developers current ability or inability to excavate the area believed to be the site of cook County cemetery. The Chicago health the parts modify the order to permit limited digging the twin June 28 July 5, after comparing maps of the residential housing project that maps the cemetery prepared by Fleig. Roger Ceislik examined the maps for areas considered safe to excavate. His $25 million project. He personally plotted out portions of the site were digging would be permitted. Was there is light of the south and east of the L-shaped sewer trench where human bones were found. Digging was not permitted in the cemetery area, health department inspectors were on hand to supervise the dig at all times, because we did not feel comfortable letting them go on their own. It was suggested that the developers would need direction from the courts.

However Dennis Biedron, vice president Pontarelli builders said the firm was not planning to take the matter to court. Rather the firm has hired an undertaker to handle the details of rebury the remains, the firm's attorney Kenneth Zak disagreed, and said a court order would be necessary before we interment take place. The attorney said he found it hard to believe that the state, which constructed many buildings on the property over the years, did discover and subsequently relocate human remains . That estimates of up to 38,000 bodies buried on the site is "totally unbelievable", because construction workers are "hitting all sorts of old foundations in the course of excavating the property." Marge Halperin, deputy Press Secretary to Mayor Daley was quoted as saying the situation is you need in that this is not like any other cemetery. There are no clear boundaries. It hasn't been a cemetery for many years. And the developers not the city I once wanted change the use of the land. It's taking some time for one apartment to see just what jurisdiction the city really has. The whole scenario is so unusual that we want to do it right, she said

Reference:
“City Monitors Read Excavation”

On Thursday, July 20, 1989 in the Jefferson Park portage Park times a former employee of the Chicago state hospital recalls the existence of the cemetery and the death register but he says a local historians figures are much too high. Ruth Thetford age 82 said she worked at the institution record office between 1931 in 1941. She occasionally referred to the death register to answer relatives inquiries about the place of burial. She claims to distinctly recall the register had only 198 names. She described the death register as a ledger type book about 1 inch thick containing handwritten entries. The ledger was kept in the basement of the administration building and the state never used to make burial entries. (Comment: Barry Fleig is of the opinion that that register was probably after the last burials on the property.)

Thetford said no burials were made in the cemetery where she was employed at Chicago state hospital. According to Thetford Fleig was correct but the location of the cemetery which she described as directly behind, North of, the administration building. She recalls that human remains were discovered when the state authorized the construction of the new hospital building behind the administration building, which she believes is in the early 1940s. The bones were unearthed when workers tore down a small library behind the administration building, she said.

Reference:
“Ex Employee Disputes Cemetery Claims”

The Norridge, Harwood Heights, Norwood Park, times on Wednesday, July 26, 1989 wrote that cemetery researcher Barry Fleig has been hired as a consultant by Pontarelli builders to help determine the boundaries of the 19th century Potters field believed to exist on construction site near Irving Park and Narragansett Avenue.

Reference:
“Fleig will consult on Read Cemetery”

A text only article can be found on line at
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/grave-mistake/Content?oid=874451

It is an excellent article documenting the rediscovery in 1989

Reference:
“Grave Mistake - How did the old county Cemetery get in the way of Ridgemoor Estates”
written by Harold Henderson for the Chicago Reader

October 1989

Aimee DeBat in an article in the Wright college student news quotes David Keene, "there is a possibility that human remains could be on the new campus, that they will be removed before building starts". The planned $90 million campus originally was scheduled for nation in the fall of 1991. The campus opening is been delayed for more than a year after his specialties covered pipes were found and removed from the site at Montrose and Narragansett. She wrote the track apparently is an urban archaeologists nightmare, where sections and built over many times and it isn't known if the bodies were removed for earlier construction. The Rev. William Brower is to stand and preservation of the forgotten cemetery. "There are some things not to be bought and sold, and the memory and dignity of the dead to me is one of those things". He has strongly suggested that land be set aside for a Memorial Park.

Reference:
“Remains may slow new site”

November 1989

In the Lerner–Times for November 15, 1989, it was written that preliminary findings of David Keene claims that the Potters field may be smaller than the previous estimate. "We can see the extent of the cemetery and it's much smaller than what was previously thought", according to David Keene. Earlier the cemetery historian offered research that said indicated the Potters field was about 20 acres in size and contains some 30,000 graves. Keene-based illusion of examination of soil layers different color and texture, not only a different depths in the earth, would over time if they are disturbed, you can tell. Keene said he used other archaeological techniques to detect the presence of graves. Thus far he's found evidence of just three. Keene noted however that he is only scraped the first six or 7 inches of the area. "The problem might be far less than everyone originally anticipated," he said regardless of the size of the cemetery, Keene assured that the site will be preserved. "I can assure you that the developer will build on top of the cemetery," he said. "That's against the new law," which he said, makes tampering with a grave a felony.

(Comment by Barry Fleig: These findings would quickly be found to be quite in error)

Reference:
“Cemetery shrinks as problem”

A Wright Junior college article on November 21, 1989 states that Aimee DeBat, a student reporter, witnessed the unearthing of human remains including parts of the skull, femurs, hip bones and a piece of gravestone complete with a Gothic inscription carved decorative heart. A team of experts David Keene, Roger Cieslik, Barry Fleig, the Rev. William Brower also found grave plots which were identified by discolored soil.

Reference:
"New Graves found near site"

An editorial was written in the Wright College news on November 21, 1989 in which the question was asked "should forgotten cook County cemetery land have been developed? What rights have families of the deceased would now lie in unmarked graves? With developers ever consider raising historic Graceland cemetery in developing the land? Everyone deserves a fair peaceful eternal rest. It does not seem right that people from all walks of life may not always be able to rest in peace. Several Bible verses follow.

Reference: EDITORIAL
“Consider the Dead”

The church Federation of greater Chicago has appealed to Gov. Thompson and Mayor Daley to "protect and preserve the integrity" of the 19th century Potters field on the Northwest side.

Reference:
“Churches Make Appeal to Preserve Cemetery”

In an article dated November 22, 1989 in Chicago's Northwest side press, David Keene estimates that while the old cook County cemetery presents and "extremely serious" problem for developers, the graveyard may not be as extensive as previously thought. He said this week that he believes there are fewer than 38,000 bodies buried at the site, a number previously estimated by Barry Fleig based on county records and that he feels the area of the cemetery is smaller than 20 acres. He added however that he is uncertain about how many bodies might be buried at the site or how large the graveyard might actually be. Keene plans to visit the site this week to attempt to measure the graveyard. "Those conclusions about the number of bodies buried there are based only on county documents, anybody who's lived in cook County for any appreciable amount of time will know these documents are never reliable." Keene said he has never met Fleig or seen the documents.

(Comment: In later years, Keane would later reverse his position as hundreds of more bodies were found in the cemetery and were to be quite extensive. And in a statement much later Keene was quoted to say that he would not disagree with the 38,000 estimate.)

Reference:
“Archeologist doubts estimate of size of Dunning cemetery”
Rick Tiller

December 1989

The discovery of the cemetery has become a moral economic dilemma. On one hand is the Rev. William Brauer portage Park press. Search was whether battle against development on theological grounds, calling the story a living parable. In the other corner developers Pontarelli builders and Norwood builders left are investing billions of dollars a house development are now being told not to build a portion of the property. Pontarelli has hired an archaeologist to pin down where the cemetery is located. How we deal with the dignity of the dead says an awful lot about how we are going to deal with one another among the living, Brauer said. When I see them doing business as usual as a pastor I feel I have to speak out.

Attorneys from the city and state have been studying what to do about the cemetery. In the meantime the city is given developers a go-ahead to build were no bones have been found. Recently the Illinois state preservation agency called on Pontarelli to do a title 106 study to verify that there are no historically significant remains the site. Normally the study is done before construction begins. To comply with this requirement Pontarelli hired David Keene, an archaeologist from Loyola University, to determine exactly where graves are located. Keene has asked Fleig to put together a map of where the 20 acre cemetery is located in relation to the development by January 15. Combing through county and state records, Fleig is placed the cemetery boundaries over about one half of the two flats in single-family homes planned for the site, and extending north into an area your mark for industrial development by the Alter Group for the city of Chicago. Oral interviews of state mental health employees and records also indicate there were graves at several other locations on the property including were two condominium buildings are planned by Norwood builders and under the existing shopping center and Irving Park and Narragansett.

Reference:
“Cemetery Dilemma Continue”

American Cemetery magazine for December 1989 carried an extensive article about the rediscovery of cook County cemetery. The article ended with "the residents of the old cemetery have already given the powers that be one major shock despite their presence, the negotiators can only hope to get through the legal tangle without further surprises the past."

Reference:
“Chicago's Rediscovered Cemetery A Jolt From the Past”
Tom McGann

This article appeared in Chicago's Northwest side press on January 3, 1990, highlighting the conflict over the size of the cemetery. Loyola University archaeologist David Keene limited the size of the cemetery, (which would later be proved to be terribly inaccurate).

In an interview he states that he was hired by the developers to determine the location of the old cemetery. He states that among other things during his diggings he has unearthed a chunk of a grave marker. He now needs to see some documentary evidence as well as the physical evidence that he is been digging out of the ground. He confirmed that he is interested in the kind of evidence Fleig has, but he added that Fleig is “just one of a dozen sources he is evaluating for his evidence”.

Fleig used County documents to estimate the number of bodies of the cited 38,000 and the size of the cemetery at 20 acres with another 5.73 acre cemetery parcel to the West. Fleig now believes that he has evidence, in the form of oral interviews and staff reports from the hospital, that the cemetery extends much further to the east.

Keene has been cautious in accepting Fleig's version, saying "everybody, like Barry, know something about the cemetery, and have drawn some very concrete conclusions from some very specious sources." "I don't want the conclusions that he keeps offering me, I want his sources." In December, he asked a graduate student in Loyola's history department to begin pulling together documentary evidence, and she contacted Fleig, among others. Keene subsequently contacted Fleig and requested an index of the sources and documents, which Fleig expects to deliver by January 15. In this article Keene says he hopes to know the boundaries of the cemetery by June.

Reference:
“Experts at odds over size, location of Dunning Cemetery”

This article discusses a letter written by Deputy chief Staff Phillip Gonet to the church Federation of greater Chicago. In his January 4 letter, he said that the state of Illinois has researched its archives on the issue of where the actual burial grounds are located. He acknowledged that the absence of definitive evidence unfortunately puts the state and all other entities that own pieces of this property in a position of only being able to identify the boundaries through the process of discovery. He noted that the state Department of mental health and developmental disabilities has taken the position that no more excavation work will be done in any area that might contain human remains. He also noted that the department had canceled the project to extend the steam line that was to run from the East campus to the West campus at Chicago Read. Officials instead will arrange to install boilers on the West campus, to eliminate the possibility of running into further problems in this area. Meanwhile, the city Chicago was monitoring carefully, the work done by private developers.

Reference:
“Grave boundaries remain mystery”

This article dated January 24, 1990 by Gregory Griffin for the Northwest leader January 24 basically reiterates that a debate that pits the interests of the living against the rights of the dead continues. It is one that involves developers, city officials, researchers and community members. "Dignity and respect for the dead is mandatory," said Rev. William Brauer, pastor of the portage Park West. Church.

Reference:
“Construction on Hold at Site of Old Cemetery”

In this Norridge news article dated January 24 and 25th 1990 by Elizabeth Voss, Rev. William Brauer reacts to a letter from Philip Gonet. Also in this article, city officials have told Pontarelli builders that they are allowed to continue construction in areas where no orderly graves are located by an archaeologist, that being David Keene from Loyola University, hired by the developers.

"Response to Cemetery Disappoints Area Pastor"

This is a letter from William Brauer to the opinion column at the Norridge news on January 24, 1990. Among other things he quotes the December 1989 issue of American cemetery magazine: "the cemetery's functions were to receive the mortal remains of somebody's loved one and inter them in the spirit of dignity and respect; to help people burdened with grief to find comfort and courage; and to provide memorialization of the dead in a spot made sacred by memories that should never be allowed to die."

Reference:
Opinion Letter to the Editor “Cemetery Illustrates Crisis in Values”

This article discusses several new laws that call for stiffer penalties for those who disturb human burials. It was written by William Wheeler associate director of the Illinois historic preservation agency and appeared in historic Illinois for February 1990

Reference:
“New Illinois Law a boon to historical & Archaeological Sites”

This article appeared in the Metro Chicago church news, a publication of the church Federation of greater Chicago, in their winter 1989/90 addition. It is basically a summary of the cemetery situation, and a commentary from a religious perspective by Rev. William H Brauer of the portage Park Presbyterian Church

Reference:
“Day of Reckoning near for Cook County Cemetery”

Written by Rick Tiller for Chicago's Northwest side press on January 31, 1990 this article speaks of a response to a letter by the church Federation of greater Chicago from an aide to Gov. James Thompson's office in which the state claims to have found no record of burials after its June 29, 1912 acquisition of the Cook County institution property. "We have researched all the state archives concerning the unable to find anything that would help us identify the actual sites where burials took place," wrote Philip Gonet. "For your information, we are also unable to find any reference to the state operating any burial grounds or cemetery on the property since June 29, 1912, when the state took control and, therefore we can only assume that all burials took place prior to that date were done under the authority of the cook County board,". The article continues to say that Fleig has contended in his findings the state did continue burials into the 1930s, but ledger books of burials vanished before the 1960s.

COMMENT: These assertions would later be proved incorrect, as many death certificates have been found and reviewed dated well past July of 1912. Those death certificates are marked "Chicago state hospital cemetery ". The last known burial occurred in 1922, but there is anecdotal evidence that burials continued after that date.

Reference:
”State can find no records of burials at Dunning"

in the Amundson Log from the Amundson high school, from March 1990, Robert Kaprelian an English teacher invited Mr. Fleig to speak about cemeteries and present a slide program talking about burial customs, gravestone symbolism, and the history of many cemeteries in Chicago.

Reference:
“Graveyard Scholar Speaks to English Class”

May 1990 - REPORT RELEASED LIMITING SIZE OF CEMETERY

This article which appeared in the May 2, 1990 edition of the Harlem foster times, written by Terri Kruszczak states that the while archaeologist, David Keene, "is convinced that a 19th-century cemetery is only 5 acres in size, and it embraces little more than an acre of land owned by a local developer." This finding disputes the contention of Barry Fleig who earlier said historical documents placed the size of the cemetery at 20 acres. David Keene who supervised archaeological excavations on the site last fall conducted a walking tour of the site Tuesday morning May 1, 1990 with officials from state agencies, the city Department of Health, Fleig, pastor William Brauer, and representatives of Pontarelli builders who: the North Western portion of the Reed site. The developers would not comment on the findings although their attorney, Harvey Lapin, said he was "very happy we have defined the limits of the cemetery". David Keene's findings at this point in time indicated that the Western boundary is a fence that separates the undeveloped land from a small industrial strip, on the south the boundary is a new street put in by the city, on the North an aging asphalt parking lot and on the East, a ridge in the undeveloped land. According to Keene at this time, the cemetery site does not include land bordering new condominiums built by Pontarelli, nor older buildings to the North which were once occupied by the Chicago state hospital. However, the cemetery does include 1.4 acres of land owned by Norwood builders, Keene said. The bulk of the cemetery is surplus land owned by the state, he said. Keene told the group that he agreed with Fleig on the existence of another five-acre cemetery with West under Oak Park Avenue, its size and documentation appears in court records. Commenting on the findings, Fleig said he was pleased that the area has been identified the cemetery, “ it's something I've been saying all along. What still needs to be done is to identify other possible sites were bodies are located.” As for his earlier estimate of the 20 acre cemetery, Fleig said "I never said it was 20 acres. The Cook County Board of commissioners said that" a reference to the source of his information. Keene said his findings are based on excavations at scattered locations on the property and on laboratory analysis of soil samples. He claims that close to 50 sites were excavated ranging in size from L-shaped trenches to holes the size of a normal grave. He estimates some 20 burials had been discovered in the course of his work. Keene said his team also made excavations as far east as Narragansett but found no evidence of graves buried there. "If there are any bodies buried beyond this, they were not buried in a normal cemetery situation," he said. In the area he defines a cemetery, Keene said he uncovered intact skeletons that showed no evidence of burial in a wooden coffin, some rusted nails were found, but did not represent a pattern, he said. The excavations in most cases revealed shallow graves less than 2 feet in depth. Bodies were laid out for burial in all directions North to South and East to West, he added. The deepest grave uncovered on the site was about 5 feet. Stepping down into the bottom, Keene pointed to several layers in the soil, each displaying a different color and texture. The darker soil at the bottom represented the topsoil that was dug up and then shoveled back into the earth, he said.

Keene speculated the original surface of the land at the time of the burial was 3 feet below the present surface. "There's been a lot of fill over the last 100 years," he said, some from regrading the land. Keene said he also found evidence that the graves were reused.

At another gravesite, Keene pointed to the partially exposed ribs and right arm of an another buried skeleton. The remains were left exposed for the tour. All the excavation sites were to be backfilled at the end of the tour, he said

Keene emphasized that it was policy not to remove remains the site once they were uncovered. A new state law makes it a felony for anyone to remove remains from burial grounds. The Illinois State historic preservation agency issued a permit to Keene for investigation only.

Keene said he will now issue a report to the Illinois historic preservation agency, the city and the developers, but he reiterated his earlier pledge that construction would not be allowed anywhere on the five-acre site. The site will be preserved as a cemetery, and the Illinois historic preservation agency will be responsible for it, he said

IMPORTANT COMMENT: David Keene's declaration of the limit of the cemetery which soon be terribly contradicted by the discovery of 125 more bodies East of his limits on lot 30, and reported on June 20, 1989 in the Harlem Irving times by Terri Kruszczak. The discovery of bodies on lot 30 would be not only an embarrassment to David Keene's findings, but would result in another stop work order and a considerable cost to the developer for removal of those bodies.

The headline is misleading in that it only refers to the 5 acres that David Keene has referenced in the old grounds. It does not reflect the fact there is another 5.73 acres site farther to the west, "new grounds", now partially under Oak Park Avenue. It also does not reflect earlier sections of the old grounds to the east, that for the most part have been lost to construction in previous years. So at this point in time, there is no dispute of 10.73 acres of cemetery, plus earlier sections lost to construction. A portion of that earlier section containing on 125 more bodies will be discovered and reported on June 20, 1989

Reference:
“Read giant Cemetery shrinks to 5 Acres”

This article printed on May 9, 1990 in the Northwest side press by Rick Tiller continues the story of how David Keene had fixed the size of cemetery at 5 acres. In this article he claims that the boundaries include a fence abutting industrial Park on the west, and old, unused parking lot on the north, and undeveloped ridge on the East, and a recently built Street on the south. He stated that more than one fourth of the cemetery is on land owned by Norwood builders, and proclaimed that the cemetery does not extend East to the condominium high-rises built by Pontarelli near Narragansett.

NOTE: again, this would prove to be very wrong as 125 bodies will be found in June 1990 on one of the three condo sites - lot 30.

Fleig was quoted as saying "I do feel somewhat vindicated. Last year I was saying there was a cemetery out here and all the politicians and builders said there couldn’t be because there were buildings out here. But when you think about that argument, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?" Fleig added that those naysayers have since fallen silent.

The article reports that developers began, and then stopped, building a roadbed for the Western portion of the residential area because, again began turning up bones , many of which were still visible within a few yards of the new curbstone. Keene's observations included finding that the bodies were laid uniformly from East to West indicating that the burials were not random.

One construction contractor on the site expressed concerns. "They had nothing in life, I guess they have nothing, not even a resting place, in death." He stated that he would not have signed the contract for the work himself had he known about the burials.

Reference:
“Dunning Cemetery Site Verified”

In the May 9, 1990 edition of the Northwest leader newspaper by Andrew Glueck, it is reported that there is a tentative state proposal for a Memorial Park. It also stated that findings presented by archaeologist David Keene and his speculation that the site had a few bones scattered “here and there”, but no graves on the site. Keene and a team of researchers found remains at about 20 of the 25 test holes they dug through the five-acre site. He said he had not yet estimated the total number of people who were buried there, but that his findings indicated that the site was definitely a "regular cemetery"with one body buried adjacent to another. He explained this to state officials and local church pastors at the site on Tuesday, May 1. The article goes on to say the study did not put an end to questions asked of him about whether other gravesites might be located on the 320 acre plot of land known as the Dunning property. Keene went on to say "I would doubt if there were any other mass burials" located on the property. Fleig stated that other areas of the property need to be examined for remains. The state of Illinois is withholding its judgment on how much of the property was once in fact the cemetery until all parties in including a group of local pastors advocating the rights of the dead, agree. But the state last week committed itself to restricting development on at least the five-acre site that Keene identified. State officials will have to work out some sort of agreement with the two building companies, Pontarelli builders and Norwood builders to reclaim the land. The state will take whatever appropriate action is necessary to respect the dead, said Phil Gonet, Deputy Chief of Staff for Gov. James Thompson. The article states that the confirmation of the five-acre cemetery will probably scrap plans to build at least nine houses that were proposed by the developers, who apparently had no idea of the cemetery's existence when they bought the land.

NOTE: Years later, the actual size of the Memorial Park would somehow shrink to less than 3 acres on a plat survey, and replace only five house lots. And if the houses on the South side of Belle Plaine are taken into consideration, as many as 18 house lots could have been over cemetery land. There does not seem to be any explanation as to how the 5 acres that Keene determined, shrunk in size to what is now the Memorial Park, almost half the size. David Keene was being paid by the developers, so it might seem that there was an incentive to minimize the size and impact of the cemetery on the developers plans.

Reference:
“Bodies Buried A Century Ago on Northwest Side May Receive Memorial”

This article written by Elizabeth Voss for the Norridge news on May 9 and 10th 1990 continue to discuss Keene this findings presented on May 1st, in a tour were of the site arranged by the state of Illinois so pastor Bill Brauer and Barry Fleig could see where Keene had identified the cemetery that overlaps the Northwest corner of Ridgemoor estates. The developers refused to comment and it is uncertain what may happen the property in this article, according to a map of the development the cemetery appears to affect about 921 single-family planned homes. A looping access road ends abruptly and partially sets the southern and western borders of the cemetery. In this article. Fleig believes the cemetery extends West under an industrial site that was built in 1960 and also under the Dunning Square shopping center that was erected a year and a half ago.

Reference:
“Part of Cemetery Saved”

On Friday, May 11, 1990, an article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times written by Frank Burgos. It states that state officials said human remains will not be removed from an abandoned gravesite after archaeologists concluded the cemetery covers 5 acres. Little else, however has been determined about the cemetery.

Reference:
“State Won't Disturb Abandoned Gravesite”

On Sunday, May 13, 1990 in article appeared in the Jefferson Park Leader, again mentioning a tentative state proposal for a Memorial Park. This article was substantially the same as in article the same writer had printed on May 9, 1990.

Reference:
“Bodies buried a century ago on NW side may receive memorial”

This article written the week of May 13, 1990 by Rick Tiller, in Chicago’s northwest side press, is substantially the same as one he wrote on May 9, 1990

"Archeologist Verifies Cemetery on Dunning Property"

On Wednesday, May 16, 1990, Rick Tiller wrote this article in Chicago's Northwest side press. He states that while the state of Illinois is waiting for the report of archaeologist David Keene, the state is also trying to determine who will take responsibility for the bodies buried there and what will become of the land. Two weeks ago, Keene set the size of the cemetery at 5 acres, 1.4 acres of which overlap onto the Ridgemoor estates residential development site. After he files his report, a state archaeologist will be sent from Springfield to verify this work. The governor's office said that no portion of the discovered cemetery site would be developed, but the land will not be left a giant vacant lot, either. “We are thinking of making it a Memorial Park with park benches or even a recreational space, something that will preserve the integrity and respect the burial ground while giving pleasure to the community” Gonet said that after seeing David Keene’s report, he will want to talk to amateur historian Barry Fleig who followed the paper trail that established that a cemetery on the property, and the Rev. William Brauer of the Portage Park Presbyterian Church, who is been lobbying for the rights of the dead to have the remains left at peace.

Both Fleig and Brauer last week said they could support the development of the 5 acres as a Memorial Park or recreation area. The state is looking for some way to re-compensate the owners of that land for the loss and is considering, among other options, a land swap. Although the state says it has not been able to find any records of burials on the site after 1912, Fleig says he has found references to burials on the property occurring as late as 1930.

NOTE: Burials were indeed made after 1912, and death certificates refer to the cemetery then renamed, "Chicago State Hospital Cemetery” These burials after 1912, were primarily in the new grounds which are now partially under Oak Park Avenue.

"Land Swap May Resolve Dunning Cemetery Conflict"

On Thursday, May 17, 1990 Terri Kruszczak wrote in the Jefferson Park Portage Park times that the announcement of boundaries of the cemetery removed one roadblock from the Alter Group’s plan to build a light industrial park. This project is still pending a decision as to when the land will be declared surplus. Originally they were to be deeded 16 to 18 acres of state surplus land, it is possible the firm could receive more than that area.

Reference:
“Read Project Still in Limbo”

ADDITIONAL REDISCOVERY OF 125 MORE BODIES AT “LOT 30”

in June of 1990 125 additional bodies were found during the construction of one of the condo buildings, a fact that rendered David Keene's previous declaration of cemetery boundaries on May 1 1990, to be totally incorrect. Following, are newspaper articles reflecting this new rediscovery.

On Wednesday, June 20, 1990 Terri Kruszczak published an article in the Harlem Irving Times that states that the city Department of Health has issued a stop order on Monday, June 18 for construction on the condominium on lot 30. Construction workers using a bulldozer found human skeletons. These new human remains are on a condo site under construction and owned by Norwood builders. The site which appeared to have been disturbed by some kind of construction activity and is located about 200 feet west of Narragansett Ave., near the entrance to the Ridgemoor estates project. On June 14 David Keene said that he found evidence during May of 1990 of 100 previously undiscovered burials on lot 30, where workmen were laying the foundation for a new 44 unit condominium. Health Department supervisor Roger Cieslik said Norwood builders would be permitted to continue working around the affected area but could not dig into 25 x 90' area that Keene has determined as a concentration of newly discovered graves. On Monday, June 18, 1990, Keene was at the gravesite preparing the topsoil to begin the process of removing the remains. Removal will begin only after he obtains a permit from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which is now responsible for the gravesite, he said. The disturbance on lot 30 was discovered by Cieslik who stopped by the site Monday afternoon June 18 to check on Keene’s progress. He said workmen had disturbed the area containing remains with a bulldozer he then issued a stop work order to Bruce Adriani of Norwood builders. According to Cieslik, Adreani said he was unaware of what happened Monday on the site.

Cieslik said he pulled out a dozen human bones "in a minute and a half" from the disturbed area. He said he believed the disturbance occurred after Keene left Monday morning. Keene said that, earlier on Monday workmen were using a bulldozer to backfill part of the foundation, an activity he claimed to have monitored. Construction workers probably inadvertently "move the wrong pile" of earth, he said. That is, they moved pile of dirt containing human remains that were not covered up after they were first discovered by Norwood builders excavating that area in a.

Keene, who said he was not on the site with the disturbance happened, said later in the day that "no new graves were disturbed" by the activity.

The health department order, actually a reissue of an earlier stop work order that Cieslik issued last year, is effective immediately, and it prevents Norwood builders digging anywhere on lot 30.

Cieslik, however, said he permitted the developer to finish pouring cement for the condos foundation – work the developer had previously scheduled.

The stop order names Keene or the city Department of Health as the officials who can give written permission for digging to resume

Reference:
“Skeletons call halt to Read condo work”

On Wednesday, June 20, 1990 Terri Kruszczak writes in the Harlem Irving Times that David Keene has unexpectedly identified a new "isolated patch" of someone hundred human skeletons on a residential structure site as well as human bone fragments in piles of excavated earth on the site of the future Wright Junior College campus.

The new physical evidence on the residential site, and the discovery of a new historical document, has led David Keene to conclude that "a 20 acre site designated for burial" did exist on the Read Dunning land.

In making this revelation, Keene reversed his earlier findings. Only last month he announced that the boundaries of the cemetery were only on the five-acre site further West where human bones were originally discovered in March 1989. He said then, that earlier excavations he conducted near to Narragansett yielded no remains. Keene said last week that new evidence shows the cemetery's original location nearer to Narragansett. He said that remains buried there were later moved farther west to the five-acre site that he mapped..

Explaining the discrepancy, Keene said one of his graduate assistants found in 1869 document that made reference to a 20 acre site set aside for burial adjacent to the insane asylum. The asylum was near Narragansett.

The document further described a request made by the Cook County Board of Supervisors to move the 20 acre cemetery "60 rods", about 900 feet, West. Keene said that distance corresponds to the location of the five-acre site he mapped out earlier.

However, cemetery historian Barry Fleig said, and Keene admits, no evidence has been found indicating the request to relocate bodies was ever carried out. In this new rediscovery at lot 30, full human skeletons were found to be buried side-by-side in East to West direction. Keene believes the patch of human remains were somehow missed during an alleged relocation many years ago, and that may or may not have ever occurred. He said that a road covered the surface above the newly discovered graves at least as far back as the 1970s. Beginning Monday, the newly discovered remains were to be removed from the construction site, washed and dried, and relocated to the five-acre site, which has been designated Memorial land by the state. "they are historical property" Keene said. Evidence of these newly discovered graves were uncovered by Norwood builders on May 1 or 2, said spokesman Ken Adriani.

COMMENT: this new find on lot 30, which would later total some 125 human skeletons, illustrates that Keene’s former work in determining the boundaries of the cemetery were terribly incorrect. And as a result, he reversed his position and admitted that the cemetery was indeed larger than he thought, and extended much farther east.

Reference:
“Evidence revises Read graves theory”

in the reader forum from Wednesday, June 20, 1990 published in the Harlem Irving Times William Brauer wrote about desecration.

Reference:
“letter to the editor Rev Brauer”

On Wednesday, June 20, 1990 an article by Elizabeth Voss wrote about Roger Cieslak who issued a stop work order to discontinue all construction at the site. Roger, supervisor of health code enforcement for the city of Chicago, said that David Keene was supposed to be monitoring digging there after bones were first discovered a month ago. “They own the land,” Cieslak said, explaining why the developers would have to pay for moving the remains.

Reference:
“Official: Stop Digging”

This article written by Rick Tiller for Chicago’s Northwest Side Press on Wednesday, June 27, 1990, again reports on the human remains uncovered during excavation of the condominium lot 30. In addition, human remains were found while building the new Wright College campus a quarter of a mile to the north. According to Keene, his staff missed somehow the remains under what is now known as lot 30. They are to be reinterred on the five-acre site according to both Gonet and Keene. Fleig expressed some vindication for his conclusion and his paper trail that the cemetery size is closer to 20 acres, an assertion that a year ago was met with little credence by developers or local politicians.

Reference:
“Dunning work turns up more human remains”

On Wednesday, June 27, 1990 Terri Kruszczak wrote that state officials are trying to arrange a land swap so that the state can take possession of 1.4 acres believed to be part of the cemetery. State officials hope to complete the deal by July 1. The 1.4 acres in question lie on a parcel land owned by Norwood builders, which has plans to develop single family homes on the site. This land would be exchanged for another 1.4 acres surplus land elsewhere on the Read Dunning site. The other 3.6 acres of the five-acre Memorial Park already are on state property, land that was once used by the Department of Mental Health.

Reference:
“Land swap may solve cemetery plight”

Terri Kruszczak on June 27 wrote that state officials are considering enlarging of five-acre Memorial Park to accommodate the reinterment of newly discovered human remains from lot 30. If approved by state officials, the 25 foot addition will probably be “tacked on to the park's northern boundary and aging concrete parking lot.” Roger Cieslak was quoted as "nothing is coming out of the ground until there is a place to put them".

Reference:
“Grave finds increase potential park size”

Dunning Discovery

Unearthing Of Graves On Northwest Side Raises Haunting Questions About Reverence And Neglect

Chicago Tribune

July 09, 1990 |By Bill Stokes.

Chicago`s destitute and insane of a century ago, those disadvantaged souls excised from polite society like vermin, have literally resurfaced to taunt the living.

It has been happening for more than a year now on the Northwest Side, and nothing quite like it has been seen before.

“It” is the highly awkward discovery of a lost cemetery that, by one estimate, holds the remains of as many as 38,000 people. How a community the size of Chicago managed to forget the final resting place of so many of its departed brethren says a lot about the way the living relate to the dead, and to one another.

The cemetery, behind the Dunning Square Shopping Center at Irving Park Road and Narragansett Avenue, was used for at least 60 years as a public burial ground for the indigent and the mentally ill, people who tend to be forgotten even before they die.

The graveyard was part of a large piece of land on which sat a municipal poorhouse and insane asylum built in 19th Century that later became known simply as Dunning.

Although rumors of human bones being found during earlier construction projects have circulated in the neighborhood for years, the first remains to be officially found at the Dunning site were discovered by sewer excavators on March 9, 1989. Among them was the mummified torso of a man so well preserved that he showed the handlebar mustache and mutton-chop sideburns of the 1890s. There were other remains: several baskets of bones, perhaps representing the bodies of several dozen people, according to a pathologist`s report.

The discovery halted construction of homes and condominiums by Pontarelli Builders and Realtors of Park Ridge. It threw city, county and state officials into a tizzy over how such a thing could have happened, who was to blame, and what should be done about it.

Now, more than a year later, many questions remain. The biggest, of course, is how through the years city and state authorities could have so completely lost track of the tens of thousands of bodies interred at Dunning. (Today, the bodies of the 450 or so destitute and unidentified men, women and children who die each year in Cook County are trucked to Homewood Memorial Gardens near Thornton for burial in a mass grave.)

Barry Fleig, cemetery chairman for the Chicago Genealogical Society, said that the dead have always had a knack for getting in the way of the living, and that when this involves institutional or municipal cemeteries, records are not always complete enough to keep things straight.

In the draft of a book titled “Chicago and Cook County Cemetery Guide”that Fleig is preparing for fall publication, he details the somewhat confusing history of Chicago cemeteries. He begins with the first non-Indian graves in the family plot of John Kenzie on the north side of the Chicago River near the lakeshore.

Next came a burial ground at Ft. Dearborn established in 1816, when Capt. Hezikiah Bradley arrived to reclaim the abandoned fortification. As a first task, he gathered up and buried the bones of the victims of the 1812 massacre: 39 men, 2 women and 12 children.

A so-called common acre on the west bank of the river was next used for burial. A hazard of burials in the vicinity of the river was that spring floods often unearthed coffins that were later found floating downstream. Human remains unearthed during construction of the Ohio Street extension of the Kennedy Expressway could have been from this period, Fleig said.

A cemetery at Lake Street and Wabash Avenue was used in 1832 to bury cholera victims from Ft. Dearborn. In 1835, two city cemeteries were established: North Side at what is now Pearson Street and Michigan Avenue for Protestants, and South Side at 23rd Street near the lakefront for Catholics. Both were closed after only a few years when they got in the way of new construction in the rapidly growing city.

Some but not all the bodies from those two graveyards were moved to City Cemetery, established in 1837 in the area that is now Lincoln Park. The John Hancock Center and Water Tower Place now stand on the North Side Cemetery site, and various construction projects in this area over the years have uncovered human bones.

As the city grew, north Chicago residents (some as early as 1858) petitioned authorities to close City Cemetery. Burials were prohibited after 1866, and the transfer of remains to other cemeteries began. The process was still going on in October 1871 when the Great Fire hit Chicago. Many of City Cemetery`s wooden markers were burned, but its open spaces offered some refuge to those fleeing the city before the path of the ravaging flames.

A year after the fire, the only remains still at City Cemetery were those of the Couch family, in a mausoleum that can still be found in Lincoln Park;

David Kennison, whose grave is marked by a stone near the foot of Wisconsin Avenue; and people interred in an unknown number of graves that were never located.

“There may be hundreds of graves in Lincoln Park that were never found,” Fleig said. “They would be mostly under what are now the athletic fields.” Fleig said the remains of two or three bodies were found when the Farm in the Zoo was built in the park in 1962, and about nine human skeletons were unearthed during work on nearby water lines in 1986.

The unclaimed remains that could be located at City Cemetery were finally moved to the Cook County Cemetery at Dunning in 1872, and City Cemetery for the dead became Lincoln Park for the living.

During that period, dozens of graveyards were established in the Chicago area by churches and private associations. Around the turn of the century, some of the larger and better-maintained cemeteries became popular sites for Sunday outings, and it was sometimes necessary for cemetery managers to employ guards to maintain decorum and prevent such inappropriate behavior as gambling.

But if the living invaded the real estate of the dead at other places in the city, no such intrusions took place at the Dunning site. In the 1880s, the burial ground at Dunning was known as the Cook County Cemetery, and it sat within the grounds of the municipal poorhouse and insane asylum. The county facility was a miserable, Dickensian place, and its history is as sad as the histories of most such institutions of that time.

In addition to the insane asylum and poorhouse, the county grounds included a tuberculosis hospital and a county farm on which inmates were expected to work.

Also on the property was a morgue and storage facility where bodies could be kept during the winter when the ground was too hard to permit interment. Records show public expenditures for coffin materials and that, at one point, three undertakers were on the facility`s payroll. Among the documents Fleig has found are county records showing 456 burials at County Cemetery at Dunning in 1872 and 996 in 1885. The records also show that 107 unidentified victims of the Chicago Fire were buried there in 1871.

There were so many burials, in fact, that by 1890 the original 20-acre burying grounds were full, Fleig said, and an additional five acres west of what is now Oak Park Avenue was designated as cemetery. After what Fleig estimates at 7,500 to 10,000 burials there, the area was at capacity by 1899. Burials resumed in the old grounds, possibly in an area that already had been used for a cemetery.

The newer area is now a blacktop parking lot on the grounds of Chicago Read Mental Health Center; there is nothing to indicate it was ever a cemetery. Human bones were found in this area several years ago during utility construction.

When the state bought Dunning in 1912, it assumed care of the facility`s mentally ill, and deaths there were officially recorded on death certificates. Fleig said those records help confirm the burial of more than 16,000 people at Dunning, with interments continuing into the 1920s.

“By extrapolating from existing records for the years for which the records are missing, there must have been at least 38,000 burials at Dunning,” Fleig said shortly after the first remains were discovered in 1989. “And that is a conservative figure. There may have been many more than that.”

With the discovery of the remains, construction was halted and various public agencies began to search for a solution. Rev. William Brauer of nearby Portage Park Presbyterian Church alleged that “to ruthlessly rip this burying place apart in order to cater to purchasers of luxury homes is hypocritical and contemptuous.”

Brauer rallied the Church Federation of Greater Chicago, made up of 2,109 congregations, which wrote to Gov. James Thompson asking that the state protect the Dunning cemetery. “Those persons interred there had precious little of this world`s goods when they passed from our midst,” the letter said. “We urge that their final resting place be exactly that, and that no further desecration . . . take place.”

Loyola University archeologist David Keene was hired to carry out some digging tests and to study old records.

“It`s a difficult site to sort out,” Keene said. “The soil has been disturbed and filled numerous times in some places, and we are not dealing with a typical cemetery situation.”

Keene and a crew of diggers worked through the winter and spring, and submitted a preliminary report to state officials that locates a five-acre cemetery straddling the property Pontarelli is developing and a parcel of land to the north slated for commercial development but still under the control of the state`s Central Management Service.

John Brazaitis of that agency said it has been suggested that the five acres be sodded over and made into a memorial park with some type of marker to designate it a former cemetery. Brauer said a decision on the land`s future could be made better by a court than by state administrators. He said the five acres could not hold all the bodies known to have been buried at Dunning.

Fleig agreed: “There is no way that this five acres and the five acres of ‘new’ ground under the parking lot could contain all the burials that we have documented. If the state takes the position that the old cemetery is limited to the designated five acres, it could be embarrassing when bodies start showing up in subsequent development outside this acreage.”

Even under the most crowded conditions, Fleig said, no more than 10,000 bodies could be buried in single graves on a five-acre plot. He added that county records show the original size of the Dunning cemetery to have been 20 acres. Keene said it`s possible that burial ground was used over and over and that this would not be shown in records.

Fleig`s prediction of embarrassing discoveries came true recently when the remains of 100 to 150 people were unearthed outside the five-acre tract. Phil Gonet, deputy chief of staff for Thompson, said those remains will be reburied within the designated cemetery site, as will any other remains unearthed.

“It`s disappointing that state records were so incomplete that nobody knew about the cemetery,” Gonet said. “But now that the information is available, we want to do the right thing by everyone.”

He added that the state feels something of a responsibility to the developers, who knew nothing about the cemetery when they bought the land. He emphasized at the same time that when the state declared the five-acre tract surplus property and allowed its transfer to private hands, it had limited knowledge of the land`s history.

Gonet suggested that a swap in which the state would give the developer another tract of surplus land for the property on which the bodies have been found might satisfy both sides. If a trade is negotiated, he said, the state might convert the burial ground into open space suitable for public use. A memorial of some kind would likely be created to signal the site`s history as a graveyard, he said.

Future developers, he said, may have to be given some assurance that should more human remains be found, the state would assume some responsibility for their disposition.

“And, of course, the state has some responsibility to the memory of the people buried there,” Gonet said.

Said Fleig: “I don`t think anyone is being unreasonable about this. People just want some respect and dignity to be shown to the dead.”

Reference:
“Dunning Discovery - Unearthing of graves on Northwest side raises haunting questions about reverence and neglect"

this is an editorial that appeared in the Harwood Heights News on July 18 and 19th 1990. It begins with "the cemetery has proven to be a thorn in the side of Norwood builders and Pontarelli Builders and Realtors, who wish to develop the land of the Irving Park Road and Narragansett Avenue site. David Blanchette, of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, stated that no more digging where 100 bodies are. At the end of the article Philip Gonet was quoted as saying "I think that both Brauer and Fleig have been very helpful in the Dunning cemetery issue. Before they brought the matter to our attention the state was denying its existence and any responsibility”

Reference:
“Cemetery Move almost done”

Terri Kruszczak wrote this article on Wednesday, July 18, 1990 in the Harlem Foster Times. She states that the Synod of Lincoln Trails, made up of 749 Presbyterian congregations in Illinois and Indiana, has become the third major church group to endorse a Memorial Park for people buried at Dunning. The Synod, following action previously taken by the Presbytery of Chicago, and later by the Church Federation of Chicago, adopted a resolution urging city county and state officials to protect and preserve the integrity and dignity of Cook County Cemetery. The resolution asks officials to establish a Memorial Park “comprising as much of the original 20 acre site as is now possible, with an appropriate marker to commemorate the final resting place of the thousands they are interred.”

Copies of the resolution were sent to Gov. James Thompson and to Mayor Richard Daley. The resolution mirrors one originally adopted by the ruling elders of the Portage Park Presbyterian Church, 5757 West Windsor Ave., at the behest of the Rev. William Brauer. Brauer’s church adopted the resolution in June 1989, just four months after bones were first discovered on the Ridgemoor Estates construction site, owned by Norwood builders. Brauer applauded the Synod’s action, and called on city and state officials to create a master plan for dealing with human remains found on the site. He criticized what he called “the piecemeal approach” taken thus far.

Reference:
“Churches demand Dunning dead park”

On Wednesday, July 25, 1990, Terri Kruszczak reports in the Harlem Irving Times that limited construction and archaeological activities are now proceeding on the lot 30 condominium construction site in the Ridgemoor Estates residential project, after the city Department of Health lifted a stop work order for that area on July 16. Now that the order is lifted, Norwood builders is permitted to excavate in “safe spots” on the condo site, that is, areas believed to be free of human remains.

Reference:
“Work resumes near old cemetery site”

This is an article, again reporting on the bodies found at lot 30, by Elizabeth Voss in the Norridge News on July 25 and 26th 1990. She states that David Keene is finding full body skeletons buried shoulder to shoulder and directly under where Norwood builders plan to build a condominium near Narragansett Avenue and Irving Park Road.

David Keene and his team have been carefully disinterring the 150-year-old remains since the City of Chicago halted construction on the site on June 18. “The cemetery was too close to the buildings,” Keene said. Apparently when the graves were moved this strip was looked over, he said “why they skip this group I don’t know,” Keene said, looking over the fenced off property where exposed skeletons lay shoulder to shoulder in an exposed shallow grave. “From historical records, it is known that the burials were made between 1851 and 1869”, Keene said. The bodies were buried in wooden graves that have since deteriorated. Historian Barry Fleig, who has researched the burial site, believes most of the burials were of poor and mentally old people who lived in the county institutions on the property.

In studying the bones, Keene hopes to learn more about the diseases that afflicted people in the mid-19th century. “We don’t know a lot about 19th century diseases,” he said. After the remains are studied, they will eventually be reinterred in wooden coffins in the 3 acre site that the state plans to preserve as a cemetery. Keene expects to take at least another month to disinterring and study the remains.

Reference:
“Archaeologists find skeletons on site”

This article was written by Terri Kruszczak and printed in the Jefferson Park Portage Park Times on Thursday, July 26, 1990. She states that limited construction and archaeological activities are now proceeding on the condominium construction site in the Ridgemoor Estates residential project, after the city Department of Health lifted a stop work order for that area on July 16.

NOTE: this appears to be the same or similar article printed on July 25 in the Harlem Irving Times.

Reference:
“Building resumes near cemetery site”

News articles beginning Aug 1990

This article appeared on Wednesday, August 8, 1990 in the Harlem Foster Times. One of the human skulls from a 19th century cemetery was stolen from its skeleton last week. Thieves climbed a chain-link fence at the site at 6432 West Beltline Ave. and reached a tarpaulin that was covering several skeletons, police said. The thieves disturbed just the one body.

Reference:
“Skull filched at old cemetery”

This article was published August 8 and 9 1990 and written by Terri Kruszczak. Cemetery historian Barry Fleig recently submitted new evidence to a top state official that, he said, specifically defines one boundary of the former cemetery. The evidence takes the form of a citation in the Journal of the Cook County Board of Commissioners for October 24, 1887. That day’s proceedings contain a report by the Committee on Public Service, in which committee members recommended that the west line of what was then the cemetery be extended up to the east line of the railroad right away. “This extension corresponds to the present day chain-link fence on the east side of the industrial complex that faces Irving Park Road”, Fleig said in a July 23 letter to Phillip Gonet. Fleig enclosed a photocopy of the 1887 proceeding with his letter. He also mailed copies to the Illinois State Preservation Agency and the city of Chicago.

In the letter, Fleig said this latest historical reference is significant for several reasons:

The extension requested by the committee “clearly defines” one boundary of the cemetery grounds, and represents the first definitive boundary line to be found in historical documents. “References previously found, have been vague or general, such as “behind the infirmary”. The citation “strongly infers” that the pattern of burials in the old cemetery grounds was westward, a direction that had not been confirmed in other Tony reports found to date”. The historical reference documents yet another extension of the cemetery. Previously Fleig discovered historical references to a 20 acres “old grounds,” meaning the first parcel of the land designated for use as a burial ground; also a 50’ x 200’ addition to the old grounds; and a 5.73 acre “new grounds” located just west of Oak Park Avenue between Irving Park and Montrose Avenue.

According to this 1887 citation the committee wanted to extend the cemetery because “the space allotted to the burial ground on the county farm is not large enough to allow the number of bodies required to be buried at that place,” Fleig wrote, directly quoting the committee’s report

“This clear decision for additional cemetery land appears to contradict any theory that the old grounds (the 20 acre burial ground) and its additions could have been contained only within the 5 acres announced in May by David Keene.” Keene later revised his theory of the cemetery’s location after one of his graduate assistants claimed to have found a reference in 1869 county document that made mention of a 20 acre burial site located closer to Narragansett Avenue. But Fleig has pointed out and Keene has agreed, that no evidence is been found to prove the supervisory request to relocate bodies was ever carried out.

While Keene now believes the original 20 acre burial site was located closer to, and may even have run parallel to Narragansett, Fleig contends it was located further west and it encompasses a portion of the land slated for development of single-family homes in the partially constructed Ridgemoor Estates residential complex. Keene could not be reached for comment. gonet said he had received Fleig’s letter, but has not had time to act on it yet.

NOTE: David Keene’s theory about cemetery running parallel the Narragansett, is impossible because there was no Narragansett Avenue at the time. There was only Poorhouse Road which ran at an diagonal from Irving Park Avenue onto Smith’s Tavern near Norwood Park.

Reference:
“New evidence extends Read cemetery site”

This is an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Saturday, August 25, 1990. It contains a very graphic photo of an archaeology team uncovering full skeletons at the lot 30 condominium site. Similar color photos appear in the spring 1991 edition, volume 20, number 1 of Loyola Magazine a publication of Loyola University Chicago.

Reference:
“Sobering work”

In the Harlem foster times for September 5, 1990, Terri Kruszczak writes that the Alter Group is seeking approval to establish a Tax Increment Financing District on at least 16 acres of land on the Read – Dunning property, according to the city of Chicago Department Of Economic Development. The TIF district would be used as a financing tool to help Alter develop and maintain a light industrial park on the site. At least one Northside firm, Eli’s cheesecake, is negotiating to purchase 5 acres the land so it can relocate and expand their bakery business there. The proposal contains a general land-use plan and a summary of eligible redevelopment costs, estimated a $16 million, which the developer expects to incur throughout the 20 year life of the TIF district.

Eli’s cheesecake is “moving ahead” with relocation plans despite delays. “Were negotiating with the city and Alter for a site right now”. If all goes as planned, the company hopes to begin construction of a new plant by May or June 1991 and to occupy the facility by 1992

Reference:
“Developer asks city industrial park aid”

A plan for the development of a portion of the Dunning site met with no opposition when it was presented to the Austin urban community Council on September 5 at Merrimac Park. The proposal includes a light industrial park, award yard, a 13 acre residential development, and a Memorial Park for any “artifacts” discovered during the site’s development. The proposal will go before the plan commission in October.

The light industrial park would offer 12 lots ranging in size from 1.5 acres to 7.4 acres. Some of the lots already have existing buildings left over from the mental health facility. The park will have access roads leading to Montrose and Oak Park Avenues one road within the park will abort the right college campus that is under construction.

"Alter Group presents plan for Dunning Development"

This article in the Harlem foster times on September 12, 1990 by Terri Kruszczak again outlined plans for the light industrial park. The land to be developed is jump to 50 acres largely because the proposed business Park is been repositioned farther in on the read Dunning land, instead of having it faced Narragansett Avenue as originally proposed. The firm also proposes to develop a residential project consisting of 944 unit condominiums with underground parking. The 13 acre residential area extends west into the read Dunning land from Narragansett and Bartow. Access to the condos would be from Narragansett Avenue. This project is not affiliated with the new condominiums and single-family homes being developed by Pontarelli builders and Norwood builders.

NOTE: This article goes into far more detail, and can be read in its entirety on the JPEG image of the article located in the news clippings section of this website

Reference:
“Firm asks city OK for factories, condos”

In the October 1990 edition of the Chicago Genealogical Society newsletter there appeared an article called June’s Jottings by June Barekman. In the article she said “I have thoroughly enjoyed C.G.S. member and cemetery historian Barry Fleig’s article in “Tempo,” Chicago Tribune on Monday, July 9, 1990 as reported by Bill Stokes. “Dunning Discovery, Unearthing of Graves on Northwest Side of Chicago Raises Haunting Questions about Reverence and Neglect”.

She said that she can well recall the area and the mentally ill standing back of the big iron fence begging for candy and sweets. She said she had always known people were buried at Dunning. She went on to say “We are very proud of the work Barry Fleig is accomplishing. It has been suggested “the state might convert the burial ground and open space and a memorial of some kind created to signal the site’s history as a graveyard”.

Reference:
“CGS Newsletter-June’s Jottings October 1990”

Elizabeth Voss wrote an article on December 6, 1990 in the Harwood Heights News stating an amateur historian and local clergyman are fighting the tide of development plans for 72 acres of land at the old Dunning site hoping to preserve a forgotten cemetery.

“We’ve been told, “as we find bodies during construction, will handle it”, said historian Barry Fleig “that’s totally unacceptable. All you’re doing is taking a backhoe and chopping bodies in half.”

“My feeling is there’s pressure from the Mayor’s office and from the state to get this project moving,” he said. “They don’t want to bother with looking for more bodies, but I know they’re going to find them.”

For two years, Fleig and the Rev. William Brauer of the Portage Park Presbyterian Church have fought to protect a forgotten Cook County cemetery located under land the state Department of Mental Health declared surplus and then sold to private developers.

He and Pastor Brauer believes government authorities have mishandled the situation ever since human remains were discovered in March 1989 by construction workers at the Ridgemoor Estates residential development site. Fleig claims as many as 38,000 people were buried in the old Cook County cemetery between 1851 and possibly into the 1930s. He has documented more than 15,000 graves, and therefore estimates that there are a total of 38,000 people buried there. He says there are historical records more than 27 acres of cemetery within the former 320 acre County farm, which later became the Chicago State Hospital. Fleig believes Keene’s archaeological study was inadequate, partly because it didn’t cover all of the state owned and formally state owned property. After Keene completed his study, more bones were discovered at the Ridgemoor Estates development. Keene was again hired to unearth remains and found 115 bodies. When Fleig and Pastor Brauer met Thursday with planning, economic development and Corporation Counsel officials from the city, they were told a protocol would be developed describing how to handle bodies discovered during construction. But Fleig and Brauer said that was an unacceptable solution. Fleig also objected to the inclusion of the two identified cemetery parcels in the application for a plan development. After the meeting, he was told the 5.7 acre parcel would be excluded from the application. Fleig believes Keene’s archaeological study should be fully examined, then a full historical survey should be conducted to accurately show the extent of cemetery land before construction begins. During construction further archaeological testing and investigation could be done if more remains are found, Fleig said.

“I think they’re squirming a little bit, and I think they’re going to have to be more responsive,” Fleig said about the governmental authorities. “There’s something about our culture. We have a basic inherent respect for the dead. We wouldn’t build a McDonald’s in the middle of Graceland Cemetery. You just don’t do things like that.”

Reference:
“Pair ready to re-fight cemetery battle”

Rick Teller in the Northwest side press on December 23, 1990 writes “as the Chicago plan commission postponed a hearing this month of a proposal to use part of the Dunning property for industrial purposes, historian Barry Fleig “honed his testimony” opposing the encroachment of the manufacturing district on graveyard land. The proposed manufacturing district overlaps the northern half of the 2.96 acre Cook County farm cemetery graveyard in which County insane asylum and poorhouse inmates were buried.”

Fleig, the Northwest side amateur cemetery historian who first found references to the cemetery and county records cited misinterpretations of historical documents on the part of the archaeological team. For example one part of the team’s report describe the cemetery’s proximity to the “hospital”, but that document is describing the newer infirmary at Oak Forest built 1912, more than 20 miles away, and thus led the team in a wrong direction when they went to the Dunning site. “This error is one example of the gap between available historical data and the incorrect conclusions advanced by this report,” Fleig said of the archaeological survey. “Any assumptions made in choosing testing sites, based on this kind of historical research would be useless.”

Fleig goes on to cite passages of the archaeological report that claim only 553 burials were recorded from the Cook County Institution. This report fails to mention that hundreds more people were buried on the grounds from outside that institution.

Reference:
“Controversy continues over location of dunning cemetery”

This article, written by Terri Kruszczak on Thursday, January 3, 1991 for the Jefferson Park- Portage Park Times speaks of clouds of steam resembling fog rolling off Oak Park Avenue and Forest Preserve Drive just before Christmas, causing problems for some motorists. In May 1989, the mental health center was forced to cancel a state-funded capital improvement project to install new underground steam lines after workers digging trenches near the facilities Oak Park Avenue entrance discovered several human graves. Those graves and others were the 5.73 acre “Newgrounds” cemetery, now underneath a unpaved parking lot across the street to the West.

That unexpected “find” on the mental health centers property effectively halted the steam line project because it is illegal to disturb human graves. At the time, officials said court action might be necessary to complete the project. “Somebody didn’t want to fight the battle,” Chicago read facilities director Jon Steinmetz said. Two boilers will be installed, on the West campus, which would eliminate the need for underground steam lines altogether. The $600,000 boiler project is being financed with state money previously allocated for the abandoned steam line project. Two gas-fired, 350 hp boilers are to be installed in a former loading dock. The existing underground steam lines will be sealed off and no longer used.

Reference:
“New boilers will stop ‘fog’ from rolling out”

On January 9, 1991 and the Harlem Foster Times, Terri Kruszczak wrote about a Des Plaines genealogist and Civil War enthusiast who uncovered historical evidence showing that a Confederate Army officer was among those buried in Cook County cemetery at Dunning.

The discovery may prove to have repercussions for a proposed residential, industrial and institutional redevelopment plan, that only Monday, won approval from the city Council’s finance committee, and which is scheduled to be heard by the Chicago plan commission on Thursday. Bruce Allardice, a member of the Chicago Civil War Roundtable, identified the Confederate officer as Col. Thomas Hamilton McCray. A former Arkansas mill operator and Texas manufacturer Col. McRae headed the 31st Arkansas infantry Battalion in 1862 . While official sources list McCray is a Col. other references list him as a Brigadier General. After the war McCray fled to Mexico but returned to the United States and in 1870 he took up farming in Arkansas for a time, then moved to Chicago where he became a merchant for McCormick Reaper Company.

McCray died a pauper on October 19, 1891. His death certificate is signed by Dr. Daniel Eisendrath of Cook County Hospital. Bruce Allardice relayed his findings to Fleig, with whom he worked in 1988 to preserve Russell cemetery, a small family burial ground in Northfield Township. Fleig called the news “quite a revelation”.

Reference:
“Civil war vet's burial could jinx developers”

In Chicago’s Northwest Side Press for Wednesday, January 9, 1991, Rick Tiller states that the Chicago plan commission will meet on Thursday, January 10 in the Chicago City Chicago Council chambers to hear testimony regarding the development of the Dunning site, now described as a 45 acre parcel slated for industrial use, along with the development of a Memorial Park.

Cemetery historian Barry Fleig who followed paper trails to documents describing where the bodies were buried, is expected to address the commission on the placement of the light industrial district near the center of the property and its possible encroachment on unmarked burial grounds and the proposed Memorial Park.

Reference:
“School space, Dunning land on Plan Commission agenda”

In the Harlem Foster Times for January 9 Terri Kruszczak wrote that the Chicago city Council finance committee on Monday recommended passage of three bills that would establish 235 acres of the read Dunning property as a tax increment financing district, and designate 74 acres for redevelopment. The committee’s unanimous vote paves the way for a full Council vote on the bills this Friday. The Alter Group is seeking city approval to develop the 74 acres of the property for residential, commercial and institutional uses. The proposal also includes 2 ½ acres for a new 38th Ward sanitation yard. In addition about 4 ½ acres is slated to become a Memorial Park for those people interred in Cook County cemetery. Before the Council can act, Alter’s proposal first must be reviewed by the Chicago plan commission. Note: for some reason, the 4 ½ acres slated to become the Memorial Park ended up being platted as less than 3 acres at the direction of David Keene.

Reference:
“Local TIF bills backed”

In the Chicago Tribune Chicagoland edition for Friday, January 11, 1991, John McCarron writes that the Chicago plan commission, late Thursday, endorsed a plan to shift “skeletons” within the long forgotten pauper cemetery to make room for the industrial park and condo complex. Under a protocol developed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, human remains discovered by construction crews would be reburied in one of two memorial parks on the 66 acre site. State officials say the two parks, already contain most of the hundreds of century-old graves.. Yet the state’s plan was condemned by a cemetery historian and several local religious leaders, who argued that construction shouldn’t begin until all the graves are located and moved using delicate archaeological techniques.

“How would you like it if your great-grandfather got chopped in half by a bulldozer” said Barry Fleig,, a historian and board member of the Chicago genealogical Society. Fleig estimates that as many as 38,000 bodies are buried on the tract which until 1912 served as the Cook County Poor Farm. The farm included an insane asylum, a poorhouse, a hospital, and an ill-defined potters field in which the forgotten were interred without gravestones. Experts differ as to why the cemetery was never fenced in or otherwise protected once land was transferred to the state. But nevertheless, the old cemetery went largely unnoticed until May 1989. Now, developer William Alter wants to buy another quadrant of the land for an industrial park and condominium complex. The state would sell the land to the city for a “nominal amount”, and the city would transfer it to Alter’s Chicago Read Joint Venture. In payment for the land, Alter would build replacement mental health facilities for the still active Read complex west of Oak Park Avenue. David Keene claims to have found two intact cemeteries, both of which will be fenced in, designated with monumental plaques and maintained in perpetuity by the state. Bodies found elsewhere on the site will be moved under state supervision to one of the two memorial parks. “These cemeteries are due as much deference and respect as Graceland itself,” said Rueben Hedlund, chairman of the plan commission referring to the cemetery.

Note: David Keene actually only designated the Memorial Park grounds. The other intact cemetery that he mentioned is a reference to the New Grounds partially under Oak Park Avenue. Some of that cemetery is under a paved parking lot, and was never fenced in as he said. It has been resurveyed, but nothing more has been done on that 5.73 acre site.

“Relocating paupers’ graves OKd”

On January 11, 1991 the Chicago Sun-Times reporter Ray Long, wrote that the Chicago plan commission recommended approval on Thursday of a development that opponents say could desecrate thousands of unmarked graves on the Northwest side. The commission’s unanimous vote sends the more than $70 million project to the city’s zoning committee before it goes to a full city Council vote. More than 100 victims of the great Chicago fire and Civil War Confederate, as well as Brig. Gen. Thomas Hamilton McCray are among those buried in the forgotten plots said Barry Fleig, who is writing a book on Cook County cemeteries. Opponents urged further exploration of the site before the development begins, possibly later this year. But city and state officials contend that archaeological searches show no other graveyards on the site, although they conceded that individual graves could be uncovered.

John George, an attorney for the developers said the project will increase the tax base and employment within Chicago. More graves could be found around state owned buildings previously used his mental health facilities as well as the new Horizon facility for disabled children, Fleig said

In exchange for the land the developers would pay 4.4 million for new buildings at the nearby Chicago read mental health center and the additional cost of razing state structures and a power plant at the proposed development site. Up to 3500 light industrial jobs could be brought into the development according to Philip Gonet.

Reference:
“Opponents see N.W. side project as threat to graves”

This is another article on the Chicago plan commission approval. This one, by Terri Kruszczak published in the Harlem Foster Times on January 16, 1991. She stated that there were nearly 4 hours of testimony from both supporters and critics at the plan commission meeting. Supposedly, the plan included two memorial parks one 2.9 acres in size and the other 5.7 acres. The state will retain ownership of both parks and will be responsible for their upkeep. The protocol outlining specific procedures for developers to follow if human remains or during construction will become part of the deed to the land, which will pass from the states Central Management Services to the city and then finally to the Alter Group.

Ald. Thomas Cullerton who favors the project, said those buried in Cook County cemetery would be accorded “proper respect and interment under this plan.” Critics were not inclined to agree with him. Cemetery historian and genealogist Barry Fleig asked the commission to delay the project, to allow more time for archaeological testing and historical research. Fleig, in a preliminary report to the plan commission, identified 19 sites on the read Dunning property that probably contain either clusters of unmarked graves or isolated burials. Two of the sites, Margaret Durso hospital and a geriatric center are both located within the proposed industrial park and very near an area where human remains were uncovered only last year, Fleig said another high probability area was property owned by the new Horizon center for the Developmentally Disabled, which lies within the proposed industrial parks northern boundary along Forest Preserve Drive. Human remains were found there, during work on a steam line, according to Fleig. “What I object to is digging up bodies of the backhoe, I’ve seen them do it,” Fleig said. “We need adequate testing first before we continue. Other than that I have no objection to the rezoning”. Fleig’s testimony later prompted the commission to call archaeologist David Keene who was hired by the state and the developer to do a survey of the property and determine the extent of cemetery land. Keene has identified three sites of cemetery areas. He disputed Fleig’s assertions and testified that any additional archaeological testing would most likely produce “more dirt.”

Other opponents including the Rev. William Brauer of Portage Park Presbyterian Church objected to any further development of the land. He called on city and state officials to preserve the cemetery and protected from further encroachment from commercial interests. He said that “because those buried here were poor, the only voices being heard seemingly are from those who want to take over the land for profit-making purposes. It is not an acceptable exchange to abandon such a burial ground for the sake of building another shopping center or new condominiums” Brauer said.

Reference:
“Plan Commission gives approval to more Dunning development”

the Norridge Harwood Heights News also wrote an article published on January 17, 1991 regarding the Chicago plan commission approval. In this article, Barry Fleig was quoted as saying “the problem is the archaeology has been done in only small, selected areas, 40 to 50 acres were not tested.” Keene responded that the only other burials that might be discovered would be a “few isolated, itinerant ones”. The developer and city and state officials have agreed to exclude the corner of the 5.7 acre cemetery from the proposed development and to zone the 2.9 acre site as a cemetery to remain state owned after title for the rest of the development is transferred. Fleig said “what I object to is digging up more bodies during construction, that simply is not right. There is a good possibility you’ll find more than itinerant burials,”. Pastor Brauer said “this is holy ground. It was a cemetery. I do not believe it should be treated as anything else,”

Pastor Brauer told the commissioners that the unfortunates who were buried there have no one to speak for them, and the responsibility rested with this commission to protect their rights. Pastor Brauer quoted William E Gladstone and English statesman who said: “Show me the manner in which a nation or community cares for its dead, and I will measure with medical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.”

The commission members showed concern about the cemetery issues, but were reassured by Paula Cross, Senior Staff Archaeologist with the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency. She insisted her agency is satisfied with how the matter is being handled. This agency is responsible for enforcing the Human Grave Protection Act of 1989 which provides protection for unregistered graves. Cross believes adequate field testing has been done and spoke highly of Keene’s credentials as an archaeologist. She said the field testing was done in conjunction with existing historical records.

Speaking in defense of the work he had done, Keene said, “Barry Fleig is right; we didn’t test every square inch of the property. That would be too expensive. We did test every place we considered there was a high potential for the intact remains and places that were not disturbed within the past 100 years. If we wanted, we could test this area for the next three or four years. Were pretty sure we got all the major concentrations of human remains.”

Commission chairman Reuben L Hedlund said, “We have to preserve the sanctity of this area. I just want to make sure we have done more than the law requires, that were not forgetting about them in the interest of building a shopping center.”

Reference:
“Chicago Plan Commission approves Dunning project”

On January 17, 1991 an editorial appeared in the Norridge Harwood Heights News that states that it looks as though construction will proceed despite objections but not enough effort has been made to locate all gravesites and move them out of the way.

Earlier development on the property revealed just how fragile protections are for these graves. The state so deeded the east end of the site to private developers, who were astonished to discover human remains as construction proceeded. After Keene hired by the developers to survey the site, he gave them the all clear signal, allowing further construction which had unearthed the remains of 119 bodies.

Fleig and the Rev. Brauer have been lone voices, championing the right of the impoverished and the insane of a century ago to rest in peace. Before they go ahead and approve the development on this site, “ city council members ought to think long and hard about the ethical issues, and about how they’d like there remains to be treated.”

Reference:
“Opinion - Be sure dead are respected”

This article in the January 20 edition of the Leader by Noah Liberman stated that the Chicago plan commission weighed a potentially lucrative development project against ethical concerns for the treatment of human remains. A handful Chicago residents made an impassioned plea for delaying all development and conducting a thorough investigation into the location of remains on the 66 acre site. “The burial rights of the poor should be no less negotiable than the rights of our friends and relatives buried in other Cook County cemeteries,” said one speaker, Hazel Anderson. “I do not see it as an acceptable exchange, to abandon a cemetery for the construction of condos and businesses,” said William Brauer pastor of the portage Park Presbyterian Church. With the support of the alderman in the plan commission, the project may have little trouble gaining the approval of the city Council zoning committee and the full city Council, later this month.

Reference:
“City okays Read-Dunning plans after deciding to relocate remains”

Noah Liberman wrote in the Suburban Leader, on January 27, 1991 that despite the unanimous vote by the Chicago plan commission, a determined group of Chicago-area clergy are continuing their efforts to have officials reconsider the project. At its yearly business meeting Saturday, January 19, Mission Counsel Number Four of the Presbytery of Chicago voted to send a letter to Gov. Jim Edgar, Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley, and other city and state officials calling for more thorough archaeological studies of the site. They were the seventh church- related group to support preserving all land in which remains are found. The groups are deeply concerned that Fleig could be right, and the development could turn up thousands of unexpected graves. Even the state’s provisions for reinterment of bodies would be inadequate, they fear.

Reference:
“Religious implications of Dunning development site clouds plan”

This article dated February 6, 1991 by Terri Kruszczak in the Harlem Foster Times, again deals with the Presbyterian Council calling on the governor Jim Edgar to ensure that a complete archaeological survey is performed before new development begins. Mission Counsel Number Four has become the sixth church group to endorse a proposal to protect and preserve the integrity of Cook County cemetery, a position first adopted by the Session of the Portage Park Presbyterian Church in June 1989. Others endorsing the position include the Jefferson Park Portage Park Ministerial Association, the Church Federation Of Greater Chicago, the Church and Society Committee of the Presbytery of Chicago, and the Synod of Lincoln trails, which includes 749 Presbyterian congregations.

Reference:
“Church condemns cemetery plan”

This article by Terri Kruszczak on Wednesday, May 29, 1991 in the Harlem Foster Times reports that David Keene has completed laboratory analysis of some 100 intact skeletons he removed from the lot 30 condominium construction site last year. A written report has been submitted to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Keene said last week. It will not be publicly released until the end of June.

Keene took the remains to his laboratory at Loyola University, where they were cleaned and examined for their age, evidence of disease, and other factors might confirm the identity and cause of death of those buried there.

Reference:
“Dunning skeleton study complete”

This article was written by Donal G. Quinlan, printed in the May 29, 1991 edition of the Harlem foster times. In it he describes the forgotten world that lies beneath the city of Chicago, populated by thousands of undisturbed corpses. “There they lie until the day a sewer crew digs up one and uproots its peace,” says Barry Fleig, a Chicago cemetery expert. The article describes several locations where bodies have been unearthed, including a skull beneath 111 East Pearson St. right outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, nine skeletons beneath a drinking fountain in Lincoln Park, and others, including the Dunning site which Fleig calls “one the largest number forgotten bodies discovered anywhere in America”. One anedote has it that, before a cottage ward was torn down, one patient kept complaining “there were ghosts coming up through the floor.” One day the patient was moved to another facility where she stated that she was fine after that, “” with no more ghosts coming up through the floor. 11 years later bodies were indeed rediscovered on the grounds. That old cottage ward building was directly over a cemetery.

Reference:
“City ‘bones up’ on lost graveyards”

This is basically a repeat of the “City Bones up on Lost Graveyards” article dated May 29, 1991. This article by Donal G. Quinlan also appeared in North Town News Star on June 5, 1991 with photo and also the Ravenswood Albany Park News Star on June 4, 1991.

Reference:
“‘City of dead’ is under streets - ‘Forgotten cemeteries crop up”

This article by Terri Kruszczak appeared in the Rogers Park-Edgewater- Uptown News Star June 5 1991. It is the same article as the “Dunning Skeleton Study Complete”

Reference:
“Loyola archaeologist studies skeletons from lost cemetery”

In “Tempo” the Cook County and Forest Preserve District employee newsletter for July 1991 contains a good general article regarding Cook County cemetery and its rediscovery. The article stated that “” this rediscovery is not the beginning of a chilling tale or the ending of a terrifying horror story, this is fact.

Reference:
“new discovery sheds light on the past”

This article contains the full text of the resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at their annual meeting at Baltimore, MD in June 1991

Reference:
“Preserving the dignity of the dead”

This is an extensive article in the Jefferson Park Portage Park Times by Terri Kruszczak, the first of two parts on the changing face at the Dunning property and its effect on the area. It covers in detail the Dunning Square shopping center, 896 new homes, the industrial park, Memorial Park, and the Wright college campus

Reference:
January 9, 1992: “New life for sprawling site”

This is the second article of two parts by Terri Kruszczak, one that goes into more detail about neighborhood impact, older buyers of the condos built on the property, traffic overflow, roadwork, or the lack of it, and truck traffic as a result of the industrial park.

Reference:
January 15, 1992: “news is good, bad for the area”

The Society Page from the Irving Park historical Society wrote of a coming event, on Tuesday, April 21 at 7 PM, “How Do We Lose a Cemetery?” Given by Barry Fleig at the Mount Olive church 3850 N. Tripp. Mr. Fleig gained citywide attention three years ago for his extensive research on the forgotten graveyard, discovered on the old Dunning property at Irving Park and Narragansett. His half hour slide presentation “will take us on a fascinating historic journey through many cemeteries in the Chicagoland area, and will include some interesting revelations on the Dunning issue. This is a program many have said they are “dying” to see, so don’t miss it.”

Reference:
“The society page from the Irving Park historical Society”

This article by Terri Kruszczak states that six city workers were sent to the hospital after inhaling a yet unidentified odor emanating from several 5 gallon pails containing a party like substance that city environmental officials speculate was buried on the Dunning property long ago. Six Chicago Water Department workers were treated and released the same day from Our Lady of Resurrection hospitals. Chicago fire Department and an engineer with the city’s Department of Environment responded to the incident. Five ambulances arrived to take the workers who were “feeling very sick” to the hospital.

Although local residents wondered whether the odors were emanating from forgotten graves, Fleig said that the pails could contain a now antiquated substance once used in the treatment of patients or perhaps in the embalming process. Or they could’ve contained one of the myriad and now obscure supplies the Dunning routinely ordered. “It was a little city back then,” he said.

The substance was putty like, resembling dried rubber cement. Engineers scanned the area with organic vapor testing equipment, but those tests turned up next to nothing. The odor was mostly gone by the time the hazardous material team arrived. One of the three articles contain a photograph showing Chicago firemen searching for clues where the 5 gallon buckets had been uncovered.

References:
“Workers unearth mysterious fumes”
“Mysterious fumes hit workers”
“Chemical leak overcomes workers”

Reference:
Dec 10 1992 Loyola Magazine “Dunning Cemetery occupants are outcasts no more”
“Mysterious fumes hit workers”
“Chemical leak overcomes workers”

Reference:
“Nearly Buried”

This article in the Chicagoland section of the Chicago Tribune on June 18, 1993 by Rob Karwath, states that the head of the state’s mental health agency is pushing a plan to sell nearly 2/3 of the land on the Dunning site to private developers. It would result in millions of dollars that could be generated by the sale of the prime 97.5 acre property on the East campus money that could be used to upgrade the main building and remaining 59.5 acres west of Oak Park Avenue.

Most of the East campus has been vacant and through the years, the state having sold off land parcels for commercial, light industrial and residential development. In the 1980s, the state sold 28 East campus acres to Norridge for several million dollars. Norridge quickly turned around and resold the land to private developers making a $200,000 Norridge profit. The Dunning Square shopping center was built on the land in 1988, followed by condominiums and single-family homes.

Reference:
“Chicago-Read may sell most of it's land”

This article with a photo of Rev. William Brauer and the Rev. Leonard R Carlson was written by Michael Hirsley, religion writer for the Chicago Tribune on June 10, 1994. The article speaks of Rev. Brauer who saw a continuation of disrespect at the Dunning site. On Memorial Day, Brauer went to the 5 acre site to meet Earl Lewis, a Roman Catholic layman who has organized interfaith memorial services for those who die indigent, homeless and unclaimed by relatives or friends. They came to Dunning on Memorial Day to remember those buried there, and pray that the long-delayed memorial would come soon.

Reference:
“Memorials elude those buried at Dunning”

POSITION OF CITY OF CHICAGO REGARDING GRAVES: The proposed ordinance submitted July 13 1994 states the position of the city regarding graves: “the city wishes that, in the event that additional graves are discovered on the property during development activities , those graves are appropriately addressed in an orderly process pursuant to the Human Skeletal Remains Act, 20ILCS 3440/1 (1992) ("Skeletal Remains Act") as amended.”

Note: This is in conflict with the protocol

This article by Terri Kruszczak on August 4, 1994 states that it is been more than five years since construction workers turned up human remains in a sewer trench. That’s also how long the surrounding community, including one very vocal clergyman, has been waiting for the city, the state, somebody to rebury them, hopefully with more dignity and respect than the first time around.

State officials who are charged with dedicating two Memorial Park Cemetery’s, are just now turning their attention to finalizing details for the reburial of remains and a dedication ceremony. David Keene’s archaeological work involved mostly exploratory trench digging and borings in the soil, coupled with earlier exhaustive historical research by Cemetery historian Barry Fleig. Several state officials were quoted in the article. Several photographs accompanied the article.

Reference:
“Will they rest in peace?, Unearthed remain moving slowly to reinterment”

Norridge Mayor Keeps watch over 120 acre chunk of Chicago

this article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times for September 14, 1994 in the Metro section and written by Fran Spielman. In it it the article. States that the zoning committee for the city of Chicago gave final approval for a 72 acre project. Mark Schulman president of Eli’s Chicago’s Finest said “this has been going on for a lifetime. We measure it I how old our children are”. He said that Tuesday’s vote means Eli’s can remain in the city and break ground next spring on a 50,000 ft.² cheesecake bakery and corporate headquarters. The $5 million project will be located at the entrance to the industrial park at Forest preserve Drive and Montrose Avenue.

Atty. Jack George, who is representing developer William Alter said the community’s laundry list of demands delayed approval of the project. Jack George is a partner in the law firm of Daley and George, which includes the mayor’s brother, Michael.

Reference:
“N.W. Side Complex Okd”

“Residents fought Industrial Park, Condos”

“Contractor charged with dumping trash”

This article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times written by Charles Nicodemus on November 25, 1994. The article states that 78 plain pine boxes were lowered into a large rectangular grave on Tuesday, and the site was consecrated as a cemetery. A 20 minute intern denominational service was attended by 20 clergymen state officials and local residents marking the end of the journey for the remains found in 1990 on lot 30. David Keene said most of the dead, one third of them children, appeared to be early Chicagoans who died between 1851 and 1869. He also said that part of the tract once contained the “Chicago and Cook County Cemetery” and was used to bury Civil War dead and unidentified victims from the Chicago fire. A memorial park for the site is planned for next year.

Note: the Memorial Park would not be finished for another seven years

Reference:
“120 Early Chicagoans Reburied”

article not available

Reinterment marks the end of a five-year struggle

the Norridge, Harwood Heights, Norwood Park Times for Wednesday, November 30, 1994 states that residents who want to participate in the planning from Memorial Park could join a special advisory committee soon to be formed by The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

Residents can help shape design of memorial park

This article appeared on November 30, 1994 and Chicago’s Northwest Side Press. The article gives an overview of Cook County Cemetery, and then on November 22, the cemetery land was consecrated in a service planned by officers of the Jefferson Park Portage Park Ministerial Association. A ceremony presided over by Father Daniel McCarthy of our Lady Of Victory Church, the entire remaining historic cemetery re-consecrated for its original purpose. Just before the service, workers for the state of Illinois placed 71 plywood coffins containing 120 sets of remains into a mass grave. Also officiating were Pastor William Brauer of the Portage Park Presbyterian Church, the Rev.Ivon Harris and Vicar Joan Fitzgerald of Trinity Lutheran Church, the Rev. Mark West of the Congregational Church of Jefferson Park, and Rabbi Robert Marx of Congregation Hakafa of Glencoe. Forgotten Dead remembered at ‘lost’ Dunning Cemetery

This article appeared in the Northwest leader on November 30, 1994 by Patrice D, Raia. This article again describes the reburial on November 22, as a quiet, dignified, afternoon ceremony. Reference: “‘Potters Field’ remains reburied near Chicago Read Mental Health Center”

December 1, 1994

This article written by Terri Kruszczak describes the reburial of about 120 remains from lot 30. David Keene and three employees of his company, archaeological research Inc. spent the morning of November 22 lifting 78 1’ x 2.5’ coffins from the back of a rented cargo van and placing them in a 30 foot long trench cut into the dense clay like soil. The coffins were laid side by side, and when space ran out, the remainder were placed on top forming two layers, said Keene who reburied the remains without charging the state a fee. He said “I’m really kind of relieved. It’s been one of those things that been looming on the horizon. Finally these people have been laid to rest.” “These are our Chicago ancestors of the last century. They represent all of us. They provided us with a lot of information; they added a great deal to our knowledge about the city of Chicago. Very few of us will ever be of so much use after we are dead,” he said.

The remains were intentionally reinterred without fanfare or publicity. Fleig said the reburial served as a closure to five years of politics, governmental foot dragging and thorny legal questions blocking the progress of planned developments on the land. Initially the cemetery was “an aggravation” to the city and county, Fleig said, “it was a cemetery, and they didn’t know how to deal with it. But it proved to be bigger than both of them.”

Reinterment marks the end of 5 Year Fight

In the Chicago Tribune Chicagoland section for December 2, 1994, Dan Wetzel described the re-consecration of the cemetery. Barry Fleig said “people from all faiths and all nationalities were buried there. It really is a great microcosm of the city of Chicago.”

Father McCarthy said the reconsecration was a demonstration that “there are more important things in life than housing developments and shopping centers. We have to treat one another, living or dead with dignity. When the land is landscaped in a memorial is up we will be treating the people with even more dignity. But with this last service, we are on the way. We know the bureaucracy does respond to the needs of the people. We know that day is coming”. Pastor William Brauer said that the service was a significant milestone reaffirming the divinity of those who were buried.

Reference:
“Forgotten county cemetery once again made hallowed ground”

On March 7, 1995, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a “personal view“ letter from William S Bike of the Irving Park neighborhood. He urged that the public contact their State Representative and ask him or her to vote against House Bill 484 which would cripple burial site preservation laws in the state. The bill would eliminate any limitation on the private property owner’s ability to do as they wish with human remains and associated grave artifacts. Burials on private land with therefore have no protection whatsoever neither would burials, grave markers and grave contents more than 100 years old and not in registered cemeteries. Collecting and selling of gravestones and human bones all would become legal.

The Illinois archaeological survey, the landmarks preservation Council of Illinois, and the Illinois Association for the advancement of archaeology all are against this bill.

Reference:
“leave the dead to rest in peace”

April 12, 1995

An article in the Norridge Harwood Heights Norwood Park Times by Gary Larsen and Terri Kruszczak wrote a lengthy profile about Barry Fleig, cemetery historian and genealogist. A photograph accompanied the article.

In a talk to members of the Austin Irving community Council he noted that “no where have we ever lost a cemetery quite this large”. He told the group “I’m here tonight to tell you that there are no bones at Cook County Cemetery, none at all. They are people. Real people, just like you and I. Dead perhaps, but very much people.”

Fleig offered those telling words as he detailed the history of Cook County Cemetery to the Austin Irving community Council at their April 5 meeting. Fleig’s comment was aimed at countering the semantics of developers and state officials who have sought to minimize the significance of the old county cemetery by referring to its deceased citizens as “bones or remains”, terms that he said better serve their goal of securing approval for proposed development projects. Developers have long sought to harvest a profit from the Dunning land that holds a cache of history about the county and the city, as well as the promise of financial gain.

“A society that cares for the dead is a society that cares about each other in life as well,” Fleig said. “I am going to introduce you to some of these people tonight, through my research and I think you will leave here with more than just a story about bones.” Fleig displayed maps on an overhead projector and displayed a note that described a male fetus who died near the turn-of-the-century, written by a coroner who voiced concern for the wishes of the child’s parents. “Please direct them what to do. They are destitute of means for the burial of their child,” the note read. “This was really what Cook County Cemetery was all about,” Fleig told residents. “It was a place you went if you had no family, no money, or both.”

Fleig believes that the state wishes it never bought the property for one dollar in 1912. “They’re stuck with it now, and there in the middle of all these problems.” The fact that time turned its back on the cemetery, is particularly vexing for descendents of those who were interred here.

Fleig is located several families of identified people buried there and is open quote on the verge of locating a lot more,”. He received a letter from a Waukegan resident that read “Look, I know my grandfather is there. How can they do this? How can they forget a cemetery?”

“There is no cemetery this large in the country that we have forgotten about,” Fleig said. “We lost it, plain and simple. You can’t just blame the state of the city. It was an evolution over time. We lost a cemetery over time because nobody cared about it. There was no money to keep it up.”

Reference:
Historian: “Remains” were real people.

Man Fined for Dumping in Old Cemetery

More human remains discovered more than six years after the original rediscovery in 1989.

September 11, 1995| By Larry Hartstein, Chicago Tribune Staff Writer wrote:

Residents living near a construction site on the Northwest Side made a gruesome discovery Sunday afternoon: human remains.

Skulls, bones and other remains were seen protruding from layers of dirt at three homes under construction at Belle Plaine and Neenah Avenues, according to residents and police.

The site is near a tract that once was a paupers cemetery known as Cook County's poor farm. An estimated 38,000 people were buried there from the 1850s until the 1930s.

On Sunday, Bob and Andrea Berkowitz notified police that they had seen bones as they walked near the building at 3 p.m. “We looked down and saw bones laying there,” said Bob Berkowitz, director of pharmacology at the nearby Chicago Read Mental Health Center. “I went down into the trenches and saw bones, skulls, femurs, tibias, a rib cage… There are no coffins. These are bodies just laid on top of one another.”

Police from the Jefferson Park District confirmed the discoveries. Patrol cars were assigned to prevent onlookers from disturbing the site. "They've had this situation in that vicinity in the past," said Sgt. Joseph Szelag. "Every time they dig in that general area, they dig up stuff from the Chicago Fire, from the Civil War, from the mental hospital. It's just a place where you wouldn't be surprised if you dig up some bones."

Szelag said the police report filed Sunday listed the location as “Norwood/Paluza residential construction site.” Attempts to reach Norwood Builders were unsuccessful.

A spokesman for the medical examiner's office said the remains are “nothing we're involved in.”

In 1989, a construction project at a corner of the cemetery tract was halted when workers laying sewer pipe began digging up skeletal remains, including a mummified corpse. After that discovery, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency hired an archeologist to survey the area and determine where the largest concentration of bodies were buried.

The agency developed a protocol stating that human remains found by construction crews would be exhumed and reburied in one of two memorial parks on the tract. Last November, religious leaders reconsecrated one such park, and state workers placed 71 plywood coffins, holding remains of people originally buried there, into mass graves.

Rev. William Brauer, who has fought for years for properly designated burial grounds in the area, said he wanted to know “how they got a license to build there without clearing the ground first.”

Bill Wheeler, associate director of the preservation agency, said the agency would investigate the matter.

He said that if the building site falls within a certain designated area, construction would have to stop and the developer would have to work with the agency to resolve the situation.

Reference:
“Remains found on Northwest side”

On September 20 and 21st 1995, Terri Kruszczak with the Lerner papers, wrote that plans to build three single-family homes on the 6500 block of West Belle Plaine remain on hold after the discovery of human remains in their foundations, and led the Chicago Department of buildings to issue a stop work order on the property. Moreover, the builder identified as Norwood-Paluza Construction by the Illinois historic preservation agency, did not obtain a building permit before excavating the foundations for the homes according to Florencio Vergeldedios, the city construction inspection supervisor.

Norwood representatives must appear before the Department Code Enforcement Bureau on October 23, according to a spokeswoman for the city law department. Construction cannot resume until the order is lifted and the builder could be subject to a fine depending on the outcome of field tests. The builder could be found in violation of the state’s Human Skeletal Remains Act which prohibits desecration or unauthorized removal of human remains that are 100 years old or more. David Keene is expected to issue a report by Friday, September 22. This is the latest discovery of human remains to follow the first rediscovery in 1989 and a second one in 1990 on lot 30.

The three single-family home lots were not included in the land transfer according to Ald. Thomas Allen of the 38th Ward. “ What puzzles me is when the state officials set aside this land for the memorial park why didn’t they set aside this land to?” According to David Blanchette, it wasn’t set aside because it had been sold to the developers in 1989 before the intergovernmental agreement was reached between the developer, the city, and the state. It is unclear whether the protocol agreement applies to those three house lots. The owners of the single-family home lots are private individuals who contracted with Norwood–Paluza to build the homes. Also uncertain is whether the three home sites fall within the boundaries of David Keene’s cemetery map.

Cemetery historian Barry Fleig toured the construction site on September 12, taking with him a map of the single-family home sites overlaid with Keene’s determination of the cemetery boundaries.

The Rev. William Brauer discovered the latest remains when he happened to visit the site on September 10. He said “it has always been known that that was a hot area. This is something that I find appalling, the fact that workmen could come in and do all this work. It raises a very serious question about the protocol. How reliable is it? And who is can enforce it?”.

Officials from Norwood builders partners on the Norwood–Paluzza project did not return phone calls. A very graphic photograph accompanied the article by Terri Kruszczak

Reference:
“Discovery of Remains Halts of Project”

On October 1, 1995 the Suburban Leader carried an article written by Patrice Raia which described archaeologists continuing to survey the three house lots on Neenah and Belle Plaine where human remains were discovered. And while that was occurring neighbors were alarmed to observe what they interpreted as the fly dumping of construction material on the site designated as a memorial park. According to Bob Berkowitz who lives near the site neighbors, he observed a dump truck arrive at Belle Plaine and Neenah Avenues about 8 AM on Tuesday, September 26 and unload dirt and construction refuse beneath the large shade tree which serves as the memorial park’s a landmark. 16th district police car was called the site and the officer told the driver not to dump the material which appeared to be concrete tar pitch and pipe and sheet metal. Apparently the admonition did not work, because the truck load was dumped on the cemetery property.

Two more articles regarding human remains on the three house lots appear in
“Remains found on NW Side”
“Ex cemetery now site of home construction”
“More Remains Found at Dunning”

this article published in the Lerner papers on September 13 and described that more than dirt was unearthed at the single family home lots where residents discovered femurs, skulls, and other human remains mixed in the rubble. Three very graphic photographs are part of this article.

Reference:
“A Tragic Find”

a detailed five page article in the Chicago Tribune December 3, 1995, Chicagoland edition by William Gaines, Tribune staff writer who followed the trail of how prime land considered for development was conveyed from the state of Illinois to investors and developers. The article details the intricacy of the land sale and stands as a textbook example of how those with political connections can circumvent laws enacted to preclude favoritism.

The land was acquired by investors that include Michael Marchese, president of the Harlem Irving shopping center in Norridge and a close personal friend of Mayor Daley. Another investor, according to records is Bruce Adreani, president of Norwood builders. Neither would identify the other investors.

The investors were represented by John George a former law partner of Mayor Daley. George’s current law partner is the mayor’s brother Michael.

If the condo development sells out, investors stand to take in about $66 million in gross sales. They paid only $1 million for the land less than half of the 2.4 million value placed on the 13 acre parcel in a 1985 state appraisal. “It is another example of laws being misused to benefit political insiders,” said the executive director of common cause of Illinois a government watchdog group. “Public land contracts and leases are slowly but surely being funneled to a small select group of political insiders.” The series of transactions that led to the apparent windfall for the developers involved no fewer than 20 state and city agencies, but the key factor was the way the state and the developers used an obscure Illinois law called the Large Business Development Act to turn over the parcels for private development.

John George claims that the condo development was undertaken at the insistence of the local community and supported by the late Ald. Thomas Cullerton. John George claims his only connection with the development was to advise investors and to secure proper zoning and other approvals for the condo site.

The city of Chicago got 73 acres of land free from the state on April 13 through the Large Business Development Act, the first and only time that law has been used to transfer state property. Under the law, land can be conveyed to the municipality for “industrial or commercial site development.” That same day, the city transferred 13 acres to the Alter Group which contracted with the city to develop an industrial park on other acreage on the site.

Alter agreed to tear down old buildings, do environmental cleanup, and build a $3.9 million hospital for the state on adjacent land. Simultaneously, records show, the Alter Group sold the same 13 acres to the Dunning Development Limited liability Corporation, the investors represented by attorney John George for $1 million. The Alter Group. Is selling other land in the parcel for $4.50 a square foot at that rate the George group would’ve had to pay about 2.55 million for the 13 acre parcel. The complicated transaction, aided by Democratic city and Republican state officials, allowed the investors to circumvent state laws requiring competitive bidding and ownership disclosure. And specifically the land transfers under the Large Business Development Act calls for commercial or industrial development.

State and city officials engage in finger-pointing when asked how her residential development resulted from a sale conducted through the act. State officials pass the buck to city officials saying that once the land was transferred to the city, the state no longer had control over to use.

John Coleman a spokesman for the Alter group maintained that the firm’s connection was fleeting. “” We got the land from the city and within the same breath transferred to the residential developers. We owned it for one second. Yet records show that all the principals agreed on a contract six months before the April 13 transaction that spelled out all the land conveyances, the prices, and the requirement that the 13 acres and be turned into a condo development.

What they did goes beyond coincidence. It illustrates that there are really not to political parties. They will cooperate when it comes to handing out perks. Investors who ended up with a piece the condo development had already obtained 27 acres of surplus land in 1988 including William Cellini one of the states most influential Republicans who use the land to develop a shopping center and fast food restaurant. That deal to was accomplished without disclosure competitive bidding.

The state sold the property directly to the village in Norridge at the appraised price of 5.1 million. Records show that on the same day Norridge turned it over to Marchese for 5.3 million. He had approached Norridge with the idea buying the land and selling it to his group asserting that it was in the villages best interest to purchase the property to protect its tax base everyone knew Norridge was only a pass through, said Bernard Hennessy, Norridge’s village attorney at the time

Reference: “Politician’s Pals win hot land deal Welcome Expose”

Stephanie Jordan staff writer for In the Loop Times wrote an article on May 7, 1997 in which she says an eight-year-old dream finally may come true. She quoted William Brauer who thinks it’s about time that the park be built, Even though he’s not willing to count his chickens before they’re hatched. “If indeed the work gets done this summer, it would be a reward of great satisfaction,” said the Rev. Brauer. “ It’s gone eight full years and would be unfortunate if we went through another winter. The time for stalling is over, out of compassion and decency the people buried there deserve some specific kind of respect that they have not got up to this point.”

William Wheeler, associate director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield said he is hopeful at this time around the work will get done sometime this summer he said that the state’s Central management services will partly fund the park. Along with state funds donations from businesses and some in-kind services will pay for the parks development. A temporary sign was erected on Monday, April 21 which designates that the park will be placed on the 4 acres, the boundaries established for the cemetery, the idea for the park came from Pastor William Brauer several years ago. “The park is intended to be a quiet place for reflection and meditation,” said Jack Barry a community advocate for state representative Michael McAuliffe’s office. McAuliffe picked up the battle in support of the park after his father Roger died last summer.

Reference: “Park Planned for former cemetery”

in an article written by Stephanie Jordan in the Lerner papers published on October 8 and 9 1997, the eight-year battle to build a memorial park will soon be over according to state representative Michael McAuliffe Republican (14th), who vowed to have the park “completed by next summer”. McAuliffe told a group of Northwest side residents at the Austin Irving Community Council meeting on October 1 that major construction on the park will begin in the spring of 1998. “I will want this to be done before summer, by July at the absolute latest, so this is a place where people can go next summer,” McAuliffe said he did not know how much money was being spent on the park but Springfield officials assured him that work will be done and the state has the money to do it. “My father, the late state representative Roger McAuliffe believed in this project and I wanted done this summer to matter what”.

There were over 15,000 bones sent to Loyola University for tests, and will be reburied.

Note: Michael McAuliffe’s prediction that the memorial park would be finished by summer of 1998 did not come to pass a landscape architect was still working on designs for the park in April 2001.

Reference: “paupers gravesite to finally get memorial”

Theresa “Terri” Kruszczak, 42, of the Northwest Side, a former managing editor with Lerner Times newspapers, died Wednesday (July 22) in her Northwest Side home.

As a young girl, Ms. Kruszczak delivered the Lerner Times newspapers to many of the homes in her family's Northwest Side neighborhood.

Reading newspapers was already part of Ms. Kruszczak's daily routine when she was a student at Mother Guerin High School in River Grove, said her older brother, Greg.

Earning her journalism degree from Columbia College in 1980, Ms. Kruszczak joined Modern Metals, a Chicago-based industry publication. She rose quickly to a management position, but she missed writing and left in 1985 to take a reporting position at the Lerner Times.

In 1989, she wrote an award-winning series on the debate over moving a cemetery to make way for residential and commercial developments in the Read-Dunning area. By the time she was in her 30s, she had become managing editor of the Times' six weekly editions, the largest group of the Lerner Community Newspapers.

“She was always very passionate about her work and the welfare of the residents in the community,” her brother said.

Ms. Kruszczak’s sense of humor also endeared her to readers. She once wrote a tongue-in-cheek article on her beauty makeover and ran her “after” picture on Page 1 so her sources would still recognize her.

“Terri epitomized what community journalism is really all about; for her it was a commitment and a labor of love,” said Lerner Executive Editor Leigh Hanlon.

Ms. Kruszczak's poetry continued to run in several Lerner publications after she left the company in 1996.

In addition to her brother, Ms. Kruszczak is survived by her mother, Irene.

Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday in Baran Funeral Home, 2646 N. Central Ave, Chicago. Services will begin at 9 a.m. Monday in the funeral home, followed by mass at 9:30 a.m. in St. Priscilla Church, 6949 W. Addison St., Chicago.

Reference: “Theresa Kruszczak obituary – Chicago Tribune July 26, 1998”

On April 22, 2001 Jennifer Larsen in the Lerner Papers wrote that the landscape architect drafted new, more detailed designs for the park and the Department of Central management services for the state of Illinois should begin work on the site in June 2001 approximately $100,000 has already been spent on the 66,000 square-foot site to spread 2 to 3 inches of topsoil to protect any remains lying close to the surface and to plant about 240 bushes around the north and east end of the site. Another $120,000 is available and should be enough to cover consulting fees and material costs to complete the project, The article goes on to describe the plan as it stood at that time. It is said that there was no money currently available for fencing.

Reference: “plans updated for Dunning Memorial Park”

Tuesday, December 18th 2001

Paupers of the past are given respect; additional remains reburied at 1800’s grave site, and a ceremony marking the opening of the memorial park , 12 years, 9 months, and 9 days after the first rediscovery on March 9, 1989

The remains of dozens of Cook County's long forgotten, some perhaps dead for nearly 150 years, were finally laid to rest with a proper memorial service Tuesday afternoon. Six years ago construction crews building three houses on the Northwest Side disturbed dozens of graves in an area where the county once sent its castoffs to spend their last days and be buried.

After anthropologists did some digging, they identified skeletons of 182 people--many of whom were likely one-time residents of Cook County's poor farm, insane asylum and tuberculosis infirmary.

“Though their names are forgotten, they are remembered by God,” Rabbi Robert Marx said during a ceremony to mark the opening of Dunning Memorial Park, built to honor the approximately 38,000 unidentified people who were buried from about 1850 into the early 1900s in a paupers cemetery near Neenah and Belle Plaine Avenues.

On Monday, anthropologists reburied the remains of the 182 disturbed graves in wood boxes over a 30-foot tract to prepare for the ceremony. In one case, they had only a single bone from an individual to bury, said Anne L. Grauer, an associate professor of anthropology at Loyola University Chicago who helped examine the bones. In another case, they were able to rebury nearly an entire skeleton, she said.

Grauer said examinations of the bones were telling. Researchers found one skull that appeared to have been cut in an autopsy. She said she was able to determine some of the individuals had suffered arthritis, chronic infection and trauma.

Rochelle Lurie, an anthropologist who worked on the excavation, said in some cases graves were shoddily constructed and piled upon each other.

“The bones of different individuals were mingled,” she said.

The new park is surrounded by well-maintained bungalows and freshly built condominiums, but it was once a remote prairie far enough from downtown that the county deemed it suitable for problem cases. “This was where the county was sending their leftovers,” said Rev. William Brauer, a retired Presbyterian minister who spearheaded the effort to create the park.

On the land, there was once the poor farm, the insane asylum, a TB hospital, and an infirmary. Many who died in those institutions were buried in the shadow of the county-run buildings where they spent their final years, Brauer said.

“There was also quite a bit of history in those graves,” said Brauer, who along with several others has spent time researching the history of the area.

More than 100 unidentified people who died in the Chicago Fire in 1871 were buried in the paupers cemetery. Dozens of American war veterans also were buried there.

Brauer said even a Confederate general, who hit hard was buried in the old paupers cemetery.

Designers of the new park created a winding path highlighted by seven concrete circles where people can stop and reflect or pray, Brauer said. He said the circles represent the different types of people who were buried in the county cemetery: residents of the poor farm, the insane, Chicago Fire victims, veterans, patients of the infirmary, children from a local orphanage and the unknowns.

“The park is a symbol of our history, and while it's not exotic history, we have to remember a lot about our city was happening here,” Brauer said.

Pauper’s gravesite to finally get memorial

Reference: Chicago Tribune December 19, 2001 Aamer Madhani Page 11 Section: Tribune West