Peoria County, IL
Genealogy Trails
Pictures were taken January 2003, by Candi Horton.
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Peoria County Farm
Cemetery Est. Jan. 1, 1899 |
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Peoria County Farm
Cemetery Est. Jan. 1, 1899 |
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The cemetery is located off Maxwell Road, Route 116, in front of the Peoria County Jail. The sign is the only way one would know that this burial ground excesses.
Burials in this once two and 0ne-half acre plot started in 1899 and stopped in 1956. This burial ground was part of the Poor Farm, 1848-1955. The patients and residents of the Poor Farm along with many people throughout Peoria County that were poor or families that could not afford a burial and those whose family could not be located are buried here. However, some residents or patients who died at the Poor farm may not be found in the inventory because their families could afforded a private burials. Some were re-interred else where. The only available burial records start in 1899.
Other names the cemetery has been called: Maxwell, Potter's Field and Stranger's Row.
At one time the cemetery was but now despoiled.
The only visual stones are located in a pile on the far end of the field.
Within the stone pile only one headstone remains
Perry Dewhirst, died Sept. 6, 1913
Other numbered stones, used to mark a burial, can be found when walking through the field.
A Legal Notice about disinterment's from the County Farm.
