MORAINE TOWNSHIP CEMETERIES

Moraine Township manages two cemeteries Highland Park. We invite visitors to explore and enjoy both cemeteries:

• Daggitt (corner of Lake Cook Road and St. Johns Avenue)

• Mooney (Ridge Road north of Deerfield Road)

Mooney Cemetery has two beautiful rain gardens with native plants, part of a 2013 project to mitigate flooding, along with permeable pavers on the driveway. A 2010 initiative created a survey of burials to correct and update incomplete records. In 2016, the Cemetery Information Management System (CIMS) software was implemented to store cemetery maps and records in one place. Click here for history and additional information.

Daggitt, the “pioneer cemetery”, has gravestones dating from 1845 that tell the story of the first settlers in the Highland Park and Glencoe area. By the 1970s, Daggitt Cemetery was abandoned and in disrepair. Various groups sought to clean it up, including the City and Park District of Highland Park, and various historians. Moraine Township (previously known as Deerfield Township) worked with those entities plus the Glencoe and Highland Park Historical Societies to rededicate it in 1996. Following decades of neglect and vandalism, a three-year project to clean and stabilize markers, and add new information about burials, was completed in 2022. The next year saw a new landscaping project focusing on pollinator plants. The Historic Presentation Award from the City of Highland Park was granted in 2024. Click here for history and additional information.

Both cemeteries became public, Township-managed properties only as recently as well into the second half of the 20th century. They were each originally private family-owned cemeteries. By the 1980s, townships in Illinois were expected to take over abandoned cemeteries.

Follow the links to Mooney and Daggitt cemetery history and archives to dig deeper into the past. We would love to hear from anyone with stories to add to the lore. If you have personal information related to the cemeteries, please contact the Supervisor’s Office.