Mooney (previously Mooney’s) Cemetery, on Ridge near Deerfield Road, adjacent to St. Mary’s Cemetery, was acquired from the family in 1960.

History of Mooney Cemetery

The Mooney’s Cemetery story begins in about 1846, when early Catholic pioneer settlers, including Irish immigrant James Mooney, built a little log church along Military – now Greenbay – Road in Highland Park. By 1853, they had vacated that land to the new railroad right-of-way, and moved their St. Mary’s of the Woods church to a 4-acre donated property near what is now Lincoln Avenue at Greenbay Road. (For reference purposes, our township was established in 1850.) That property gradually added a cemetery in the churchyard. About 1872, the church moved again, eventually becoming Immaculate Conception Church at its present location at Deerfield and Greenbay Roads. The abandoned former log church and cemetery grounds fell into disrepair, and by 1899, the property reverted to its original owners, who sold it for development.

Thus, in 1899, bodies had to be removed and relocated. James Mooney had died in the 1850s. His son, John, took his family’s remains and allowed others to remove theirs to a section of his land on Ridge Road. One account describes a confusing disarray in the old churchyard: “tumble-down marble slabs; some with wooden crosses; many unmarked; many more untenanted; all neglected....” Not surprisingly, the removal process was “incomplete” – since graves were reportedly found during subsequent development excavations on Green Bay Road in 1909. Some accounts say that John Mooney [read 1891 bio] allowed those graves to also be moved to his property.

On record with the Lake County Recorder of Deeds is a 1904 Quit Claim document showing John Mooney’s transfer of cemetery property to the Catholic Bishop of Chicago. A 1907 plat on file was officially surveyed as Mooney’s Cemetery. A St. Mary’s Cemetery plat obtained from the Chicago Archdiocese office is dated 1908: John Mooney donated a portion of his property to St. Mary’s and the remainder was reserved as a private cemetery.

More evidence of the inexact record-keeping appears in a later account. An August 9, 1951 article about Mooney’s Cemetery by Evelyn Lauter published in the Highland Park News reports an array of “old tomb stones [which had] come along with the original bodies and all along the west side of the place today may be found the moldering markers.”

Even the spelling of names varies in the historical record. In her article, Lauter goes on to update the contemporaneous local Mooney family history by identifying John as the “father of the present Mooney family whose homestead was on the site of today’s Sunset Park Golf club. A son, Thomas, died last February [1951] at the age of 82 in his home on...N Ridge Road, near the cemetery. Mrs. Mooney, who today acts as sexton for the burial ground, is the former Cecelia [sic] Zahnle....”

Nine years later, in 1960, an elderly Cecilia Mooney deeded Mooney’s Cemetery to the care of Deerfield Township, now called Moraine.

Mooney’s deeds were recorded at the County seat in Waukegan for initial transactions in 1908 and thereafter, but if plots changed hands by being sold or given privately, that would not have made it into Township records. Our records do show that some lots sold in recent decades had to be reassigned when subsequent investigation revealed them to be already occupied.

The inherited record-keeping for Mooney includes Mrs. Mooney’s hand-written ledger from the 1800s, and more recent records are chiefly on typed, undated index cards, sometimes overwritten with new notations (also undated) or contradicted by another index card (also undated) – and is simply unreliable. While previous administrations undertook surveys and made attempts to confirm grave locations and ownership, the historical development of these sites is such that it may be impossible to ever have certainty.

Moraine Township welcomes assistance from the public who may have family deeds for Mooney. Looking for deeds now will not only help us update our records, but also help families in the future when burials are needed.

Mooney Built Partly on “Swamp” Land

Original township platting (1840) shows that the Mooney property located in Township Sections 27 and 28 included wide swaths labeled by surveyors as “swamp.” (Indeed, original homesteader Jim Mooney’s property was described as being slough, and he reportedly died of illness blamed on “swamp dampness” at age 34.) Portions of this property became St. Mary’s Cemetery and Mooney Park as well as Mooney Cemetery. Flooding occurs in the neighborhood periodically, since the land is a natural flood plain. Open space like this actually benefits the region, when left to hold the water. There are low spots in the cemetery indicating that over the decades, burial areas have aged and sunk. When there is an unusual weather condition in mid-winter, such as the 60 degree weather we experienced occasionally in January, there is no place for melting snow to go, because the ground remains frozen.

The Township has struggled with water issues at the cemetery for years. With surfaces less than 1% in pitch, it is very difficult to get land to drain efficiently, and ponding occurs in depressions. To address water issues at the cemetery when flat markers are completely under water and visitors are unable to visit their loved ones’ graves, in 2013 Moraine Township undertook a project to replace the driveway with permeable pavers and install rain gardens designed to naturally compensate for the seasonal water accumulation. Permeable pavers on the driveway allow water to be absorbed below the road bed and directed via pipes to two rain gardens. (click for photo of “our cemetery was flooding”)

Before initiating the project, the entire property was surveyed to determine where there were graves (since so many are no longer marked or never were). Tim Horsley, PhD, an archaeological geophysicist and Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan, conducted the survey starting Fall, 2010. Images and records have been uploaded to an online CIMS Cloud database of all burial information at Mooney.

In September of 2013, over 70 volunteers donned working clothes and got down ‘n' dirty helping Moraine Township install and mulch 750 plants in two rain gardens. The project successfully addressed the chronic water issues in a sustainable way. (click here for photos).

Individuals from groups as diverse as the Boy Scouts, Rotary Club, YouthBuild Lake County, Highland Park/Highwood League of Women Voters, and restoration volunteers from the Park District of Highland Park worked alongside of neighbors of the cemetery. In some cases, they were joined by volunteers whose ancestors are buried in the historic cemetery. They all worked diligently to bring the project to life under the supervision of volunteer Master Gardeners from the University of Illinois Extension and Botanic Gardens, Park District of Highland Park restoration staff, and Stormwater Management Watershed Planners.

The project was partially funded thanks to a generous grant from the Stormwater Management Commission Watershed Management Board, and was awarded the Stormwater Management Commission BMP Project of the Year Award in 2014 (photo link) stating that “the Township is commended for seeking sustainable solutions to historical drainage issues at the Mooney Cemetery.”

The project replaced 8,200 sq. ft. of aging asphalt driveway with permeable pavement, and added two small, naturalized parking areas and two rain gardens to infiltrate rainfall and alleviate ponding and drainage problems. The project facilitates a natural reduction in stormwater, and nonpoint source pollution to improve water quality on site but also benefiting the North Branch of the Chicago River watershed. The sustainable stormwater improvements, educational benefits, and community spirit are what make this project.

*An article by Sandi Wisenberg published in the Highland Park News on October 25, 1979 contains revealing observations from Bob Hinkey, identified as a local funeral director and then-sexton for St. Mary’s and Mooney’s. Wisenberg wrote: “No complete map exists locating each grave, so a special rod is used to determine if a vault is below the intended gravesite. In winter it takes all day to locate a grave. ‘It’s really a problem,’ Hinkey said [in 1979]. ‘People are buried in here and we don’t know who they are.’”

*Many thanks to Julia Johnas, formerly with Highland Park Public Library; Marc Brogan, Lake County Recorder of Deeds Chief Deputy; and Sheila Platt, a Moraine Township Deputy Assessor. Appreciation to the late Marvyn Wittelle whose 1958 Pioneer to Commuter: The Story of Highland Park, published by Rotary, set the stage, along with IC Church’s 1946 Centennial Program, and an undated (circa 1899) oral history account transcribed by Jesse Lowe Smith ["A Brief History of 'St. Mary's of the Woods'" source: Highland Park Public Library H363]. Another source is John Halsey’s History of Lake County (1912).