Forest Home Cemetery Overview
  • Home
  • Map
  • History of Forest Home Cemetery
    • Native Americans
    • Chapel
    • Bridge over the Des Plaines River
    • Eisenhower Expressway
  • Gravestones and Monuments
    • Gravestone Symbols
    • Unique Gravestone Monuments >
      • White Bronze
      • Rustic Gravestones
      • Photo-ceramic
      • Tiffany Designed Monuments
      • Druids
      • International Organization of Odd Fellows (IOOF)
    • Mausoleum
    • Ashes Scattered and Interred
    • Degradation and Theft
    • Original Deeds and Bookkeeping
  • Labor Activists
    • Haymarket Monument >
      • The Haymarket Affair
      • Haymarket Time Capsule
      • George Engel
      • Samuel Fielden
      • Louis Lingg
      • Adolph Fischer
      • Albert Parsons
      • Michael Schwab
      • August Spies
      • Oscar Neebe
    • Radical Row >
      • Eddie Balchowsky
      • Voltarine de Cleyre
      • Eugene Dennis
      • Raya Dunayevskaya
      • Joseph Dietzgen
      • William Z. Foster
      • Emma Goldmen
      • Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
      • Ben Reitman
      • Lucy Parsons
      • Franklin Rosemont
      • Ann Sosnovsky Winokur
    • Labor and Political Burials >
      • Joe Mariani
      • Cigar Makers' International
      • International Alliance of Bill Posters and Billers of America
  • People of Interest Buried in Cemetery
    • Ashbel Steele
    • Austin Family
    • Philander Barclay
    • Edwin Oscar Gale
    • Sophy and Charles Drechsler
    • Fedinand Haase
    • Doris Humphrey
    • Flora Gill
    • Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway
    • Dr. Frank and Phyllis Oreland
    • Augustin and Elizabeth Porter
    • Edward Hand and Lillie Morey Pitkin
    • Martha Louise Rayne
    • Origen White Herrick
    • Dr Thomas Roberts Hurlbut
    • Joseph and Betty Kettlestrings
    • Roos Family
    • James Fletcher Skinner
    • Billy Sunday
    • Adolph Westphal
  • Ethnic and Other Groupings
    • African American
    • Dutch
    • Hispanic
    • Roma (Gypsy)
    • Children
    • Military
  • Disaster Victims
    • Eastland ship disaster
    • Iroquois Theatre Fire
    • Smallpox Epidemic
    • St. Valentine's Day Massacre
  • Cemetery Tours
  • Addtional Resources
    • Forest Park Review articles
Welcome! Forest Home Cemetery Overview is a website dedicated to the history of Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. Many of us know this cemetery as the final resting place for the Haymarket Martyrs, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman and the scattered ashes of Joe Hill. For others it is a cemetery with a section of unique and colorful Roma (Gypsy) monuments. There are two monuments for the Potawatomi Indians who originally lived at the site, and gravestones for soldiers and town officials.

At Forest Home there are monuments designed by Tiffany & Co and other renowned sculptors. The largest monument is guarded by two large stone lions but has no human inhabitants. There is a tall and impressive Druid monument, which is surrounded by gravestones set in concentric circles. Many of the gravestones are sculpted to look like logs. 
A large number of the gravestones at Forest Home have symbols of the Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows, and other fraternal organizations' insignia.

Be sure to stop at the cemetery office to purchase a deed
or find out where someone is buried. There are maps available to help locate the sections of the cemetery and show the location of the chapel and the bridge over the Des Plaines River.





Special Thanks
Individuals from the Forest Park Historical Society, the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest and the Association for Gravestone Studies came together and gave input into what has become a dramatic new website.

A big thanks to Forest Home Cemetery employees for their help and cooperation.

Much of the source material came from:
-Nature's Choicest Spot: A Guide to Forest Home and German Waldheim Cemeteries
-The Day Will Come: Stories of the Haymarket Martyrs and the Dedicated Men and Women Buried Alongside the Monument
-Forest Park Review

These and other sources are cited when used.

Photographs and website design:
Alexis Ellers is responsible for the web design and for the the majority of photographs.
This project was organized by Mark Rogovin.


Additional material desired:
We welcome additional written content as well as images pertaining to the history of the cemetery.
Please email to:
ForestHomeCemeteryOverview@gmail.com


For burial inquiries and to locate relatives' graves:
Please contact the cemetery directly at 
www.foresthomecemetery.net
708-366-1900


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.