Forest Home Cemetery Overview
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  • 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

Ashbel Steele
(
1794-1861)

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Steele was a pioneer who settled on the banks of the Des Plaines River in 1836 and is credited with being the first white permanent resident of River Forest. Steele and his wife, Harriet Dawley, brought their two sons and seven daughters to the "beautiful woodland skirting the shores of the river of the plains." Their home, built in a clearing of forest which is today just south of the Metra tracks and west of Thatcher Avenue, was lovingly furnished with mahogany pieces brought from the east, including the first piano in Chicago. The majority of their land is now owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

By 1842 Lake Street was one of the first planked roads in the area, connecting Chicago to Elgin. In 1846 Steele moved his family to a new home on the south side of Lake Street between the current Thatcher and Keystone Avenues. This building was known as Montezuma Hall and included a general store, tavern, post office, and stagecoach stop. Wayfarers could find refreshments for man and beast. Overnight guests paid 12 1/2 cents for a bed; breakfast was a quarter.

Steele served as sheriff of Cook County in 1840 and became the local postmaster in 1849. A skilled tradesman, he built the landmark Harlem School on the northeast corner of Lake Street at Park Avenue in 1859. Today, that brick building serves as the administrative offices for the River Forest elementary schools.

Trader, craftsman, builder, law-enforcement officer, and postmaster, Steele was a kind of Renaissance man. He was first buried on his own land but his body was moved to Forest Home Cemetery when his wife Harriet died.

The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest raised more than $4,000 to purchase a new obelisk for his grave, as the original had crumbled beyond repair. The new stone was dedicated in September 1995.

Information from Nature's Choicest Spot

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Additional Resources

Ashbel Steele is first
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