Dundee Township Historicial Society Pioneer Cemetery

Pioneer Cemetery

Dundee Township has a Pioneer Cemetery

The Schroeder Cemetery is an abandoned burying ground on Highway 72, west of Randall Road and on the west side of Dundee Middle School.

The one acre burying ground has 25-30 mature oak and hickory trees with an Osage Orange tree in the front right corner of the property. Last summer the people in the office complex across the street watched a pair of hawks who appeared to have a nest on one of the trees. Research tells us that the burying ground has never been tilled. From 1868-1890 Fred Schroeder owned the farm which surrounded the burying ground on three sides. We feel that the name for the cemetery evolved from the association.

On February 26, 1845, Isaac and Sarah George deeded one acre of their farm in Section 19, Dundee Township, to 21 people for the purpose of a “burying ground” and “none other”. In 1901 the sons of Stanley Sherman, one of the original purchasers, sold the cemetery to John Fierke in a Quit Claim Deed. We have found no evidence that the Sherman sons had authority to sell the whole cemetery since Stanley Sherman had only a partial ownership in the cemetery. All subsequent deeds evolved from the 1901 deed.

Research has determined that the twenty two lot owners settled in Kane County during the late 1830’s and early 1840’s from three place: nine families came from southern Franklin County, Vermont; eight families came from Berkshire County, Massachusetts; and four families came from Scotland. They fled barren, sometimes mountainous land, to reach the flat, rich farm land of Kane County, Illinois. The United States government provided the final incentive – inexpensive land patents.

The families were more than neighbors. Eleven first generations, inter family marriages occurred among the twenty two lot owner families. Eight of the men traveled to Chicago in March 10, 1843, to purchase their land patents from the Government Land Office for $1.25 per acre. Fourteen families owned land which surrounded the cemetery. Official documents show that these families cleared their land together, traded with each other, witnessed legal documents for each other, and buried their dead together.

These lots owners were the pioneers of western Dundee and eastern Rutland townships and in some instances, their fathers and grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War to create this country. They cleared this untilled land, married, and raised their families. They are the heart and soul of this community.

Schroeder Cemetery Lot Owners

Ananias Aldrich Samuel B. Knott

George Aldrich Lawson McCloud

Lorenzo Aldrich David Mason

Horace A. Barber Johnson M. Peyton

William S. Bradley David Rankin

Chauncey Cochran John Rankin

Isaac & Sarah George William Rankin

Albro Gilbert Rev. Marshall Sherman

Walter Houston Stanley Sherman

William Hudson Jennet Thompson

Whiting Hull Moses Wanzer

Linda Elder and Jane Smith from the Kane County Genealogical Society presented the above information at the Dundee Township Historical Society Annual Meeting 2009. Please contact Linda Elder at 847-695-5893 if you have information on these families or their descendants.

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