Contact Information:

Village of Ringwood

6000 Barnard Mill Rd

Ringwood, IL 60072

(815) 653-5511

Fax: 815-653-9571



No one is certain exactly when this cemetery was started but it clearly was always intended as a village facility. Settlement here dates back to 1837 when William H. Beach and Dr. Luke Hale arrived. By 1844 Beach had moved on to Woodstock. Hale stayed on to tend local ailments although his reputation apparently was appalling. The 1885 History ofMcHenry County, Illinois which was noted for its blunt comments about various residents said that he "was in no sense of the word a competent physician" and not "well versed in medical science, nor did he have a large practice." Ringwood was just one of many small communities that sprang up all over the county in the early 1840s. Many of these places came and went so fast that their names are no longer remembered. But Ringwood was lucky. In 1855 the railroad came to town and insured them a continuing place on the map. In 1853 the cemetery was deeded over to trustees of the local Congregational and Methodist Episcopal churches. However, this seems to have been a short-lived association and the grounds have since been open to all members of the public. Land was added at various times as the cemetery began to fill up. At this writing there were no burials in Section 4, the newest area to be platted. In the oldest section some stones have shifted their position over the years. Since these lots are small, close together, and poorly marked, it is possible for a particular grave to be in one lot while the stone is in another. For the purposes of this listing lot numbers are assigned according to the current position of the gravestone. Virtually no early records are available for this cemetery. The Congregational Church was organized in 1849 and in 1855 formed a Union Church with the Methodist Episcopals. This combination didn't prove satisfactory so the Congregationalists withdrew and built their own church. However, as the original members began to die off, the church was unable to recruit enough new people to survive and was abandoned in 1874. The building later burned down. The Methodist Church burned to the ground in 1954. Lost in the flames were whatever burial records those groups might have preserved. The irregular layout of lots makes this cemetery somewhat confusing. Therefore, it has been arbitrarily subdivided into s(south) and n(north) parts to make it easier for the visitor to follow along the rows.