"A cemetery is a history of people - a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth loving and remembering - always." Aurora's Cemeteries; 1837-1987, Aurora Sesquicentennial by Karen Towers

East Aurora Cemetery, also known as Root Street/Memorial Park Cemetery was a Presbyterian cemetery established in 1848 by Aurora's early pioneers. The land for the cemetery, about two acres in size, was sold to the city by Charles Bates, who came to Aurora, originally called McCarty Mills in 1834 and Anson Root, a doctor in Elgin, who donated three-fourths of an acre. Mr. Bates stated in the deed that if the land was used for anything other than a cemetery, it would go back to his heirs. Dr. Root had the same stipulation in his will.

"I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls the burial-ground God's-Acre. It consecrates each grave within its walls." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One of the first to be buried there, in 1849 was Frederick Vaughn, a Revolutionary War veteran. He had been moved from the city's first burial ground located at Benton and La Salle Street when it was destroyed due to a construction project. The promoter of the first Christian high school built in Aurora, Clark (Jennings) Seminary, Reverend John Edgecomb Clark, is interred here as is Aurora's first postmaster and sexton of the cemetery Burr Winton.

Some of the early settlers in Aurora were buried here including: Charles Bates (carpenter); Winslow Higgins (farmer); Hiram Hopkins (farmer); Robert Hopkins (farmer); Lindorf Huntoon (painter); Lyman Isbell (harness maker); Phoebe (Stolp) McCarty, first wife of Samuel McCarty, one of the founders of Aurora who with his brother Joseph built the first grist mill; Samuel's second wife Emily and four of their children: Helen, Marion, Eddie and Sarah Jane and Charles Wagner (farmer).

Sextons: Charles Bates, Burr Winton and F. L. Pond.

There was a mass grave for cholera victims as well as Irish railroad workers and a Potters Field in the southeast corner. In time all the lots were sold and filled and the space landlocked preventing expansion, so the cemetery was closed. In the 1890's many graves were removed to Spring Lake or West Aurora cemeteries because of the abandonment of "God's Acre after Burr Winton's death in 1885. What was once a field filled with majestic monuments, only a precious few remain.

In 1928 Lutz White, Aurora historian wrote "Root Street Cemetery, in which were buried the pioneers of Aurora and a number of Civil and Spanish American War Veterans, is in a run-down condition". As a result the city fenced in the cemetery with an 8 foot iron picket fence. From time to time memorials were erected in memory of those who had a part in the building of the community.

Nathaniel Deniston, Hiram Hopkins and Samuel Hoyles Sr. (captured at Fort Erie during the Battle of Bridgeport), all veterans of the War of 1812, were buried here and 27 veterans of the Civil War including some who died while in service including Colonel Silas Miller, who was mortally injured during a charge up Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia; Capt. A. P. Moffatt; E. M. Emerson; Corporal William P. Blakeslee and Privates Charles Tittsworth, Frederick Hoff; Albert Moseley and J. C. Coggswell. "This God's Acre attained its greatest beauty in the 1870's." Aurora historian Lutz White

Some of the graves of Native Americans historians believed buried in the first cemetery in Aurora, located at Benton and La Salle, were moved to Root Street Cemetery. Source: The Cemeteries of Aurora, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9NLdhepFRw, narrated by Robb Winder, Aurora Library genealogist and local history specialist.

As time passed, the cemetery and its monuments deteriorated. At one point the broken headstones were removed and used for landfill at the Phillips Park Golf Course. According to eyewitnesses, Art and Jan Stiegleiter, members of the G.A.R. Memorial Association, some of the broken headstones (some readable) were also deposited along the banks of Mastodon Lake. There have been many efforts by individuals and veteran groups to restore the cemetery, including the Spanish War Veterans and the G.A.R. In 2000, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War replaced many of the headstones of the war veterans buried there. Five more were replaced in 2021. For more information and a list of lot owners, see: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/kane/auroracem.html

A few of the epitaphs from these headstones have been memorialized and immortalized by historian Lutz White in his Aurora Beacon News column published 10 Jul 1932 (to read the article in its entirety see Garrison Huntoon's FindaGrave memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237287361/garrison-huntoon. One was for the son of Samuel McCarty, one of the founders of McCarty Mills/Aurora, "Our dear little Eddie (Edgar)– Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven"; "The fairest flowers are gathered early"; "Our darling Lillie, God kissed her sweet spirit away"; "We lay them in the silent tomb, sweet blossoms of a day, we just began to view their bloom when they were called away"; "Cony and Garrison" two little boys who were drowned in each other's embrace: "Sleep gentle boys, in union blest the wave that closed o'er and bore you to your heavenly rest, shall never reach you more" (sons of Dr. J. A. Brooks and L. Huntoon); "Thru the dim valley, hand in hand, three little wanderers, precious band, went singing o'er the shining sand, journeying on, to the pleasant land".

"God's-Acre! Yes, that blessed name imparts comfort to those, who in the grave have sown the seed that they have garnered in their hearts, their bread of life, alas! no more their own. Into its furrows shall we all be cast, in the sure faith that we shall rise again." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow