This cemetery was formally established by Marchal E. Land, a Lake County and sometime McHenry County resident, although it had been in use from the earliest settlement days. It was a small place – only half an acre – but conveniently located near the growing village of McHenry. Both the Irish Catholic and the Protestant residents of McHenry were known to have used a burial ground in this area. It is assumed that the two burial sites shared a piece of land. Because the Catholics required a consecrated ground for burials, their section likely was separated in some way physically from the Protestants. Therefore, this site is being treated as a dual cemetery – Old McHenry and Old St. Patrick – much like the modern day Woodland/St. Mary cemetery complex.
Although only a few burials are listed here, obviously there were many more that cannot be documented. Early burial dates in both Woodland and St Patrick Cemetery very likely came from here. Although there is no written evidence of the Valentine and Teabout burials, they are almost certainly here. It is known that one of the early settlers was William Hankins who arrived with his wife, children, aunt, cousin and a man named Teabout whose relationship to the family is unknown. The group settled in McHenry and William and many of his family are buried in Woodland Cemetery. In the years when Teabout and Hankins' young cousin died, they would naturally have been placed in this cemetery.
The burial grounds here were short lived. By the late 1850's the Irish Catholics had built their own church and graveyard. The general population was expanding to a point where larger grounds were required and Woodland Cemetery came into existence as a replacement. Some of the bodies were moved but this is always a slow and usually incomplete process. It was 1895 before Calvin Brockett and Elijah Phillips were finally moved to Woodland. Many others were left behind. As the area was turned into a residential neighborhood, evidences of those forgotten burials have surfaced from time to time as excavation for building or remodeling has been required. But neither gravestone nor written record remains to tell us who still lies at rest in this place.