Jacksonville cemetery tour spotlights Underground Railroad history
A free walk at Diamond Grove Cemetery will bring visitors to the graves of Underground Railroad conductors tied to Jacksonville’s freedom network.
A free cemetery walk at Diamond Grove Cemetery will turn Jacksonville’s Underground Railroad past into a public history lesson Saturday evening, with historian Chad Boehlke guiding visitors to the graves of local conductors tied to the city’s freedom network.
“Walk With Heroes” is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, July 11, at 1601 Lincoln Road in Jacksonville. The event is free and open to the public, and organizers are asking participants to dress for the weather and bring water. If rain interferes, the tour will move to Saturday, July 18, with the Jacksonville Public Library listed as the backup location.
The walk is being held alongside Journey to Freedom: Illinois’ Underground Railroad, the exhibit now on display at the Jacksonville Area Museum, 301 E. State Street. That exhibit, presented by The Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area, also known as Looking for Lincoln, runs through Aug. 1, 2026 and frames the cemetery tour as part of a larger summer push to connect Jacksonville residents with the city’s role in antislavery history.
Boehlke’s work identified 17 members of the Underground Railroad buried in area cemeteries, and the tour will focus on specific graves rather than a broad overview. Among the names included in the walk are David Spencer, Elihu Wolcott, Ebenezer Carter, William Chauncey Carter, William Kirby, Marc McLean Reed, William Verry, Henry Irving, John Laurie, Thomas Melendy, Joseph O. King, Jonathan B. Turner, George Chambers, David Prince and Michael Huffaker.
The museum also notes that Benjamin Henderson and George Washington Price are buried in Jacksonville East Cemetery, though that site is not part of this tour. Together, the graves on the walk trace a network of men who helped freedom seekers move through mid-1800s Illinois and anchor that history in the cemeteries where their names still endure.
Enjoy Illinois describes Jacksonville as a mid-1800s hub of the Underground Railroad that sheltered hundreds of people escaping slavery. Saturday’s tour gives that history a local address, linking the city’s churches, schools and civic memory to the buried evidence of who built it.
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