Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery
By Michael Kleen
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Bachelor’s Grove has been a southside enigma for over three decades. But like most such locations, it started out with a mundane existence. Over one hundred years ago, picnickers dressed in their Sunday best lounged under oak trees in the park-like atmosphere of the cemetery. Two of the grove’s neighbors heated their small homes with coal burning stoves and drew water out of their brick wells, while horse drawn buggies trotted down the dirt road. It was a much different scene from today.
Much of the origins of Bachelor’s Grove have been obscured by the passage of time. Even the name is a mystery. Some say it was named after a group of single men who settled in the area around the 1830s, but a family named Batchelder already owned the land. According to Ursula Bielski, author of Chicago Haunts, the cemetery itself was originally named Everdon’s. Its first burial was in 1844, and the cemetery eventually contained eighty-two plots.
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hey im a resident of brookfield and have been to bachelors grove many times but i can not dig any thing up on places like riverside, berwyn, cicero, lagrange, lagrang park, and importantly my town brookfield every time i type something about myths of illinois and i git crap like bachelors grove and resurection mary its total bull please if you know anything please e-mail me on some good news
This was the first cemetery i ever visited for the purpose of “ghost hunting.” I was surprised to find how peaceful it felt, not scary like i had read. It was also very sad to see all the vandalism. How people can disrespect someones grave is beyond me.
I had the pictures developed and didn’t see much. Years later i came across them in a dresser drawer and was shocked at what i saw. There were a couple of shots with a lot of mist and in one there was what looked like a figure in the mist. I also captured what looks like a vortex.
I’ve been there a few more times and captured an orb ot two but none as compelling as that fist time.