Rosehill Cemetery Notable Burials

Rosehill Cemetery is the final resting place for many prominent figures who shaped the history of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and beyond.

It’s the largest private Civil War burial ground of Union Veterans, including 16 Generals, in the State of Illinois.

From military heroes to local and national government leaders, business pioneers and more, famous people buried at Rosehill Cemetery include:

  • George Buchanan Armstrong – Founder of the U.S. Railway Mail Service
  • George S. Bangs – Designer of first railway mail car. Monument is replica of railway mail car resting at base of tree, with ivy leaves curling around trunk, all hewn from limestone.
  • Philip D. Block, founder and president of Inland Steel
  • Levi Day Boone – Mayor 1835-36. Grand-nephew of Daniel Boone.
  • Avery Brundage – Industrialist/sportsman. President of the U.S. Olympic Association and International Olympic Committee.
  • Harvey Doolittle Colvin – Mayor from 1873- 75.
  • Dewitt Clinton Cregier — Mayor from 1889-91.
  • Colonel Henry Crown, entrepreneur, businessman, industrialist, founder of Material Service Corporation, civic leader, and philanthropist
  • Charles G. Dawes – Vice President to 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, 1925-29. Co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. Ambassador to Great Britain 1929-32.
  • Albert W. Dick – Inventor of the duplicating machine.
  • Sidney Epstein, founder of Epstein & Sons, a national structural engineering firm, philanthropist, non-profit board leader, and co-founder of Chicago Youth Centers
  • Joel M. Flaum, Judge for United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, recipient of the Order of Lincoln
  • Milton Florsheim, founder and chairman of Florsheim Shoes
  • Erwin O. Freund, founder of Visking and inventor of casings for processed meats
  • Augustus Garrett – Mayor of Chicago 1843-44 and 1845-46. Founder of Northwestern’s Garrett Biblical Institute.
  • Benjamin Benedict Greenfield, groundbreaking designer of women’s hats, businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist
  • John Charles Haines – Mayor from 1858-60.
  • Norman W. Harris – Banker. Mausoleum is a replica of the Pantheon.
  • John B. Kirk – Soap manufacturer (American Family Flakes and Kirk’s Castile).
  • Roswell B. Mason – Mayor from 1869-71. During his term the Great Fire ravaged the city.
  • Horatio N. May Chapel – Commissioned by his widow in memory of the coffee and tea merchant.
  • Beatrice Cummings Mayer, philanthropist and daughter of Levi Strauss
  • Levy Mayer, leading corporate attorney and early partner in firm that became Mayer, Brown
  • Isaac Lawrence Milliken – Mayor 1854-55.
  • Newton N. Minow, leading Chicago corporate attorney, partner in Mayer, Brown and Sidley law firms, and Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
  • Buckner Stith Morris – Mayor 1838-39. Chicago’s second Mayor.
  • Nelson Morris – Meat packer
  • Chilli Pepper, pioneering female impersonator, first Miss Continental, LGBTQ civil rights advocate
  • Albert Pick, founder of Albert Pick & Co., hotel owner and goods supplier, and philanthropist
  • General Thomas C.G. Ransom – Commander of the 11th Illinois Infantry.
  • John Blake Rise – Mayor in 1865. An actor who built Chicago’s first theatre.
  • John A. Roche – Mayor from 1887-89.
  • Julius Rosenwald – Merchant/philanthropist. Founded the Museum of Science and Industry.
  • Maurice L. Rothschild, founder of Rothschild’s Clothing Store and philanthropist
  • Arthur Rubloff, visionary real estate developer and owner and philanthropist
  • Morris B. Sachs – Merchant.
  • Ignaz Schwinn – Bicycle manufacturer.
  • Robert S. Scott – Merchant (Carson, Pirie, Scott).
  • Seymour F. Simon, Chicago Alderman, Cook County Commissioner, Illinois Appellate and Supreme Court Justice
  • Byron L. Smith – Founder of the Northern Trust Company.
  • P.A. Starck – Piano manufacturer.
  • Frederick A. Stock, second music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
  • George Bell Swift – Interim mayor for Carter Harrison, 1893. Mayor 1895-97.
  • J.C. Vaughn – Horticulturist/seed store founder.
  • Leonard V. Volk — Sculptor, best known for his bust of Lincoln in the Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield. Also designed the Douglas tomb.
  • Bernard Allen Weisberger, Ph.D., prolific author and teacher of American history, winner of the Charles Ramsdell Prize in United States Reconstruction Era history
  • “Long” John Wentworth – Mayor 1857-58 and 1860-61. Monument is tallest obelisk in Chicago, rising 72 feet.
  • Frances E. Willard – Founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
  • Henry Windsor – Magazine publisher, Popular Mechanics.

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