Was Rosehill Cemetery Initially named Roe’s Hill?

The town of Chittenden was a subdivision of Lake View Township. In 1859 Chittenden was sold and incorporated as a cemetery named Rose Hill (aka Roe's Hill; Rose Hill). The rail line is the former North Western Railroad Company tracks that ran along the east side of the property in what is now known as Ravenswood Avenue. 

The proper name of Rosehill Cemetery, dedicated in 1859, is debatable. Though most official paperwork gives it as a single word, Rosehill, it’s not uncommon to see it written as Rose Hill. And several popular stories claim that the name was supposed to be Roe’s Hill, and only a clerical error resulted in the name we know today.

Rosehill Cemetery, Founded in 1859, Entrance, Chicago, Illinois.

The often-given story: "The land, seven miles north of downtown Chicago, was once a farm and tavern owned by a stubborn old pioneer named Hiram Roe. When someone wanted to buy the land from the old man for a cemetery in 1859, stubborn old Roe only agreed when the buyer promised to name the cemetery after him – but a clerical error resulted in it being spelled as 'Rosehill' instead."

But, while there’s reason to believe Roe was a real person, the story of him wanting to have the cemetery named after him is certainly fiction. 

Hiram Roe's farm sat atop the highest point in the area, from seventeen to twenty feet above the adjacent prairie on the south and east, and was commonly known as "Roe’s Hill." One of the reasons his land thrived was because, when it rained, it was one of the few farms in the area that didn’t turn into a swamp.

The land wasn’t bought from him and wasn’t intended to be a cemetery when it was first purchased.

Lawsuit records recorded in The Northeastern Reporter in 1895, when a suit for over-payment was going on, make the whole story clear of how the land changed hands: In 1857, Francis H. Benson bought the land where the cemetery now sits, then in the suburban town of Chittenden, for about $25,000 from the Illinois and Wisconsin Land Company. He intended to parcel it out into lots for houses, but the Panic of 1857 hit the economy hard, causing the land to lose about one-half of its value and decimating the market for suburban real estate. The only money Benson made from the land in the first year came from selling off a bit of gravel he found on it.

Trains arrived at Rosehill Cemetery at Chittenden Station, named for the “town” of Chittenden, where the land was sold to the Rose Hill Cemetery Company. 

The elevation and dryness of the soil made Benson think some of the lands would make a good cemetery. He partnered with James Blaney, the first president of Rosehill, to form the Rosehill Cemetery corporation. The company was incorporated in February of 1859, and the cemetery opened for business that summer. Benson and Blaney’s names are both carved onto the gate. When the cemetery published a promotional book in 1913, they said that the name came from wild white roses that grew on the hill.

St. Henry Catholic Church, 6335 North Hoyne Avenue,  Chicago, confirmation documents from 1891 show entry for families living in "East Ravenswood Park (Rose Hill)" from family Search; Film № 008571278 - page 126.

In this very early image, before 1897 or so, the original Northwestern tracks can be seen at ground level. You are looking north. The cemetery is off the left. The large train station is on the east side of the tracks, opposite the cemetery and where passengers would board trains back to Chicago.

But the story that the name of the cemetery may have grown from a hill named for Mr. Roe may not be entirely false; while the “stubborn farmer who owned the land” tales are of decidedly modern vintage, probably about 60 years ago, stories that the land was once called Roe’s Hill appear in several 19th-century sources.

1924 Northern Illinois Principal Cities and Railroads. Rand McNally and Company.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

The first mention found comes from just over 20 years after the cemetery was chartered, when the Chicago Tribune ran an article about onion farming on September 6, 1880. In the article, it said that in the early days of Chicago history, teamsters traveling in the woods seven miles north of town would often stop at the “Jug Tavern” owned by old Man Roe, who made a sort of whiskey that was popular enough for its fame to make them start referring to the area as Roe’s Hill.

Roe's cabin was near the later residence of J. A. Budlong, which was located at Foster and Western. The Budlong Pickle Farm was located on Western at Berwyn. 

A few years later, A.T. Andreas’ authoritative History of Cook County also mentioned this, stating that the area of Bowmanville was once known as Roe’s Hill for Hiram Roe. 

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The Tribune mentioned Roe again in 1900 when an article on the origins of the names of various suburbs said that Bowmanville was originally known as Roe’s Hill after Hiram Roe. 

However, census records say nothing about a Hiram Roe in the area. There was a farmer named Hiram Rowe up near McHenry County, but there was no evidence that he ever lived closer to the city. Furthermore, these mentions that the area was called “Roe’s Hill” in the old days (the 1830s-1850s) are all from a few decades later; no instance of anyone calling it Roe’s Hill in the actual “old days” has been found. Andreas and the Tribune may have just been repeating neighborhood gossip and urban legends.

Looking North on Ravenswood Avenue. Note the cemetery's name on the entrance structure; ROSE HILL.

Perhaps the tale that Rosehill was Roe’s Hill may have all been a misunderstanding; In 1856, Robert Ferguson wrote a book on Danish and Norse names in Scotland and said that a Rose Hill in the U.K. was, he believed Roe’s Hill, from the Old Norse word for “King properly.”  Perhaps someone heard that bit and thought it applied to the Rosehill in Chicago.

Still, the fact that sources knew the full name and even the tavern's location makes it look like there was a kernel of truth in the story someplace. So, Hiram Roe remains a bit of a mystery; A tour guide who works at Rosehill said he’d pored through all of the oldest books at the cemetery, looking for any mention of Hiram Roe without finding a word.

ADDITIONAL READING: Ancient Chicago Indian Mounds (Rosehill).

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.