Our Fraternal Dead and Rosehill Cemetery

by Martin P. Starr, PM

In 1860, at the dawn of the Civil War, the Worshipful Master and Brethren of Oriental Lodge No. 33, had the forethought to purchase graves for their fraternal dead in the newly formed Rosehill Cemetery, located in what was then called the village of Lakeview, Illinois. The cost was $50.00 and for this the Lodge purchased the rights of internment in the entirety of Lot 16 in Section O, one of the earliest sections to open in Rosehill; many other Masonic bodies, including the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Chicago, also purchased graves in the same area, near the Ravenswood Avenue entrance.

Lot 16:

In 1997 the original cemetery deed was discovered in the vault of the Lodge, and we re-established contact with Rosehill Cemetery, now located within the City of Chicago and a National Historic Landmark. We thank them for the maps reproduced here. We have twenty-one of our Brethren resting here, but only sixteen of the graves have markers at present.

Internment
No.    Name    Age    Date of Death
2302    Metholesheth Scott    84    4/30/1866
5718    John Thomas    45    9/5/1871
15721    N.L. Franche    42    3/17/1882
17101    Henry Burdick    43    1/22/1883
31633    M. H. Coulston    56    10/24/1891
43509    George M. Adams    55    2/18/1897
50876    Louis D. Schlesinger    46    9/11/1900
52095    Winfield Sattley    41    5/13/1901
53861    Louis E. Sostheim    42    5/31/1902
57834    Frank T. Wyatt    46    7/29/1904
70138    Michael John Weber    52    11/2/1912
77437    Isaak Doxey    58    2/15/1913
77950    Martin Hensel    44    5/25/1917
82634    Joseph E. Gass    57    1/28/192?
82919    Oscar Steadman    49    3/10/192?
86511    Charles E. Ward    55    5/9/1922
89619    John R. Warren    59    3/24/1924
96076    Albert Reeves    45    2/6/1928
98953    Simon S. Walters    67    9/15/ 1929
106938    Jacob G. Yount    51    11/22/1934
112353    William Weinand    79    2/14/1938
Other famous members of Oriental Lodge No. 33 resting elsewhere in Rosehill Cemetery include:

Buckner Stith Morris (1800-1879), second Mayor of Chicago

"Long" John Wentworth (1815-1888), 16th Mayor of Chicago

Col. Charles Robert Starkweather (1816-1867), who first obtained a charter for the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Chicago