Chapter 3—Oakwood
The name of Oakwood indicates that the site occupied by the cemetery was formerly covered with a forest of oaks, the principal tree of these vast solitudes of Illinois, formerly called the Prairie State on account of the exuberance of its vegetation.
Of all the monuments it contained—many of them erected at great cost—none could be compared with that which William J. Hypperbone had built some years before for his own use.
As we know, these American cemeteries, like English Cemeteries, are regular parks. Nothing is wanting which can please the eye, neither lawns, nor shady walks, nor running streams. It seems as though there could be no sadness in them The birds warble more joyously there than elsewhere, perhaps, because their safety is complete in these fields consecra
