Hollands Grove Cemetery

This article was written by Frank Borror of the East Peoria Historical Society in 2016. Used with permission.

Hollands Grove Cemetery is a small private cemetery located in section 19 of Washington Township, on the south side of Centennial Drive east of Quail Meadows Golf Course. It contains 223 known interments with the last burial being Lloyd Wenger who died on Oct. 25, 2011. Where the name Hollands Grove originated is somewhat of a mystery.

Some say it was so called because William Holland settled there, but the land he patented was in section 23, some three and half miles to the east. A more likely origin is that it received its name from a German Evangelical Church that was built in the mid-1840s at the southwest corner of Hollands Grove Road and Grange Road. This church came to be commonly known as the Hollands Grove Church. Hollands Grove Road was so named because it led to Hollands Grove, the original name of Washington, Illinois.

On Feb. 15, 1881, John Gable deeded the present cemetery property, then a family cemetery known as Gable Cemetery, to the German Evangelical Church to be used for cemetery purposes. John Gable was a son of George Gable who patented the northwest quarter of section 19 on Aug. 23, 1838. When the family cemetery originated is uncertain but the first known interment was John Beiber who died April 25, 1857. The German Evangelical church merged with the Zion Evangelical Church of Washington, Ill., in 1922 and deeded the ground to the Hollands Grove Cemetery Association on Jan. 19, 1924. In 1946, a merger took place between two denominations; namely, The Evangelical and the United Brethren in Christ. At that time, this congregation changed its name to Zion Evangelical United Brethren. In 1968 there was a merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. As a result of this merger, this congregation now goes by the official name of the Evangelical United Methodist Church. At the time of the formation of the Hollands Grove Cemetery Association the cemetery was surrounded by ground owned by G. Frank Schmaltz, a descendent of the Keil family, early settlers in this area. Mr. Schmaltz maintained the cemetery for many years. Carol Keil Blye, also a descendent of the Keil family, is presently the secretary of the Hollands Grove Cemetery Association. Carol's father, grandfather and great grandfather plus a number of other relatives are all interred there. The acreage of the cemetery was doubled when Irene Schmoeger donated an additional plot of land on Oct. 6 1954. She and her husband, Harry, owned Ankabar Acres a premier horse breeding farm that surrounded the cemetery. She, her husband and three daughters are all buried in the portion of the cemetery she donated.

An interesting story involves Harry Schmoeger. It seems Harry's left leg was amputated above the knee in the mid-1950s because of an aneurism. It was buried in the cemetery prior to his death and then later reinterred with him when he died in 1967. Another interesting story involves a small grave covered by a giant peony plant. The headstone reads: Here lies Rachel Julia Johnson born Sept. 16, 1866, died Feb. 19, 1868, daughter of D.G. and C.A. Johnson. Her people, cousins of the Keil family, had their covered wagon loaded to move to Nebraska. The night before they were planning to go, the little one died. She was buried and, at that time or soon thereafter, someone planted a peony on her grave. It grew and flourished and every spring since then comes forth with a wealth of bright red blooms. I visited Hollands Grove Cemetery last summer and to my disappointment no peony was growing on her grave. With permission from the cemetery association I will see she again has her red flowers in the spring. There is small white stone marker located at the end of Beaver Creek Drive about a half mile west of the cemetery that reads: John Dingledein, born Feb. 13, 1803, died Aug. 30, 1875. There is speculation that there was a small family burial ground at that location. It is more plausible that this is an old stone moved here from Hollands Grove Cemetery that was replaced by a larger stone for John and his wife. Another small cemetery, now defunct, lay to the north and east of Hollands Grove Cemetery and was the final resting place for several of the Keil family. It was referred to as Keil Cemetery and Carol Blye has a remnant of a stone marker that lay there. There is no evidence that any of the burials there were moved to Hollands Grove. About 400 yards north of Keil Cemetery George Minch deeded one half acre of ground at the southeast corner of the west one half of the northeast one quarter of section eighteen to the trustees of the Gospel Lutheran Society on July 18, 1843. John Minch deeded an abutting one half acre of ground at the southwest corner of the east one half of the northeast on quarter of section eighteen to the Evangelical Association for a burying ground on Feb. 7, 1845. There is no evidence of any burials taking place on these properties.

John Minch at the same time deeded a half acre on ground to the Evangelical Association for a house of worship at what is now the intersection of Grange Road and Hollands Grove Road and this became the site of the Hollands Grove German Evangelical Church, which was defunct and the buildings had been removed from the site by the end of the 1920s.