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Cook County Cemetery at Dunning

Chicago, Italy

Cook County Cemetery at Dunning

Read Dunning Memorial Park is located in Dunning, Illinois. The three-acre site occupies a small portion of the former Cook County Cemetery, which served as the official burial ground for the poor and indigent of Cook County from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century. The cemetery was

part of the Cook County Poor Farm, Illinois, a complex that included the Cook County Poorhouse, Consumptive Hospital, and Insane Asylum. It served as the county's primary potter's field for more than 70 years. Established in 2001, Read Dunning Memorial Park commemorates an estimated 38,000 destitute, unclaimed, and institutionalized individuals believed to be buried on the former cemetery grounds. Those buried included residents of the Poorhouse and Insane Asylum, victims of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Civil War veterans, and others who died without means or family to claim their remains.

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