Van Meter Cemetery in Bradley, Illinois

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Bradley, Illinois 60915 United States

Coordinates: 41.14004, -87.88088
Cemetery ID:

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Van Meter Cemetery is in Bradley to the west of Kennedy Drive. The cemetery is now a park. The actual cemetery lies beneith the tennis court according to Mr. Allman who assisted in the work of clearing off the trees and stones. There was an effort in 1958 to preserve the cemetery as it had become overgrown and was in a state of disrepair. They removed stones possibly under the direction of a Mr. Harold Simmons who was with the Kankakee historical Society. Mr Simmons took the stones to be refurbished / repaired and there are inscriptions of some of the stones and notes with them at the Historical Society. The stones are now missing and have been since he removed them. On the west end of the park near the playground equipment, there is said to be a couple of exposed headstones. Most likely these are remnants of what was pushed into a gulley as the area was being cleared. Some of the graves may have been relocated to other cemeteries.
This cemetery is also known as the Lancaster Cemetery. There are 2 Civil War Soldiers buried here.

Van Meter Cemetery remains a village park, but the tennis courts have been removed out of respect. The late Dave King and others worked hard to make this happen. A memorial stone and flagpole were added in 2019