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Chippiannock has long been considered a Quad Cities Landmark and is the resting place of over 25,000 persons, including some of the Quad Cities most memorable individuals. One can trace the history of the territory, and even the nation, in the inscriptions on the headstones of the adventurers and settlers, rivermen and preachers, statesmen and builders who have left their mark on the territory.
Anyone can be buried at Chippiannock. We serve all faiths, all walks of life. Chippiannock offers beauty, history, horticultural, and architecture and is operated as a not for profit with all the revenue used for maintenance and improvements. Our grounds are open from 8 a.m. until dusk every day. If you'd like to speak to us in person regarding ways we may assist you in your burial, cremation and memorial arrangements, please contact us at (309) 788-6622.
2901 - 12th Street, Rock Island, IL 61201-5335
Chippiannock Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on 12th Street and 31st Avenue in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The word “Chippiannock” is a Native American term which means “place of the dead”. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Rock Island was in need of a permanent cemetery in 1854. The town's population was 5,000 and the dead were being buried somewhat haphazardly in Bailey Davenport's pasture, which is now Longview Park. The first board of directors of the Chippiannock Cemetery Association included Holmes Hakes, S.S. Guyer, William L. Lee, Bailey Davenport, and Henry A. Porter. In 1855 Chippiannock's founders purchased 62 acres on Manitou Ridge and secured the services of noted landscape architect Almerin Hotchkiss to design a cemetery patterned in the rural cemetery style of Mt. Auburn in Massachusetts (America's first garden-style cemetery). Almerin Hotchkiss also designed Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
The property consists of a western slope and the crest of Manitou Ridge. The site features gently rolling wooded hills that climb to a broad plateau. It is located near the midpoint between the Mississippi and Rock Rivers. Hotchkiss designed a system of curvilinear driveways winding around the various burial sections.
The cemetery includes impressive monuments by Alexander Stirling Calder and Paul de Vigne. Many of the monuments reflect attitudes about death and mourning from the Victorian Era. Some of the more memorable grave markers include life-size stone statues, a ship's anchor, a six-ton granite ball, a baby's cradle, the sleeping dog statue guarding the Dimick children, and the mourning woman at the Cable monument.
The Sexton's House is a Gothic Revival farmhouse that predates the cemetery. It continues to serve as the home of the cemetery superintendent. There are more than 25,000 people buried at Chippiannock Cemetery. The preservation of the cemetery is the responsibility of the Chippiannock Cemetery Heritage Foundation as well as other interested citizens.
Chippiannock was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1994. It was the first cemetery in Illinois to be listed on the National Register.
It is an important location in Max Allan Collins's graphic novel Road to Perdition, which was the basis for the film of the same name, starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.
Chippiannock Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1994 for significance in Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Art. Designed by noted Landscape Engineer Almerin Hotchkiss in 1855, Chippiannock Cemetery is an exemplary rural cemetery, part of an early mid 19th century designed landscape movement which led to the creation of public parks in the United States. The Sexton's House is a significant and rare example of Gothic Revival architecture in Rock Island and several historic mausolea are significant examples of the Classical Revival style. Chippiannock is a fascinating outdoor museum of over eighty years of historic funerary art, containing numerous significant gravemarkers and monuments which represent the artistic preferences of the mid-late 19th century and the early 20th century ranging from unpolished simple inscribed tablet markers to Victorian obelisks.
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