Quincy National Cemetery

36th & Maine St, Quincy, IL, 62301

GPS Coordinates: 39.932193, -91.355786
County: Adams
Record count: 595

Ownership: National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Directions: Located within the city limits of Quincy, take Maine St and head east. Cemetery entrance is located about 500 past the intersection with N 36th St on the left.

Background: Quincy National Cemetery began as a Civil War-era soldiers’ lot within Woodland Cemetery in Quincy, Illinois, with burials starting as early as 1861. The city officially donated the quarter-acre plot to the U.S. government in 1870, and by 1882, it was designated a national cemetery through Army General Orders No. 84. Decorative cannons and cannonballs were installed in 1873, and new marble headstones marked the graves of 221 Union soldiers in 1882. The cemetery's first superintendent, Martin Easley, was appointed in 1882 but quickly removed due to a scandal involving the Grand Army of the Republic. Care for the site was then contracted out, and by 1890, it had 243 interments within a modestly fenced area in Woodland Cemetery.

In 1899, the government relocated the cemetery to a newly purchased lot in Graceland Cemetery and reinterred nearly 300 soldiers, making it again a soldiers’ lot within a private cemetery. T. Chester Poling was appointed its first caretaker in 1924. The site was officially designated Quincy National Cemetery in 1936 and underwent improvements including monuments, a flagpole, and fencing. A 1949 survey revealed fencing errors that required a 1953 act of Congress to resolve. Over time, road and residential development altered the surrounding area, and Quincy National Cemetery eventually stood as a distinct, standalone site. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 7, 2011.

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Quincy National Cemetery, Quincy, IL