Cemetery Walk at St. Patrick
History comes to life in cemetery walks
By Denise M. Baran-Unland For The Herald-News Oct 15, 2010 10:30AM
Years out in the elements has weathered this
tombstone believed to belong to the Rev. John Ingoldsby. In August 1844, just four days after his consecration, Ingoldsby was pronounced pastor of Will County attending to the people of Lockport. He died in August 1859 and was buried in St. Patrick Cemetery. | Photo courtesy of
To get a peek at a bit of Joliet history, consider attending the 23rd annual Cemetery Walk on Saturday at the St. Patrick Cemetery on West Jefferson Street in Joliet.
Through storytelling, reenactments and the studying of gravestones, those attending will learn about the lives of cemetery founder and St. Patrick Parish’s first resident pastor, the Rev. John Plunkett, and others who lived in Joliet during the 1800s.
Andrea Magosky of Joliet is organizing the walk that she and her son Seth (deceased) began over two decades ago. The event, she said, attracts at least 30 people that want to learn more about the area’s oldest cemeteries.
“A lot of people had asked us to start giving tours because we had read a lot of old books and talked to people around town,” Magosky said. “We knew a lot of stories about the graves.”
Magosky said Plunkett came to Joliet in 1836, but his ministry spanned from Kankakee to Naperville. Portions of his and other residents’ lives will be dramatically recreated at the walk.
“There will be someone playing a woman who had two babies with heart problems that, if they were born today, would be put in a neonatal intensive care unit,” Magosky said. “Instead they went to Guardian Angel Home.”
Although Oakwood Cemetery has been a popular location for the annual walk, Magosky said she selected St. Patrick Cemetery this year because it is Joliet’s first Catholic cemetery. This location also gives her an opportunity to share certain customs.
These include the traditions of the various ethnic groups that are buried there, as well as religious customs associated with Catholicism.
For instance, years ago, if one was not a practicing Catholic, he or she could not be buried in a Catholic cemetery.
“One woman had a son who died and was buried there, but then the family became Episcopalian,” Magosky said. “When her daughter died, she could not be buried there. So the mother exhumed her son so her son and daughter could be buried together.”
People who enjoy genealogy often visit cemeteries because it offers helpful information, such as birthplaces, that can be used when searching other records. However, many of the early markers made from limestone are illegible or broken, so one can only guess about the people below them.
Still others like cemeteries for their interesting art forms.
“They show what we practice in life,” Magosky said. “Oakwood is a Victorian cemetery, so everything is laid out in family plots, curves and circles. At St. Patrick’s, most of the bodies face east, so when they rise up on Resurrection Day they will be facing the sun.”
