The City of Springfield has unveiled a rare and haunting piece of the city’s history… the interment book from Oak Ridge Cemetery listing those who were buried there, including President Abraham Lincoln.
The 1865 book had been sitting in a vault at Oak Ridge, but staffers recently took steps to have it preserved and transferred to the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Historians say it’s notable not just for the listing of Lincoln and his son Willie, who had died three years earlier but was interred next to his father. They say the listing of many people who died and the causes of death paint a vivid picture of life in Springfield in 1865.