Naming of the Old Beebe's Grove (Kile) Cemetery: A Brief History:
Beebe's Grove - now greatly diminished - is a region of timber that once occupied about 4,000 acres in the northeast quadrant of what is now Crete Township, Will County, Illinois. It's name, and that given to its earliest Non-Indian settlement, are attributed to members of a Beebe family from New England who settled there in the mid-1830s. While the year of his arrival varies slightly, at least three early sources - History of Will County, 1878; Souvenier of Settlement and Progress of Will County, Illinois (1884); and Past and Present of Will County, Illinois (1907) - credit Minoris Beebe (1804-1843) with being Beebe's Grove's first "pioneer". He was accompanied by his immediate family. Relatives and other New England families quickly followed, and soon a newly-established east-west postal route running through Beebe's Grove (between Crown Point, Indiana, and Joliet, Illinois), enhanced the establishment of the little settlement. Quoting from the History of Will
County, Illinois, 1878, "Maj. John Kyle was one of the earliest residents of [Beebe's Grove], and was the first death [1794-1836]. He was from the Green Mountain State [Vermont]. His son Merrill was Colonel in the late war. He [Merrill] is now a resident of Blue Island, near Chicago. Several other members of the family live in the city, and are all wealthy." How John Kile (interchangeably spelled "Kyle") received the title of "Major" is unknown. The booklet, Crete's Early History, published by the Crete's Woman's Club in 1922, adds, "On the hill, on what is now the Henry Seehausen farm, these [Beebe's Grove] pioneers were early forced to prepare a resting place for their dead and this little cemetery [on land formerly owned by the Kile family] still remains a record of these early settlers, and is reverently cared for and protected by the owner of the farm." The cemetery, situated in the SW¼SE¼ Section 1, T. 34 N., R. 14 E. of Crete Township, in Will County, Illinois, is located on land originally sold by the United States Government to members of the Kile family. Inasmuch as John Kile's death (4 Apr 1836) was the first in the region, he was buried on the family's property - there being no cemetery to accommodate his remains. Only two years earlier, Public Land Surveyor John A. Clark noted the existence of an "Indian Trace" or trail passing very near the future grave site. John Kile's burial there was followed by those of his daughter, Sarah B. Kile (1820-1838) and his wife, Jerusha (Walker) Kile (1792-1875), these burials giving rise to the name "the Kile Cemetery". With subsequent interments of other members of the Beebe's Grove settlement on the same burial ground, the Kile Cemetery gained in recognition and it was cited as a "Grave Yard" on the Crete Township Tax Assessor's List for 1863; it had also come to be known as "the Beebe's Grove Cemetery". To complicate matters, in 1849 a Lutheran Church had been established about two miles to the southwest in what soon became a parochial school district called "Beebe's Grove"; thus, the church cemetery also came to be known as "the Beebe's Grove Cemetery," or "the Beebe's Grove Lutheran Cemetery". Thereafter, as a matter of identification, the Kile Cemetery was often referred to as "the "Old Beebe's Grove Cemetery".

With the death of their daughter, Eva, on 3 Apr 1873, Orrin Kyle (a son of John and Jerusha) and his wife, then living in Blue Island, had buried this daughter in the local Blue Island community cemetery; nine years later, on or about 26 Oct 1882, her remains were reinterred in the Mount Greenwood Cemetery in Chicago. In 1879, six years after Eva's death, the Mount Greenwood Cemetery was created by a Blue Island businessman, "who needed a place to relocate the remains of individuals who had previously been buried in that community's municipal cemetery, which the village board had deemed a public nuisance after its growth had become unmanageable." Apparently having acquired burial sites for themselves on the Mount Greenwood Cemetery, and having sufficient financial means, members of John Kile's family then living in Blue Island - including Merrill, Orrin and Asa - elected to exhume and transfer the remains of their parents and sister from the old Beebe's Grove Cemetery in Crete Township to the Mount Greenwood Cemetery, about 20 miles away. According to Mount Greenwood records, this was accomplished on or about 15 Sep 1883. Grave markers for at least 17 persons named Kile or Kyle - all having died prior to 1919 - exist on this cemetery. Nevertheless, the Kile name would continue to be associated with the Old Beebe's Grove Cemetery in Crete Township, Will County, Illinois.

This cemetery has been officially identified by the State of Illinois and is
protected from development by the Illinois Human Skeletal Remains Protection
Act (HSRPA) (20 ILCS 3440; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 127).