Forest Hill Cemetery (Madison, Wisconsin)

After the first permanent European-American settlers arrived in Madison in the 1830s, the first non-native burials occurred on the current University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, near Bascom Hill. In the following years other areas within the area were established as informal burying grounds and the first official village cemetery was established in 1847 near what is now Orton Park.

In the mid-1850s, a committee was formed to search for another appropriate site in the area to form an official Madison cemetery. The committee members chose the current site, then on the far west side of the city and subsequently bought the original 80 acres (320,000 m²) of land for $10,000 from John and Mary Wright. The Wrights had obtained the land from land speculator James Duane Doty, who had obtained it from Alanson Sweet, a territorial council member from Milwaukee.

In 1863 the city sold a portion of land from the original purchase to the Roman Catholic Societies for $170. They in turn developed that property into a Catholic cemetery, now known as Resurrection Cemetery.

In the 1860s a receiving vault was built on site. During and following the Civil War, the Soldiers Lot[3] and Confederate Lot were created and in 1865 a well was dug near the plot of Governor Harvey and a windmill was erected over it. In 1878 a chapel was built following a contribution by the family of John Catlin.

In 1928 another 80 acres (320,000 m²) were purchased, 60 of which are part of the Glenway Golf Course directly behind the present cemetery.

Architectural historian Gary Tipler traverses a panther effigy mound in Forest Hill Cemetery, 2008

The cemetery protects seven precontact effigy mounds, dating from 700 to 1200 CE. The earthworks are shaped like a goose flying down a slope toward Lake Wingra, two panthers, and a linear shape. Three more linear mounds have been destroyed by cemetery development and the goose's head was destroyed by grading for the railroad.[4] The mound group is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[5]

A section of the cemetery is known as Confederate Rest. On it lie about 140 Confederate prisoners of war who died while in confinement in a Union camp in Madison, Camp Randall,[6] in 1862.[7] A stone marker or cenotaph lists the names of 132[8] of the prisoners who died in custody. In October 2018, the Madison City Council voted 16 to 2 to remove the marker with the list of buried prisoners, overturning the Landmarks Commission, which had denied a permit to remove the marker,[9] which was built in 1906.[10] The eradication of the cenotaph was seen by some in city government as a "reparation,"[11] and was supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission of the city government.[12]

The removal of the cenotaph was opposed by the Dane County Historical Society.[13] The editorial board of the Wisconsin State Journal, noting Confederate Rest is the northernmost Confederate graveyard in the nation, also opposed the removal.[14]

• Henry Cullen Adams (died 1906), member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• David Atwood (died 1889), member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Theodore W. Brazeau (died 1965), member of the Wisconsin State Senate and lawyer[15]
• Romanzo Bunn (died 1909), United States district judge for the Western District of Wisconsin
• John B. Cassoday (died 1907), 9th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, 27th Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly
• Orsamus Cole (died 1903), 6th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Roland B. Day (died 2008), 24th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Luther S. Dixon (died 1891), 4th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Lyman C. Draper (died 1891), 5th Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction, secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society
• Ben C. Eastman (died 1856), member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Cassius Fairchild (died 1868), Union Army officer, wounded at Shiloh, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
• Jairus C. Fairchild (died 1862), first State Treasurer of Wisconsin, first Mayor of Madison
• Lucius Fairchild (died 1896), 10th Governor of Wisconsin, U.S. Minister to Spain, Union Army officer, wounded at Gettysburg
• Frank L. Gilbert (died 1930), 19th Attorney General of Wisconsin
• Charles R. Gill (died 1883), 9th Attorney General of Wisconsin, Union Army officer
• Louis P. Harvey (died 1862), 7th Governor of Wisconsin, died in office
• Nils P. Haugen (1849–1931), U.S. Representative from Wisconsin[16]
• Nathan Heffernan (died 2007), 23rd Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Benjamin F. Hopkins (died 1870), member of the U.S. House of Representatives, died in office
• James C. Hopkins (died 1877), United States district judge for the Western District of Wisconsin
• John Wayles Jefferson (died 1892), Union Army officer, grandson of Sally Hemings and (likely) Thomas Jefferson
• Eston Hemings Jefferson (died 1856), Son of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson
• Burr W. Jones (died 1935), Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Belle Case La Follette (died 1931), activist for Women's suffrage, peace, and civil rights. Wife of Governor Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
• Philip La Follette (died 1965), 27th and 29th Governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of the Wisconsin Progressive Party
• Robert M. La Follette, Jr., (died 1953) United States Senator, co-founder of the Wisconsin Progressive Party
• Robert M. La Follette, Sr., (died 1925) 20th Governor of Wisconsin, United States Senator, founder of the Progressive Party, candidate for President of the United States in 1924
• Alexander S. McDill (1822–1875), physician and U.S. congressman[17]
• John M. Nelson (1870–1955), U.S. Representative from Wisconsin[18]
• Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan (died 2016), South African anti-apartheid activist and author
• Byron Paine (died 1871), Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, as a lawyer he successfully argued the 1866 case of Gillespie v. Palmer which established voting rights in Wisconsin for African Americans
• Silas U. Pinney (died 1899), mayor of Madison, 1874–76, justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1892–98[19]
• Frederic E. Risser (died 1971) Wisconsin state senator
• Alden Sprague Sanborn (died 1885), 7th mayor of Madison
• Arthur Loomis Sanborn (died 1920), United States District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin
• Harry Sauthoff (1849–1966), lawyer, Wisconsin state senator, and U.S. Representative from Wisconsin[20]
• Robert G. Siebecker (died 1922), 11th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, died in office
• George Baldwin Smith (died 1879), 4th Attorney General of Wisconsin, 3rd and 16th Mayor of Madison
• John Coit Spooner (1843–1919), Wisconsin state assemblyman and U.S. Senator from Wisconsin[21]
• William Robert Taylor (died 1909), 12th Governor of Wisconsin
• William Freeman Vilas (1840–1908), U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Postmaster General[22]
• Aad J. Vinje (died 1929), 12th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, died in office
• Ernest Warner (died 1930), Wisconsin legislator, namesake of Madison's Warner Park
• Thomas T. Whittlesey (1798–1868), U.S. Representative from Connecticut[23]
• Emmert L. Wingert (died 1971), Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice

• Forest Hill Cemetery Committee (2002). A Biographical Guide to Forest Hill Cemetery, Vol. II: The Ordinary and Famous Women and Men Who Shaped Madison and the World (1st ed.). Madison, Wis.: Historic Madison, Inc.

• Official website
• Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) No. WI-1-A, "Forest Hill Cemetery, Soldiers Lot, 1 Speedway Road, Madison, Dane County, WI", 7 photos, 1 photo caption page
• Forest Hill Cemetery: A Guide – An introduction to various aspects of the cemetery, including its history and ecology; the symbols used on gravestones and the geology of those stones; the religious traditions and rituals represented; the effigy mounds constructed on the site long before it became a modern cemetery; and the geography and business of death.
• Forest Hill Cemetery at Find a Grave

43.0633773°N 89.4320049°W / 43.0633773; -89.4320049