Oaklawn Cemetery

1.5 miles west on IL Route 17

The Oaklawn Cemetery Association was formed August 18, 1877. Renowned American landscape architect, Horace William Shaler Cleveland designed the cemetery in the prairie-friendly style for which he had become famous. He was most famous for designing the park system throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, laying out a plan for connected lakes, parks and parkways, which was integral to the development of the Twin Cities.

Curtis Judd, secretary and treasurer of the Leslie E. Keeley Company, donated iron gates, concrete pillars and tablets at the east entrance to the cemetery in memory of the veterans of the Civil War. On either side of the gate a concrete block fence was erected both east and west covering the full front of the cemetery. The original concrete fence and pillars have been demolished after years of aging. The original iron gate was moved to the west entrance and new pillars were built with private donations in the spring of 2013.

Dr. Lesle E. Keeley died from a heart attack February 21, 1900, in Los Angeles, California. His body was returned to Dwight and transported to Oaklawn Cemetery, along with mourners, by way of the railroad, leaving from the station at the north end of town. A path was cleared from the railroad car to the cemetery due to winter weather conditions. Dr Keeley was laid to rest in the Keeley Mausoleum. His wife, Mary Dow Keeley, died October 5, 1931, and is also buried in the mausoleum.

John R. Oughton died in 1925. His second wife, Belle, died April 29, 1943. They, along with J.R.’s sons, J.R. Jr, and Dr. James Oughton (Keeley Company president from 1925 to 1935) and his wife, Barbara; their children and spouses; James (Keeley Company president from 1935 to 1966) and wife Jane; Richard and his wife China; Dorothy and her husband, Ted Damgard; and their children are buried in the same section as the Keeley Mausoleum.

Frank L. Smith of the First National Bank of Dwight died of pneumonia at home on August 30, 1950. His wife, Ermine Ahern Smith, died February 18, 1936. They are buried in a section with only their plot to the west of the Keeley Mausoleum.

Anna Murray Oughton, first wife of John R. Oughton, is buried in St. Paul Cemetery, Odell. She was born in 1858 in Ireland, married J.R. in Livingston County, Illinois, December 23, 1880, and died June 19, 1886. Her grave can be found by entering the center gate of St. Paul Cemetery, driving midway to a tall gray stone with a cross on top, on your left. Murray will be on the base of the stone.

Father James Halpin, one of the first investors in the Leslie E. Keeley Company, is also buried in St. Paul Cemetery. He shares a stone with his niece, Anna Murray Oughton. He was the second priest of the St. Paul Catholic Church in Odell from 1883 until his death in 1893.

Major Curtis J. Judd died January 6, 1927, in Greenwich, Connecticut while living with his daughter, Florence Kenyon and is buried in the family plot in Lee, Massachusetts.