ln 1836 Ziba Beardsley honored the clarity of the lake near his home by dubbing it Crystal Lake and the cemetery adopted the same name. Established in 1840, the Crystal Lake Cemetery was the first public burial ground in Algonquin Township, with Ella King of Crystal Lake being the first burial that year.

Since then, nearly 1,200 burials have taken place at this 2-acre cemetery, including 54 veterans and about 450 of children.

The Crystal Lake Cemetery is the final resting ground for many significant people who are part of Crystal Lake and Algonquin Township history.  These include:

• Beman and Polly Crandall – credited as being the first settlers of Crystal Lake
• Hannah Beardsley Wallace – credited as being the first school teacher in Crystal Lake. She and her first husband, Franklin Wallace (also buried here), were married in 1840. Beman Crandall was the Justice of the Peace performing the ceremony, and this was the first marriage performed in Algonquin Township.
• Ziba Beardsley (Hannah’s older brother) – is said to be the one who stood on the shores of our beautiful spring-fed lake and declared, “the waters are as clear as crystal.”
• John Brink – local government surveyor who ran many of the township dividing lines throughout northern Illinois. He is also credited with many of the earliest plat maps of McHenry County.
• William Day Gates – of Terra Cotta fame and his father, Simon S. Gates who at one time had owned much of Algonquin Township, are both buried here.
• Colonel Gustavus and Henrietta Palmer – Their house, home to the Crystal Lake Historical Society, is the only structure in Crystal Lake listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• 54 veterans are buried at the Crystal Lake Cemetery, broken down as follows: 1-Patriot’s War, 6-War of 1812, 45-Civil War, 2-WWI

Ownership of the cemetery was transferred to Algonquin Township in the late 1990s.  At the April, 2000 Algonquin Township Annual Town Meeting, the citizens of Algonquin Township voted to apply for landmark designation for the Cemetery.  On August 15, 2000, the Crystal Lake City Council voted unanimously to approve the application for Landmark Designation of the cemetery.

The Landmark Designation bestows legal protection to the property for the purpose of preserving its public character and history.  The City’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) provides the necessary oversight.

Any changes to a landmarked property require submittal and approval by the HPC of a Certificate of Appropriateness.  This oversight is necessary as well-intentioned cleanings or repairs to headstones can actually cause more harm than good.

Beginning in 2020 and under the guidance of the HPC, Eagle Scout candidate, Mitchell Hopkins, led a team of volunteers to clean several veteran’s headstones at the Crystal Lake Cemetery.  Since then, the HPC adopted a project to clean all of the veteran’s headstones.  Additionally, biographies for each of these veterans are being researched and written with the intent to compile a book/booklet with this information.

The township has a copy of a written inventory completed by volunteers of the McHenry County Genealogical Society. An online pictorial inventory of the cemetery can be found on the Crystal Lake Historical Society’s website cl-hs.org/cemetery/lakeavenue/.

T.R. Chunn & Joshua M. Stevens were partners and the original settlers and owners of this property. Chunn died the day after Christmas in 1843 and was buried here on his property, hence the name of the cemetery. His partner Joshua Stevens also died shortly thereafter. The cemetery came back into Chunn ownership in 1860 when C.C. Chunn bought it for $25.

Click here for more on Chunn's Burying Ground: https://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/county-government/departments-j-z/planning-development/commissions-committees-boards/local-historic-landmarks/chunns-burying-ground