The Ridge Historical Society
Memorial Day 2025
By Carol Flynn
This is Memorial Day weekend.
The purpose of Memorial Day is to remember the people who died while in military service to the United States of America.
Throughout its history, the Ridge communities have sacrificed many loved ones to U.S. military service.
Among the earliest settlers on the Ridge were the Rexford, Wilcox, Morgan, and Barnard families. They all had sons who left the family farms to fight on the side of the Union in the U.S. Civil War. They were all friends, and they fought together in various units.
The Rexford family came to the Ridge first, in 1834. According to an 1889 history, the Rexford brothers, Roscoe and Everett, were “delighted” to join their friends at Camp Smith, Cairo, Illinois, in July of 1861. But soon, youthful visions of camaraderie and glory gave way to the grim reality of war.
Roscoe died at the age of 21 in 1862, after the Battle of Fort Donelson at the Tennessee–Kentucky border. He died from an unspecified illness – two/thirds of Civil War fatalities were due to illnesses such as malaria, typhoid, and pneumonia. He is buried in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery
The Wilcox family, which arrived on the Ridge in 1844, sent four of five Wilcox brothers off to fight in the war. The other son remained home to run the farm, a common practice of the day.
Two Wilcox brothers never came home. John was killed in 1863 and buried at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Wilbur was killed in Mississippi in 1863.
The Morgan and Barnard families fared better. Of the five sons who collectively fought in the war, all survived. The Morgans arrived in 1844, and the Barnards in 1846, when William Barnard was hired to be a tutor for the younger Morgan children.
Roscoe Rexford and Wilbur Wilcox were both members of the Company A, First Illinois Artillery Volunteers (“Battery A”), along with their brothers and the “Morgan boys.”
There is a monument to Battery A at Rosehill Cemetery on the north side. The names of those who died in service are inscribed in the base. R. E. Rexford and W. J. Wilcox are listed.
John Wilcox fought under his friend, Daniel Barnard, who formed his own company, Company K, 88th Infantry, Illinois volunteers.
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was founded in 1866 as a fraternal organization for veterans of the Union military. A local branch, Wilcox Post, No. 668, was founded in 1889, named in honor of the Wilcox brothers.
A stone and bronze marker listing the charter members, created in 1926, is installed at Ridge Park at 96th Street and Longwood Drive as part of a grouping of six memorial stones recognizing military service in various war periods. Daniel and Erastus Barnard, two of the Barnard brothers who were veterans and continued to live on the Ridge, are listed as charter members. The GAR dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member.
This post cannot begin to list all of the U.S. military people from the Ridge who lost their lives in service to the country – World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam – there are hundreds of names on the list.
However, attention can be drawn to memorials that honor more recently fallen individuals.
At Beverly Park, 2460 West 102nd Street, Cpl. Connor T. Lowry, USMC, is recognized. Born in 1988, this young man was raised in Beverly. He lost his life in 2012 in Afghanistan while conducting combat operations.
First Lt. Derwin Williams of the Illinois Army National Guard was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. There is a monument to him at 98th Place and Throop Street.
Here is a list of many of the monuments to service personnel in and near this community. How many times do we walk by these monuments and statues and give them little regard?
Ridge Park – Six memorial stones, including one of the oldest on the Ridge, installed in 1926.
Graver Park – World War I
Kennedy Park – Korean War
Beverly Park – Connor T. Lowry, Afghanistan
Dan Ryan Woods – Gold Star Mothers
Morgan Park High School flagpole and inside exhibit – graduates and staff
112th Street and Lothair Ave. – Memorial Triangle
98th Place and Throop Street – Derwin Williams, Afghanistan
111th Street and Kedzie Avenue – American Legion
Memorial Park in Blue Island – Gravestones, memorials, artillery
97th Street and Kedzie Avenue – American Legion Post artillery and eternal flame
Mount Greenwood Cemetery – Civil War veterans’ graves and cannon replica
Mount Hope Cemetery – Civil War veterans section
Beverly Cemetery – Veterans monument
Lincoln Cemetery – James Harvey, U.S. Colored Troops
Mount Olivet Cemetery – “Doughboy” grave statues
Morgan Park Academy – graduates and staff
Memorial Day is not really about having a three-day weekend to kick off summer with a neighborhood run, then “sticking around” for a parade, then going home for a barbecue.
It is about recognizing the people who died to give us – ALL of us – the freedom to enjoy those kinds of events.