Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainHistoric Bloomington cemetery holding Vice President Stevenson, Justice Davis, and pitcher Radbourn — plus the girl who may have inspired Dorothy in Oz
302 East Miller Street, Bloomington, IL 61701
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free. Active cemetery; observe posted hours and respect active burials.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved cemetery lanes throughout; some sections with gentle slopes
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Burial site of Vice President Adlai Stevenson I · Burial site of Supreme Court Justice David Davis · Burial site of Baseball Hall of Famer Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn · Dorothy Gage burial — Wizard of Oz connection
Evergreen Memorial Cemetery was founded in Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, and grew into one of the most historically significant burial grounds in the state's interior. The cemetery's early decades coincided with Bloomington's emergence as a political and commercial center, and its rolls reflect that era's prominence.
Among the documented burials: Adlai Ewing Stevenson I (1835–1914), who served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland and ran as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1892 and 1900. David Davis (1815–1886), appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Abraham Lincoln and later elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois, is also interred here; Davis had been one of Lincoln's close political managers before his court appointment.
The grave of Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn (1854–1897) draws baseball historians to the cemetery. Radbourn was one of the dominant pitchers of the 1880s, winning a record 59 games in the 1884 season for the Providence Grays. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. His grave marker is a carved tree-stump stone, unusual and recognizable among the plots.
A quieter but widely cited burial is that of Dorothy Louise Gage, who died as an infant in 1898. L. Frank Baum was the uncle of Dorothy's mother, Matilda Gage; his 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features a protagonist named Dorothy, and biographical researchers including William Stillman have documented the likely connection between the infant's name and the literary character.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of Evergreen Memorial Cemetery centers on Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn, whose outsized personality and combative professional reputation have made him a recurring subject of cemetery lore. Radbourn was described by contemporaries as ornery and difficult — qualities that local ghost-walk tradition has transferred into a posthumous 'trolling' of visitors near his carved stump marker.
Paranormal investigators have documented activity at the cemetery, with LocalWiki Bloomington recording organized investigations on the grounds. The nature of reported phenomena falls along standard cemetery-investigation patterns: unexplained cold spots, equipment anomalies near notable graves, and reported feelings of being watched near the Victorian-era section.
The cemetery's dense historical weight — two federal-level officeholders, a Hall of Fame athlete, and an Oz connection — makes it a draw for both history tourism and paranormal enthusiasts. Roadside America has documented the Radbourn grave and the cemetery's haunted reputation since at least the early 2010s.
Notable Entities
The cemetery holds the graves of Vice President Adlai Stevenson I, Supreme Court Justice David Davis, and Hall of Fame pitcher Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn, whose marker is a carved tree stump. A separate section holds the grave of Dorothy Gage, the infant niece of L. Frank Baum, widely believed to have inspired the Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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