Ogle County Among First Recipients of Illinois Cemetery Relief Grants

OREGON  — Ogle County is among the first 10 recipients of grants through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Cemetery Relief Grant Program, which provides up to $20,000 to local governments, nonprofit organizations and cemetery authorities to restore and maintain abandoned or neglected cemeteries. The program launched last August, and the first grants were awarded this spring to help preserve historic burial grounds across Illinois. Ogle County Historical Society Treasurer Kris Gilbert said the funding will help protect local history, noting that many descendants of people buried in the county still live in the area or return to visit family graves. Another recipient is the Village of Bishop Hill, where grant funding is being used to repair broken headstones, improve an overgrown pathway, trim trees and bushes, and install a memorial honoring settlers buried in unmarked graves with a QR code linking visitors to historical information. State officials said the program is intended to help communities preserve cemeteries and honor those buried there for future generations.