Elkhart Cemetery

This beautiful wooded 1874 cemetery is the last resting place of Captain Adam Borgardus, expert marksman and performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, John Dean Gillett, the cattle baron, and Governor Richard Oglesby. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of Emma Gillett Oglesby. The Old Gillett Farm is a historic seventh  generation farm on Elkhart Hill. It has 700 acres with gardens, the Elkhart Grove Forest Preserve, and open fields. Accommodations in the Brick House guest house and tours of the Big House and Chapel are available by appointment only.  In 1890, John Dean Gillett’s wife, Lermira, had a chapel built in the Elkhart Cemetery in honor of her husband. This chapel, known as Chapel of  St. John the Baptist, is the only privately owned chapel in the state of Illinois.