In the early 1850s, more than fifty immigrants from Ireland who had been driven from their homeland by famine and disease were buried here after arriving sick and penniless and taking hard, dangerous work building the Chicago & Alton Railroad. Resting in individual anonymity, known but to God and far from the old homes of their hearts, they died before reaching the new homes of their hopes. Their sacrifices helped open interior Illinois and made possible the development of the riches of the land shared today.