Dorothea Dix, in her memorial to the Senate and House of the Representatives of Illinois, urged serious consideration of the afflicted condition of a growing number of insane sufferers who were deprived of the healthy exercise of their intellectual faculties and were incapable of self-government and self-care. In response, the Assembly passed a law in 1847 establishing, within four miles of Jacksonville in Morgan County, an institution to be known as the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane. Joseph Morton, James Dunlap, John J. Hardin, John Henry, Samuel D. Lockwood, William G. Thomas, Bezaleel Gillett, Nathaniel English, and Owen M. Long served as the corporate body of trustees. Under Superintendent Dr. James M. Higgins, the building opened to accept its first patient, Sophronia McElhiney of McLean County, on 3 November 1851. The first deceased patient buried on this site, on 13 February 1852, was Martha Fisher of Morgan County. Immanuel North Cemetery contains 234 recorded burials from 78 counties between 1852 and 1879, as copied from an old cemetery book uncovered in 1979 at the old administration building, and those buried here represent a cross section of varied life-styles, friendships, occupations, religions, races, and creeds from families of many nationalities and origins.