03/20/2026
Infant Child of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery has been long gone and bodies were moved.
Tinley Park Historical Society long time past President Brad Bettenhausen documented it.
The Tinley Park Historical Society (via Brad Bettenhausen’s research) has identified exactly who that infant is—and their findings directly support the idea that the "ghost stories" are based on a misunderstanding of moved headstones.
Who is the "Infant Daughter"?
According to Bettenhausen, the small stone marked "Infant Daughter" actually belongs to Emma Fulton, who died in September 1867 at only 16 days old.
The Identity: She was the daughter of John and Jane Fulton, a very prominent early settler family in the area.
The Placement Error: It was stolen and later recovered, but when it was put back, it was placed in Lot 15, which belongs to the Rogers family (next to a woman named Luella Rogers).
The "Ghost" Connection: This misplacement created the legend of the "Madonna of the Grove"—people saw the stone next to Luella Rogers and assumed she was the mother searching for her baby.
Bettenhausen corrected this in multiple Daily Southtown and Patch articles, proving the child was a Fulton, not a Rogers.
* Were the Bodies Moved?
Bettenhausen’s Stance: He documented that the Fulton family, including the parents of the infant, eventually moved their primary family plots to Tinley Park Memorial Cemetery (and some to Oak Forest) as Bachelor’s Grove fell into disrepair.
* The "Nobody Moved" Claim: If the current Society leadership or others claim "nobody moved," they are often referring to the fact that there was never a mass government relocation of the entire cemetery. They want to maintain the site's status as a protected "active" cemetery.
The Reality: Bettenhausen’s research proves that individual families (like the Fultons, Crandalls and others) took their loved ones out privately in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
