One side is bordered by the remains of the Midlothian Turnpike, an early toll road that leads from Blue Island to points southwest.

[1][2][3] The land surrounding Bachelors Grove Cemetery was originally settled by English homesteaders who relocated to the area from New England, including Stephen Rexford, arguably the most well known of the first wave of Anglo settlers, around 1833.

According to legal records, Edward M. Everden sold the property to Frederick Schmidt in 1864, "reserving and setting aside one acre of the land for use as a graveyard".

Accounts published in the local newspaper Blue Island Sun-Standard list William B. Nobles as being buried in Bachelor's Grove in 1838.

[3] Bettenhausen wrote that claims of floating lights, phantom cars, ghostly apparitions and other stories about the cemetery have been "told and retold by several generations of youths, however, few of these tales have any apparent basis in fact".