A 159-year-old Bensenville cemetery will not go quietly.
More than 300 people descended on the small St. Johannes Cemetery Sunday for a memorial service to honor and remember more than 1,200 people buried there, graves that are slated to be relocated to expand Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Bensenville and St. John's United Church of Christ held the service at St. Johannes, which is adjacent to O'Hare north of Irving Park Road. The cemetery is owned and maintained by the church.
St. John's, established in 1849, consecrated St. Johannes Cemetery that same year. The grounds contain the graves of Civil War veterans and many of the town's founding families and village officials.
Village spokeswoman Linda Dickson said about 350 people, many of whom have relatives buried in the cemetery, were at Sunday's service. While the village was expecting more people to attend, she was pleased with the turnout.
The event also was a rally cry against Chicago's plans to remove the cemetery, which the church and village have opposed. A federal lawsuit is pending regarding Chicago's right to remove graves buried on church-owned land, which opponents claim is a violation of religious freedoms.
Church spokesman Bob Sell, who has several ancestors buried in the cemetery, said the ceremony gave visitors the chance to remember individuals buried there, and to come together in a united fashion after seven years of fighting against plans to move the graves.
"It was a nice event that gave us a chance to come to gather and pray for those buried there," he said.
Rosemary Andolino, O'Hare Modernization Program executive director, said the city is moving forward with plans to contact the next of kin for people buried in St. Johannes.
But Sell said the city has not contacted him about the relocation of his ancestors and that he hasn't heard about any other church members being contacted either.
"(Chicago) has been saying this for seven years now, and the cemetery is still there," Sell said.
Until the graves are relocated, the church will continue to maintain the property as it has all along, Sell said.
O'Hare Modernization Program spokesman Roderick Drew has indicated that the process will be a slow one because some of the graves date back more than 150 years, and families of individuals buried there might be difficult to find.
In addition to the federal case pending in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, a state case is pending in DuPage County Circuit Court, Sell said.
Village President John Geils also used the event to uphold his pledge to continue to fight the expansion plans into the cemetery and the village, which already has lost more than 550 properties to the city.
Geils said the event was "an occasion for all of us to stand together as one community, and to be a unified voice against the authorities who have made it clear that they will raze any law and statute or any obstacle that gets in the way of what they desire."
In 2006, the O'Hare Modernization Program offered St. John's of Bensenville $630,000 for St. Johannes Cemetery, a move rejected by the church.
The church had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case regarding the religious rights aspect. The court decided last spring not to hear the case, which upholds a previous ruling in favor of the O'Hare Modernization Program.

Video by Bill Ackerman