Talking graveyards

Some of the best history is happening in your local cemetery this fall

By Brian "Fox" Ellis

This fall, as autumn colors blaze in the ancient oaks and maples of Illinois historic cemeteries, costumed characters will walk among the tombstones, telling stirring tales of Illinois history.

October is when goblins go trick or treating. It is also the month when several Illinois historical societies host their annual cemetery tours. These family-oriented adventures offer dramatic, outdoor entertainment and engage audiences of all ages in the stories of our common heritage. What could be more fun?

Springdale Cemetery
A guided walking tour of Peoria's Historic Springdale Cemetery is an opportunity to stroll through time and meet characters both famous and infamous from the past. Abraham Lincoln, it is said, often came to this quiet spot as a circuit-riding lawyer, to collect his thoughts before a trial in Peoria. Among the 300-year-old oaks and a remnant prairie, modern visitors will find it easy to step back in time when a costumed character emerges from behind a tombstone.

Prairie Folklore Theatre aims to raise the bar for this type of tour by staging historically accurate musical theater that is informative and inspiring. Weaving history with poetry, music and drama, ten actors each recite an eight-minute monologue.

"We try to stretch beyond local history, with an emphasis on national and international stories," says Barry Cloyd, co-founder of Prairie Folklore Theatre. "Each character presents his or her life in the context of concentric circles: a personal narration upon the stage of local, regional, national and world events."

The cemetery -provides the perfect setting for these short dramatic vignettes.

"World history," Cloyd asserts, "makes more sense when you can connect it to a real person who once lived here."

It is surprising how often the lives of late local heroes are entangled in current world events. Some of the characters portrayed last year at Springdale Cemetery included: Octave Chanute, an engineer who designed and built bridges for the railroad. Chanute also invented a machine for injecting creosote into rail timbers and dedicated his last years to human flight. Chanute is credited with teaching the Wright Brothers how to fly and his story speaks to current issues of intellectual property and scientific inquiry. Henry Detweiller, a name well-known in Peoria, was a riverboat captain and a friend of Abraham Lincoln who ran top secret missions during the Civil War. Though he came to America when he was 12 years old and with nothing in his pockets but hope, he died a multi-millionaire. Lydia Moss Bradley, founder of Bradley University, was one of the first women in America to be on the board of a bank. A wise investor, she made a fortune in real estate but remained a homemaker who churned her own butter. A woman well ahead of her time, Bradley paved the way for young girls of today to follow their dreams. Isaiah Stillman, a general in the Black Hawk War, tells his side of the story, confronting the negative press accounts and challenging listeners to look for different points of view when researching history.

Prairie Folklore Theatre hires child actors to portray those children who went to an early grave. Last year Laurel Ellis portrayed Rebecca Bradley, Lydia's daughter, who died when she was eight years old. Laurel said, "I got to be somebody who was about my age. I liked seeing different

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people and how they reacted to my acting. My favorite part was when I got to interrupt Fran, who portrayed my momma." This created an opporturnity for dialogue, adding another layer of drama to the presentation.

At press time, Prairie Folklore Theatre was still researching possible characters for this fall's program.

These include: a local musician who penned Tin Pan Alley hits and played for a presidential inauguration; and a lieutenant from Napoleon's cavalry, who helped lead the charge of the light brigade. (After Napoleon met his Waterloo, this Frenchman immigrated to Peoria, where he became a French teacher.)

With this summer's 100th anniversary of the modern Olympics, the theatre staff is researching a medalist from the first modern Olympics in Athens 100 years ago.

Prairie Folklore Theatre encourages each actor do his or her own research. Emphasis is placed on first-person, primary source material. Old letters, journals, and diaries, though always sought are not always found. Newspaper accounts, obituaries, and the personal reminisces are also helpful. The trick is to turn these notes into dynamic stories.

For example, I portrayed Henry Detweiller, a riverboat captain and an entrepreneur in the ice business. His obituaries provided a good overview of the important events of his life, but lacked the stuff of which stories are made. I was fortunate enough to find the log he kept as a riverboat captain.

Detweiller kept a record of where he traveled, what he saw, and what he did every day he was on the river. But this style of writing did not translate easily into performance material. I used facts from the obituary and the details from the captain's log to create a compelling script. The story that became the centerpiece of the script was Captain

Peoria's Springdale Cemetery has more than 77,000 stories to tell.

Detweiller's education as a pilot and his adventures on the river.

Founded in 1854 and reborn in 2003, Peoria's Springdale Cemetery includes museum- quality stone carvings worthy of European royalty; well-manicured lawns with 200-300 year old trees; a gorgeous view of the Illinois River Valley; and a resident deer and wild turkey population. Not only are members of the Treibel family buried here, but Fritz Treibel, a local sculpture who studied in France and Italy, carved several of the more stunning monuments. After years of neglect, Springdale is under new and vigorous management. This is an active and working cemetery; though more than 77,000 people rest in peace, there are more than a 5,000 burial sites available for purchase.

Evergreen Cemetery
A step into Evergreen Cemetery is a step back in time, where ghosts from the past come forward to tell their stories. With an emphasis on accuracy and drama, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery focuses on one story, a single moment from the character's life to open a window into local history.

This will be the theatre group's tenth year, making this cemetery tour one of the oldest in Illinois. "Our walk is a museum program built in collaboration with Illinois Voices Theatre," says Laura Wheaton, a staff member for the McLean County Museum of History. "The museum provides raw data research and handles the logistics. We coordinate ticket sales, scheduling, and advertising."

Illinois Voices Theatre Artistic Director Judy Brown hires the writers helps to create the scripts, auditions, and hires and directs the eight actors who participate. Guests are escorted past beautiful tombstones while the guide shares a bit of local history and introduces the next character.

The Discovery Walk's cast of characters represent diverse voices of Illinois history. Last year's characters included: Sue Pike Sanders, a woman who dedicated her life to creating and supporting civic groups and the community service that was their goal; Judge David Davis, whose friendship with Lincoln and involvement in his presidential campaign led to Davis appointment to the U.S. Supreme

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Court; and Belle Blue-CIaxton, an African-American woman who struggled for civil rights in Bloomington and Chicago at the turn of the last century.

"These characters come back to life as people, not just a photograph, not just a list of dates or a list of facts," says Voices' Brown. "We attempt to get into their lives. We try to determine what kind of people they were." Period clothing and the right props also help define each character, who, in turn, illustrates important moments in history, and offers listeners the lessons learned from life and death. Isn't this the goal of all great history lessons?

The Research
Discover Walk researchers look for that one pivotal moment in a characters life, which the writers "flesh out" for the bigger story. "We are looking for a good controversy that will tell a good story," says Laura Wheaton of the McLean County Museum. The story of David Law is a good example, she asserts: "Law was a streetcar conductor during the late 1800s. He was involved in an accident because he was both conductor and ticket-taker. He was fired and treated as a scapegoat, but it led to a general strike among streetcar employees."

Judy Brown coordinates the work between researchers and writers and helps polish the monologues.

"We look for primary source material so actors can tell their story in the words of the person they are portraying," Brown says. "Through rehearsals the script is refined, and final scripts are then vetted by the museum staff."

Brown highlighted a script from the past, "Sarah Raymond," to illustrate this process. Raymond was the school superintendent who integrated Bloomington schools in the early 1870s. She would later write that, "The old prejudices of ante-bellum days soon disappeared and our young friends seem to be

An actor portrays the life of Isaiah Stillman, an unlikely hero of the Black Hawk war.

very happy in their new relations." According to Brown, the dual emphasis on pivotal moments and first-person sources offered the raw material for a powerful story about the first day of school integration. "We know the general attitude," Brown explained. "There is some concern that there will be an incident. What would Sarah Raymond have said to the parents and citizens? We build a monologue around this moment. By simply changing the past tense to the present tense, Sarah Raymond's words allowed her to speak about the change of attitudes to as a whole different generation.

It is this tightrope walk between dramatic tension and a factual account that makes the cemetery tour dynamic.

The setting
Evergreen Memorial Cemetery is a classically designed rectangle bisected with both oval and diagonal pathways. Originally two separate cemeteries one public and the other private they were united in 1963 when the City of Bloomington took over their care. As is the case with so many other older cemeteries, Evergreen has deteriorated. Increased vandalism and decreased maintenance created a weed-choked eyesore. Like Springdale Cemetery, hard work and dedication on the part of scores of volunteers rejuvenated the grounds.

These cemetery tours, by raising public awareness, actually have helped to decrease vandalism
and increase volunteerism. In 1995, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery received the Heritage Award for Preservation Achievement.

The experience
Courageous characters, dramatic tales, and elegant costumes all in an historic setting: these tours offer something for everyone. Grandparents and grandchildren alike will have something to talk about on the way home from the cemetery. Do you dare tread through a cemetery this fall?

THE SCHEDULE
Springdale Cemetery, Peoria, Illinois

October 13-14-15 & 20, 9:30- 12:30 AM and 4:30 - 7 p.m.
October 16-17, 1 - 5 p.m.
October 23-24, 1 - 5 p.m.

Call 309-689-8000 for reservations and to schedule group tours. Prairie Folklore Theatre also offers performances of "River Ghosts," a blend of music and 'true' ghost stories on October 15-16-17 at 8 p.m.

Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois

October 2-3, and 9-10, tours begin at 11 and 2 and last for two hours.
October 4, 5, 6, 7 is a special week of school tours. Call 309-827-0428 for reservations.

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Other fall cemetery walks

The seventeenth annual Historical Elgin Cemetery Walk is slated for Sunday, September 26, with tours starting at noon. The last tour begins at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for members of the Elgin Area Historical Society, $6 for non-members, and $3 for children under age 14. This year's Cemetery Walk commemorates the 150th anniversary of Elgin's incorporation. The tour focuses on the lives of six of the city's earliest public servants. For details call 847-742-4248.

Costumed interpreters with the Oak Park/River Forest Historical Society present the stories of two victims of the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire.

The Sangamon County Historical Society hosts its 8th annual "Echoes of Yesteryear" Cemetery Walk on Sunday, October 3, in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Hours are noon to 3:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated. Call 217-753-4900 ext. 234 for details.

The 2nd annual Clinton County Cemetery Walk will be held on Saturday, October 16 at Woodlawn Cemetery. The walk is sponsored by the DeWitt County Museum Association. A nominal admission fee will be asked. For details call 217-936-6066.

The Historical Society of Oak Park/River Forest will hold its award-winning annual Walking Tour of Forest Home Cemetery on Sunday, October 17. The 13th annual "Tale of the Tombstones" walk carries the theme "Demons and Disasters." The two-hour walking tour begins at 1 p.m., with the last tour leaving at 2 p.m. $15 admission for non-members, $10 for Oak Park/River Forest Historical Society members. Group rates available. Rain date is Sunday, October 24. For details call 708-848-6755.

The Oswegoland Heritage Association and Oswego Public Library host their annual cemetery walk on Thursday, October 21. This free event will be held in the Oswego Township Cemetery from 7 to 9 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own flashlights. Rain date: October 22. Call 630-554-3150 for more information.

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