Haulin' spirit at Hearsemania: Check out these post-mortem rides
A cavalcade of ambulances and hearses converged on Moundsville, W.Va., in September.
The vehicles weren't racing to the scene of a catastrophe. They were gathering for the second annual Hearsemania event on Sept. 26 on the grounds of the closed West Virginia State Penitentiary.
Wayne and Eileen Schoenecker of Butler Township brought his vintage horse-drawn hearse to the gathering of vintage professional car collectors.
“There were hearses, ambulances, limousines and flower cars,” said Eileen Schoenecker.
A flower car is used to carry flowers for a burial service, and sometimes to carry a coffin under a bed of flowers.
Wayne Schoenecker, who owns a flower car himself, along with three horse-drawn hearses, said flower cars were used primarily for funerals in a city setting.
The event was organized by groups of hearse and ambulance enthusiasts: the Cemetery Knights, the Graveyard Mafia, Creatures and Creep Rods.
The Schoeneckers and their friends called themselves the Spirit Haulers.
They are also members of the Tri-State Chapter of the Professional Car Society and jumped at the chance to load up Wayne's 1880s-vintage horse-drawn hearse in a trailer and drive the two and a half hours to Moundsville to show it off.Wayne Schoenecker said many of the other owners drove their ambulances, hearses and flower cars to the grounds outside the former prison on the outskirts of town where Hearsemania took place.Last year's COVID-19 pandemic pretty much put the brakes to the local and national car shows the Schoeneckers were in the habit of attending.Eileen Schoenecker said the Tri-State Chapter's meetings were canceled as were national shows by the Professional Car Society.Local car events such as Butler's Cruise-A-Palooza were also scrapped in the face of the pandemic.“It was nice to get away for some Halloween fun,” said her husband of the out door event that also attracted vendors selling clothing, Halloween items, jewelry and toys.Schoenecker's hearse was in keeping with the spooky holiday theme.Schoenecker had stripped the hearse down to the wood but hasn't restored its paint yet, giving it a creepy look.“It has cobwebs in it. I don't have to clean the windows,” he said.It took the Schoeneckers an hour to set up the skeleton horses and drivers to complete the display.
Hearsemania was the kickoff for the Dungeon of Horrors haunted house staged in the former prison and the North Walk, a guided tour of areas of the prison with the most reported paranormal activity.Closed in 1955, the penitentiary has proved to be a tourist attraction for West Virginia's northern panhandle area.There are day tours, escape room games, opportunities for paranormal investigations on the site.Guided tours of the facility are conducted from April through November, and there are several options to explore and maybe encounter a ghost or two during evening and night excursions.“A lot of people, local people, were coming in for this,” he said. “With this COVID thing, they were stuck at home.”The same could be said for those bringing their vehicles.Eileen Schoenecker said people from nine states converged on Moundsville for Heasemania.“People were excited to bring and display their vehicles,” she said.Wayne Schoenecker said pandemic precautions were observed during the outdoor event.Schoenecker, who retired in 2010 as a Pittsburgh newspaper circulation supervisor, has had plenty of time to indulge in his hobby of collecting hearses.“When I was a kid, I just liked flower cars and hearses. Some people liked Roy Rogers. I liked hearses,” he said.“People look at death as something to be afraid of,” he said. “It's inevitable.”
He said people aren't unnerved by seeing an ambulance the way they are when they pass a hearse on the highway, but maybe they should be.“People die in ambulances, they don't die in hearses,” Schoenecker said.His interest in hearses led the Schoeneckers to join the Professional Car Society, whose website defines a professional vehicle as aa funeral, livery, or ambulance class vehicle having special coachwork executed on passenger-car styling.The society also includes horse-drawn vehicles and vehicles taken from station wagon and light-truck styling.The Tri-State Chapter of the PCS has 50 members and wasn't able to meet in 2020, Wayne Schoenecker said.While it wasn't an official meeting, the Schoeneckers were able to connect with fellow Tri-State Chapter members at the prison and again with socially distanced socializing in their hotel's parking lot.The Schoeneckers hope pandemic restrictions ease in 2021 and the chapter will be able to meet.But, for sure, they said, they will be attending Hearsemania again this year.“We are planning on going back. We have our rooms reserved,” said Wayne Schoenecker.
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