When typhoid fever hit Butler in 1903, it was a total surprise.

“Nobody saw it coming,” said actor Stefan Lingenfelter, who was portraying Dr. Jacob Atwell.

The portrayal of Atwell was one of the presentations at the first Echoes From Our Past Historic Cemetery Walk this past weekend at North Side Cemetery. Actors played historical figures buried in the cemetery.

In November 1903, the first death from typhoid happened. The Butler board of health began investigating and found that a filtration system from one of the city's water sources had been turned off during the construction of a new dam.

The epidemic sickened 1,277 people and resulted in 111 deaths. The city nearly shut down and medical professionals were stretched to capacity.

“We needed help,” Atwell said.

People from Philadelphia set up a makeshift hospital. The water system was flushed, and cases declined. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, came to Butler and that brought “overwhelming” donations.

The cemetery walk was coordinated by the Butler County Historical Society, the Butler Little Theatre and the North Side Cemetery Association. Three performances were held during the weekend.

Mary McPherrin, played by Maggie Cahill, and Amelia McPherrin Lowrie, played by Bonnie Cahill, were a mother and daughter.

McPherrin married John McPherrin, who was a founder of the Presbyterian faith in Western Pennsylvania in 1778.

“It was a wonderful year,” she said, noting that the U.S. Constitution was signed and her husband was called to the Muddy Creek area to be a minister.

Lowrie, one of McPherrin's nine children, asked her father's permission to marry her future husband, Walter. Her father denied permission, so Amelia and Walter eloped. This led her father to censure the couple in the church.

She said this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Her husband wanted to be a minister, but the censure prevented that. So, he went into politics and became Butler County's only U.S. Senator.

“He had very strong views,” Lowrie said, particularly about slavery.

In his first speech on the Senate floor, he argued against the Missouri Compromise, which permitted the spread of slavery into the territories.

Alfred G. Reed, played by Terry Thompson Jr., was killed in the Civil War.

“When the call (to serve) went out, I didn't hesitate,” he said.

He served in several regiments, and helped start the PA 134th, which fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg. The union took the town and kept pushing the south back. However, when the army tried to push on the south at Marye's Heights, Reed lost his life.

Emily Brittain, played by Katie Wayne, began teaching at the Jefferson Street School in 1876, and she became principal there in 1888.

“It was exciting to teach,” she said.

Teaching offered a good salary and was one of the few jobs women could get at the time. She noted the strictness of a teacher's contract, which forbade female teachers from marrying, being in the company of men, drinking alcohol, smoking and wearing bright colors.

She never married and never had children. However, she said her children were her students.

C.A. Limberg, played by Ron Lockwood, and Susannah Limberg, played by Margie Bankert, were a husband and wife who were the first superintendent and matron of St. Paul's Reformed Church Orphans' Home.

They had to convince a committee to buy 30 acres from Christian Seibert to start the orphanage in 1867, which sheltered more than 900 children in its 40-year existence.

“I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish,” Lockwood as Limberg said.

George A. Spang, played by Dan McCarty, stopped attending the Jefferson Street School at age 15 and decided to go to work. In 1894, with little money, he decided to strike out on his own. “I decided … to open my own business,” he said.

In 1901, he started Spang and Co. It opened an office in Arkansas in 1904 and opened one in Oklahoma in 1906. The company bought all the inventory of T.W. Phillips Manufacturing Co. in 1913.

Joseph Colestock, played by Bob Meals, was born in Fayette County. In 1866, he went to Petrolia to learn about the oil business. Then, he went to McKean County to “wildcat” for oil, which he described as a “battle against nature.”

“I won,” he said.

He came to Butler in 1888, and became a partner with J.J. Sheridan and Sons, and became part of the group that established the Mars National Bank.