The past came to life Saturday as North Side Cemetery was filled actors portraying figures from Butler County history.

It was part of the eighth annual “Echoes From Our Past” historic cemetery tour staged by the Butler County Historical Society.

Six actors taking on the roles of historical characters such as Captain Ira McJunkin and Dorothy Schwab Sherwin brought history to life for passersby who bought tickets for either the 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. or 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. sessions.

Other characters portraying Civil War or World War I soldiers also were present throughout the cemetery at 1002 N. Main St.

People walked from grave to grave to hear an actor in period costume discuss his life.

One of the actors, Tony Malviosin of Colver in Cambria County, took on the role of a new addition to this year's walk, Charles Albert Watters, an African-American member of the Pennsylvania National Guard, who served in the Spanish-American War.

Malviosin was recruited for the cemetery walk by Butler Historical Society Executive Director Jennifer Ford, who worked the lights on a play Malviosin directed in Altoona.

“She put out a call on social media,” he said. “The cause was unique and interesting.”

Malviosin said Watters was born in Baltimore and settled in Butler in 1877. He decided to make a name for himself by joining Company E of the 15th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

“But first he had to petition the commanding officer to join. The Guard was for white men only,” Malviosin said.

“The commanding officer agreed to put Watters' request to a vote of the members of the company. And the vote to admit him was unanimous.”

“He was enamored by the drilling and the marching and the chance to participate in presidential inaugurations,” he said of Watters.

But when war was declared against Spain on April 25, 1898, the Guard was called on to mobilize to support the Army.

Watters went with his company to Camp Hastings.

“It was cold and overcrowed. The men had only coffee, bread, onions and sugar for rations,” he said.

The poor conditions at the camp led to an outbreak of typhoid fever. In July, Watters was hospitalized.

“One treatment consisted of turpentine in milk,” said Malviosin.

Despite rallying several times, Watters eventually died of typhoid fever.

His comrades thought enough of him to pay for his funeral and headstone.

Sharon Chernick of Butler, who returned Saturday to portray nurse Dorothy Schwab Sherwin, said Sherwin's story had parallels to today's COVID-19 pandemic.

“She fought the 1918 (influenza) pandemic,” said Chernick.

Sherwin was born in 1888 in Butler, the youngest of seven children, and trained as a nurse.

In 1917 when the call went out for nurses during World War I, she joined the Army Nurse Corps.

In 1918 she was sent to Camp Union in New York state which served as staging area for soliders being sent to Europe when the flu epidemic broke out.

“The first cases were very mild but by mid-September 1918 cases had doubled and tripled,” said Chernick. “6,000 cases in seven weeks.”

Sherwin nursed the stricken soldiers, Chernick said, until she left the Army in 1919.

“As I understand it, she kept working as a nurse when she came back to Butler and was very active in the community,” said Chernick. “She joined the DAR and the American legion and was very active in the Presbyterian Church.”

Sherwin married her husband, Charles Sherwin, who worked as a Russian translator at Armco Steel, in 1943. They were married for 32 years.

There were two sets of parent and child actors taking part in the cemetery walk.

Keith Workman and his son, Vincent, from Trumbell County, Ohio, were playing a World War I private and a medic respectively.

Vincent Workman said his role as a “background” character still allowed him to do some acting.

“I'm a side character to keep things lively,” he said. “I do a couple of things. I assist the medic and I read the newspaper that says 'Armistice Is Signed.'”

Steven Boley and his daughter Rose of McCandless Township, Allegheny County, portrayed a Union corporal and a Civil War era teenager respectively.

Rose said she walked the cemetery playing a violin or drawing in a sketch pad.

She memorized the perios songs she plays, adding her experience with the Strolling Strings group makes walking and playing easy.

“I wear my dress and bonnet and do my own thing,” she said.

Sara Dickensheets, the historical society's collections manager, said there was a very good turnout for this year's cemetery walk.

She said the event wouldn't have been possible without the volunteers, society board pitching in to lead groups and write the biographies for the actors to recite.

Chernick agreed.

“These wonderful, beautiful people from the cemetery walk will give us these scripts and you have to channel the character,” she said.

“The audiences were very responsive. They were wonderful to talk to, and to give a presentation for people who are really interested in what you have to say.”

Dickensheets said the next historical society event will be June 19 when there will be an open house at Lowrie House, 123 W. Diamond St., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. In honor of the old downtown Hot Dog Shop, there will be hot dogs for sale and pictures of the old Main Street restaurant.