Echoes from our Past in the cemetery
Most gravestones contain the year of a person’s birth and the year of their death, which are separated by a dash.
Each year, the Butler County Historical Society looks into the years that make up the dash on six gravestones in North Side Cemetery, and has actors tell those stories in the first person to share pieces of Butler history with the masses.
Jen Ford, executive director of the Butler County Historical Society, said administrators with the organization spent the past few months researching the lives of people buried in North Side Cemetery, so actors could bring their stories to life.
“In the fall we usually walk around and pick out interesting looking names and headstones, research all the folks and somehow find six of them where there is enough documented evidence for a six-minute script,” Ford said. “We recruit actors from Butler and Pittsburgh, and on the day of the event, they stand fully costumed at, or near, the grave site and talk about their life in first person.”
The 12th Echoes from Our Past: Stories from the Cemetery will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 17, at North Side Cemetery, and will feature six actors playing six people buried in the cemetery. Some of the people being portrayed this year include Genevieve Abrams, Harriet Cooper, David L. Cleeland Jr. and Lotta Core Nettles.
Ford said members of the historical society scour Butler County public records to find information about names they find in the cemetery, and use it to craft scripts that convey what life was like in Butler at the time the person was living.
Because the people being portrayed are average Butler County people of their times, Ford said, the stories told are often relatable, and even exciting, to the people who attend the event.
“These are folks just like the people who come to the event are; you can’t tell that there are incredibly interesting and occasionally scandalous stories,” Ford said. “I always learn more about Butler history.”
Ford said the cemetery walk used to have two sessions, but it is down to one this year. Everyone with tickets to the event should arrive before 11 a.m., and people are split into six groups who go from grave to grave around the cemetery to meet the people buried in the ground.
Tickets are available at Butlerhistory.com, or by calling 724-283-8116. The cost is $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. People can pay cash to attend the event day-of, if there is space left, according to Ford.
