Cemetery walk will bring long-dead Butler characters to life
Sometimes a tombstone, no matter how large or ornate, isn’t enough to fully characterize the fascinating life of the person who rests below.
But a unique annual event coordinated by the Butler County Historical Society seeks to tell the scandalous, heartwarming, impressive and riveting stories of those who inhabited the city and surrounding neighborhoods in years long forgotten.
The 11th annual Echoes of our Past cemetery walk will be held at 11 a.m. on May 11 at North Cemetery. Preregistration and payment of $10 for historical society members and $15 for the general public is required.
Jennifer Ford, director at the historical society, said five individuals and a married couple will be highlighted this year.
Costumed actors in clothing fitting the era of the person who they are portraying will describe “their” lives at each person’s graveside.
“It’s a slam-bang lineup,” Ford said of this year’s stories. “People should bring their hankies.”
Ford said all graves are accessible along a paved path in the cemetery.
She said finding candidates whose stories will be told at the cemetery walk is the hardest part of the event.
Graves must be accessible, laid out distant from one another so actors aren’t shouting over one another, and contain the remains of an interesting Butler County resident.
“Finding people who fit all those criteria is difficult,” Ford said.
She and her staff peruse the graveyard in search of next year’s potential stories after the cemetery walk is over.
“We pick headstones and start researching, and 80% of the time, there’s just not enough (information) out there to do the story,” Ford said. “We have to write a 6-minute script based on their history.”
She said those who died young, lived to a ripe old age, have an interesting epitaph or served in the military are frequently interesting.
“I like everyday folk, so I will tend to choose people whose dates pop out at me,” Ford said. “People assume history is just dates and battles, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
While it might seem likely, Ford will never be heard complaining about scouring the peaceful cemetery for candidates for the cemetery walk.
“Sometimes we say to each other ‘We get paid to do this! How cool is that?’” she said.
This year’s Butlerites of yore are:
Carl Hallberg, a very interesting young man who served in World War II.
Nellie Pearl Balph, a professional musician whose life was cut short and whose death was interestingly reported by local newspapers.
Nancy Pakutz, who served as a nurse in the 95th Evacuation Unit in Vietnam.
Margaret and Millard Wright, who hailed from Massachusetts but came to Butler when Millard was hired as superintendent of waterworks. Both of their lives took many unusual twists and turns.
Samuel Hall Young, son of the very prominent and famous Loyal Young. Samuel spent 50 years as a missionary in Alaska.
“It’s a connection to the past,” Ford said of the event. “History isn’t worth much unless we can connect people to their past, which tells them who they are and where they came from.”
She said the event usually draws 60 to 70 people. This year, attendees will be split into groups and tour the graves at 11 a.m. only, instead of two tours as in years past.
“If it doesn’t work, we’ll go back to the old way,” Ford said.
Sharon Chernick, of Slippery Rock, will portray Margaret Wright during the cemetery walk.
“First of all, I love performing,” she said. “Secondly, I love to help out and especially support the historical society.”
She said the cemetery walk gig allows her to pursue her passion for acting because, as a blind woman, she can no longer perform on stage.
Chernick, who has served as a cemetery walk character about six times, said her favorite person to portray was Sophie Hollock.
“She was married to a Russian translator who worked at the mill back in the early 1900s,” she said. “I got to use a Russian accent, so that was fun.”
She encourages everyone to attend the cemetery walk.
“It exposes you to the history of where you are living, and I think a lot of people don’t really thing about that,” Chernick said. “Butler is unique because it was fashioned by some pretty dynamic characters over the years.”
She said the event is well worth the cost of admission.
“This is not some fluffy little event put together in two weeks over a couple of coffee sessions,” Chernick said. “The historical society works very, very hard on this.”
Ford is excited to see Chernick’s portrayal of Margaret Wright.
“Sharon gets to the heart of the human being,” she said. “She makes people come to life, so it’s easier to connect with them and see them as folks you wish you’d had a chance to hang out with.”
Ford said she has had people come to the cemetery walk who were from as far away as California because their ancestor is being portrayed.
“Other people say ‘My grandmother grew up next to that farm,’” she said.
She said the people of Butler respond especially well to stories about those who have gone before them, yet lived in Butler just like them.
“Butler people love this town and while they might not care about the statistics of what the factories pumped out, they care deeply about the people who lived here before them and also loved Butler,” Ford said.
Tickets for the Echoes of our Past cemetery walk are available at butlerhistory.com or by calling the historical society during regular business hours at 724-283-8116.
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