Posted on
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Spirits Come Alive At Oakwood Cemetery
By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer
Hundreds of visitors meandered through the burial plots of Oakwood Cemetery on Saturday for a once-a-year chance to hear from dead spirits who stood by their markers to tell their stories.
Staff Writer
Hundreds of visitors meandered through the burial plots of Oakwood Cemetery on Saturday for a once-a-year chance to hear from dead spirits who stood by their markers to tell their stories.
In its fourth year, Spirits of Oakwood drew about 400 people to the grounds of Tyler's oldest graveyard where historic figures, including the remains of 231 unknown Confederate soldiers, are buried.
The annual event provides $2,000 a year for the Oakwood Cemetery Restoration Committee to restore and replace broken gravestones at Oakwood, said committee chair Maxine Herbst.
"Each year we go through the cemetery and find people we want to have portrayed," she said. "And then we begin researching."
On Saturday, nine actors took on spirits of Tyler's past: a reverend who operated a hotel and stage lines in Tyler in the 1850s, a leading business man of the 1910s, the Speaker of the House in 1876 and a widow known as the most beautiful woman in East Texas about a century ago.
"They were so real, it was like we were talking with them," said Tyler resident Dorlene Anderson, a first-time visitor.
About 200 markers have already been repaired or replaced with the event money from previous years, Herbst said. She helped the restoration committee be recognized by the city of Tyler and began the Spirits of Oakwood in 2004.
The Oakwood Cemetery consists of 19.5 acres and holds more than 2,000 inscribed tombstones.
Veterans include 80 Confederate soldiers individually marked, one Union soldier, three veterans of the Spanish-American War, 25 from World War I and 17 from World War II.
About 100 unnamed black Americans, who were probably slaves, are buried in a section marked in remembrances of their unrecognized deaths and life stories.
"Soldiers' Plot" is a 300-foot square set aside for the burial of 231 unknown Confederate soldiers who died from measles, pneumonia and other diseases after training near Tyler.
Oakwood was the original cemetery utilized by the public of Tyler and Smith County and was established in 1846. It was called "Lollar's Cemetery," after its previous owner, then "City Cemetery," before its final christening in 1904.
Other notable individuals buried at Oakwood include Gov. Richard B. Hubbard, John Woldert, Sen. Horace Chilton, Rudolph Bergfeld, Judge Stephen Reaves and Maj. James P. Douglas.
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