Oakwood Cemetery Walk in Dixon set to take visitors through history on Sept. 29

DIXON — Voices from beyond the grave will rise at the Oakwood Cemetery Walk on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 416 S. Dement Ave. in Dixon.

From 1 to 3 p.m. that day, visitors can follow along the cemetery grounds where volunteer presenters will tell tales of interesting figures buried in the cemetery. Tours of the Oakwood Memorial Mausoleum, which celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, will also be available, along with refreshments for purchase. The event is free and open to the public; however, a $5 donation is encouraged.

The Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society is hosting the event. Committee members Gary Michel and Jan Conkrite said months of research and planning go into the event.

“After each cemetery walk, we go back and pick a section we want to focus on the following year,” Michel said. “We wander through that section of tombstones and come back with a list of 20 to 30 names. Then we start researching their story.”

This year’s figures and their presenters are:

• Horrace Preston: portrayed by Jeremy Englund.
• William Stackpole: portrayed by Kent Nusbaum.
• Henrietta (Jacob) Ebinger: portrayed by Karen Yardley.
• Fannie Ayres Murphy: portrayed by Gloria Nusbaum.
• John Lord: portrayed by Mike McBride.
• Frederick A. Truman: portrayed by Tom Wadsworth.

“Many people remember Truman School, which still stands on West Third Street,” Wadsworth said. “I’ll be portraying the namesake of the school. Many people have assumed that the school was named after President Harry Truman, but Frederick Truman was a major mover and shaker in Dixon who served as mayor and president of the school board.”

Wadsworth is a local history buff who has participated in past cemetery walks.

“It’s fun to watch people’s eyes grow wider as they listen to these Cemetery Walk portrayals,” Wadsworth said. “The city’s rich history begins to unfold before their eyes, as different people, places and events begin to make sense – often for the first time.”

Since its inception in 2009, the cemetery walk has featured some prominent names in Dixon’s history, including Father John Dixon, Katherine Shaw Bethea, Henry Noble, Charles Walgreen and many others. Although the committee often chooses people who were important in forming the city, some just have an interesting story.

“There was a train engineer who actually got run over by a train,” Conkrite said. “There’s also John Lord, who was a carriage maker and led an interesting life. He lived on top of a hill past the Palmyra Pub that many from Dixon call Lord’s Hill.”

Michel said even the cemetery has an interesting history.

“It used to be the site of a military training facility during the Civil War,” Michel said. “And at one point, it held annual farm shows.”

Named for the beauty of the surrounding trees, the cemetery features a bronze marker, placed in 2010, honoring 34 Dixon residents who died during the summer of 1854 from a cholera epidemic and were buried in unmarked graves near the cemetery’s entrance.

For more information, contact the Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society at 815-284-1134.