2003 Year in Review

Rain Moved Cemetery Walk

Violinist, Joe Nobiling, entertained the crowd.

MHS Key Club being trained by Stephanie Vavra to tour groups around the Cemetery. Unfortunately rain moved the tour into Southside School.

William Van Osdol played by Brian Zschiesche explained farming in the 1800's in Whiteside County.

Josie Johnson played Lydia Hulett (midwife and practitioner of home remedies).

Even though a brief shower went through Morrison before “Stroll into the Past”, the cemetery walk, was to begin; the Historical Society still brought the show together in the Northside gym Sunday, September, 28. The original plan was for MHS Key Club members to tour groups around Grove Hill Cemetery at 10-minute intervals. The wet grass forced all the groups into Northside gym across the street. As the crowd waited in the cafeteria, the crew set up chairs in the center of the small gym.

The MHS Key Club members introduced each of the actors in character starting with Sarah Thorndike, then the crowd rotated to watch each actor give their characters 10-minute play. Booklets of the scripts could be purchased for $2, which made it easier to follow along. Mrs. Thorndike as Mrs. Anna H. Poole Sholes, a genealogist, was the least benefited by the move inside as she described tree shaped tombstones that should have been all around her in the cemetery.

Brian Zschiesche, dressed as a farmer from the turn of the century, played William A. Van Osdol. He and his wife had six children, two of whom died. “Did you know that before 1850, half of all children under age five died?” he asked the audience. In 1854 he bough 160 acres costing “$3 per acre” and by the end of his life he owned “385 prime acres in Hopkins Township and 160 acres in South Dakota”.

The afternoon highlight was a violinist, Joe Nobiling, playing while Craig Doak spoke as R.P. Goodenough. “Before you stands Morrison’s only professional violin maker!” rose Doak’s booming voice.

Kevin Perrizo dressed in a tapestry vest, played Thomas R. King, “I’m a butter and egg man,” he announced proudly to the crowd. “$300,000 worth of butter and eggs per year.” Another story told by Josie Johnson was of Lydia A. Pollard Hulett. A midwife and practitioner of home remedies, she remembered of a man “partially scalped by Indians”. “Disease…took children from nearly every family…sometimes, all I could offer were my prayers”.

Walter Augustin Stowell played by Bill Mosgrove was an old man with his nurse, played by Jalayne Riewerts, with uncertain memories of the Blackhawk War. Mrs. Riewerts, bellowed out a thick German accent to explain “his military career lasted 84 days” some of which he spent in the infirmary with cholera. He was put to rest in Potter’s Field and “the Government supplied his tombstone”.

Charles Bent, Sr played by Don Miller was a very influential man in Morrison’s history. Not only did he own the Whiteside Sentinel but he also wrote History of Whiteside County, Illinois, From its First Settlement to the Present Time: with Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches published in 1878.

A devoted mother, Lucinda P. Cobbs Booth, played by Connie Swanson-DeSpain told a Civil War story in letterform. Her son, Jason, had been shot and she traveled to Maryland to find her son. After being left behind by Union soldiers she eventually brought her son home.

The afternoon ended with a costumed Rev. Daniel Swinson removing his top hat and tails to play William M. Spears, a dry goods merchant who built the three brick building in the south side of west Main in the 100 block (Tenboer and Mickley Insurance and Jennifer’s Dance).

This is the second cemetery walk for the Morrison Historical Society; the first walk was in 2001. Stephanie A. Vavra wrote and directed the 9-person walk.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
September 29, 2003