I wish I could travel from Oregon for this event. A number of years ago my husband and I took our grandchildren who were then about 8 and 10 on a Lantern Tour of Burial Hill in Plymouth, MA. This was during Halloween week and at night. It was quite an experience to hear the tour lady, who was dressed in period costume, tell about some of the "residences". My husband and I were in this cemetery hundreds of time during the day light hours and it was even a bit spooky for us with only one latern in front and a lantern carrier/tour person leading another group in a slightly different area. It was very meaningful to hear the stories of the people of long ago. A day time tour with stories of the time the people lived should be very memorable. Sprag57@aol.com wrote: > Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 18, 2002. > > Town of Merton - Time and nature have rubbed some of the oldest white > gravestones at Stone Bank Presbyterian Cemetery nearly bare of their writing. > Names are turning to dust, just like the tenants below. > > Leave it to a few local history buffs to put some life into those silent > slabs and to see that the community's earliest settlers are not forgotten. > > Come Saturday, June 22, 2002, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., they're planning > to raise the dead. This won't be a seance. And not at all ghoulish, like some > adult Halloween costume party. Just an attempt to celebrate a rich local > history and the 150th birthday this year of Kettle Moraine United > Presbyterian Church with something organizers are calling a "Historic > Cemetery Walk." > > Costumed local residents, including a few descended directly from Stone > Bank's earliest settlers, will tell stories of how they came to America and > how their early lives here began. They'll assume the identity of settlers > with names such as Miles, Dayton, Mason, Whittaker, Ferguson and Rea. > > English and Scottish settlers arrived in the area in 1842 and staked their > claims - paying about $1.25 per acre. Journeys on foot along Indian trails to > Milwaukee were common. Hardship was a way of life. > > Church organized > Fifteen charter members organized the church in 1852, worshipping first in a > log schoolhouse until the first church was built for $321.22. The cemetery > opened earlier, in 1845. > > "The men donated their time and money, and the ladies of the church raised > money by having church dinners," are the words ascribed to one early member, > Minnie Jensen Rea, who'll be a cemetery dweller Saturday. > > "The Scotch Presbyterians required strict obedience to their church > discipline. Even though many acres of trees had to be cleared, butter, soap > and candles had to be made in the home, wool washed, carded and spun, and all > the clothes made by hand, no one did any work on Sunday. Only the necessary > feeding of the animals was excusable. We also did not buy or sell on the > Sabbath. No nonsense or games of any kind were permitted. We could only make > calls on our families and friends." > Marian Bertelson Pfeiffer, who's been around half as long as the church and > is a lifelong resident of the Stone Bank area, is one of the cemetery walk > organizers and scriptwriters. > > She wrote much of the local history for a Stone Bank sesquicentennial > celebration she helped organize. Still, she wasn't prepared to stop there, > even though rheumatoid arthritis and several joint replacement surgeries in > the past 11 years have slowed her down at times. > > "I made up my mind," she said. "I had it in my heart to do the same for the > church." > > A curious proposal > She helped produce a calendar with historical pictures of church founders. > Fellow church member Paul Wilberscheid suggested they take it a step further > with the cemetery walk. He'd been to one in his native New Holstein - an > affair that attracted thousands, he said - and he thought he might hold > appeal here. > > "When he brought it up," Bertelson Pfeiffer admitted, "I thought he was > crazy!" > Mostly, Wilberscheid said, everyone was a little curious about the idea. They > probably anticipated he had in mind some version of "Night of the Living > Dead." > Bertelson Pfeiffer said she was on board as soon as she understood what he > intended. A committee of nine pitched in. > > It wasn't hard to find volunteers to stand among the tombstones in this > pretty little cemetery at the corner of Highway K and West Shore Drive. > > "There's a motto in our church: Nobody says no to Marian," Bertelson Pfeiffer > said. > Janice Dayton, 75, who lives in the house where she was born in the heart of > Stone Bank, will wear her grandmother's dress while portraying her > great-grandmother Elizabeth Rea Dayton. > > "I'm not an actress at all," she said, "but I thought it would be kind of > fun." She never knew her great-grandmother, but Dayton said she's learned > about her thanks to her own research and that of history buffs such as > Bertelson Pfeiffer. > > End of Milwaukee Journal article. > > PLEASE NOTE: The Stone Bank United Presbyterian Church is located on Hwy K, > about 1 mile east of Hwy C. Parking for the Cemetery Walk is at the church. A > horse drawn wagon will make the trip across the fields to the cemetery and > back frequently (from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.). Box lunches will be available > for sale. > > ==== WIWAUKES Mailing List ==== > The Waukesha County Mailing List is maintained by Ellen Rohr, > Waukesha County, WIGenWeb Coordinator. If you have a problems or > concerns, please contact me at waukesha@linkstothepast.com > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237