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Statesville offers twilight cemetery tours April 4-5
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Published: March 16, 2009
There's no need to fear the voices you might hear coming from the Fourth Creek Burying Ground in downtown Statesville on April 4-5. That's the weekend of the Twilight Cemetery Tours and the voices are characters from the past sharing bits and pieces of their own stories and the cemetery's history.
Visitors will walk back in time as history comes alive through the tales of nine costumed actors and actresses portraying people who are buried in the historic cemetery. A guide will lead groups through the cemetery to meet these characters and look at the fascinating tombstones.
The Twilight Cemetery Tour is sponsored by the City of Statesville, Statesville Community Theater, Downtown Statesville Development Corporation and Statesville Convention & Visitors Bureau. Tickets are $8 ($30 for a group of 4) and can be purchased by calling 704-878-3436. Reservations are required for tours starting at 3:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
O.C. Stonestreet, local columnist and historian, wrote the script which features the backgrounds and history of a variety of former citizens, including Anderson Mitchell, a Statesville resident who served on the 1861 State Convention to decide if North Carolina should secede from the Union; William Stevenson, also called "Little Gabriel", the great-grandfather of Adlai Stevenson; and Margaret Simonton, the widow of a Confederate soldier.
Members of the Statesville Community Theater are bringing the characters to life under the direction of Statesville actress Jennifer Grant. "This is the Statesville Community Theater's first play in quite awhile, but it will kick off what we hope to be an annual event at the cemetery and the beginning of many theatrical productions in our community," said Grant.
Local actors include Terry Wall, Susie Wiberg, Pam Case, Xavier Zarmani, Steve Hill and others who will tell their stories along the tour. "Everyone is excited to be a part of this," said Grant. "We've had a lot of support from the arts community."
The tours will begin at Second Fret Coffeehouse and Music Hall where Stonestreet will give a brief history and pictorial presentation on Fourth Creek Burying Ground's history and its tombstones. Then groups will be guided to the cemetery where the program should take about an hour.
Statesville was originally called "Fourth Creek Community," thus the name Fourth Creek Burying Ground for the town's oldest cemetery. Even though it is inside the city limits now, when it was begun in the mid-1750s, it was located just outside the town's boundaries. The earliest known marked grave is of Margaret Archibald, who died in 1759. According to Stonestreet, there are about 600 marked graves and at least that many unmarked. "It was determined in 1880, that just about every open place was actually a burial site, and the town took measures to secure the land that is Oakwood Cemetery today."
Tomlin said the interest in historical downtown Statesville is remarkable. "We are discovering that more and more people are interested in the history of Statesville. They don't just want to live here or visit here. They want to know our stories," said Marin Tomlin, DSDC Executive Director. "The stories connect us to this community in a way that you can't do with just a festival. People want to feel a part of this community's past and present."
For more information on the Twilight Cemetery Tours, call 704-878-3436.
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