Spirits of Hopewell Valley

A friend posted she would be singing in a cemetery in an event that would be in the style of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." 

She had me at that description. Adding that it was free was a bonus.

On a sunny, yet brisk, Sunday afternoon we gathered in the Old Methodist Cemetery in the Titusville section of Hopewell to see dead people come back to life and listen to people singing. Okay, people didn't really come back to life. Instead actors gave monologues talking about the people they were representing, all of whom are really buried in this historic cemetery. The last burial took place in 1935.

There were eight people from the past -- Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans, widows, a minister, and a few others. There were two black men -- they would have been buried in the African American section, no mixing of the races in historic Hopewell. We learned about the man who made it possible for African Americans to own property in Hopewell because in the late 19th century he sold some of them parts of his farm. I think his name was Budd.

I had troubles finding the cemetery. The Methodist church on Main Street only said the event was taking place at the cemetery. Even the website did not give the address. Somewhere it was listed on Pennington Titusville Road, an address my GPS could not handle. As I result, I was late. Although I arrived before the event started (because it, too, was running late), I was too late to receive a program listing the different people involved. I hoped to find a discarded one, but that was not to be, either.

I did take some nice pictures. I enjoyed hearing their stories. 

I hope the Hopewell Valley Historical Society continues to provide events as charming as this one. I should be on their mailing list now. After all, history is more than just names and dates, it is also stories.