THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180232
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 74 lines
Re-enactors will bring Revolutionary War heroes, Civil War soldiers and a former first lady of Virginia back to life Saturday during the first-ever ``Halloween History Tour'' through Cedar Grove Cemetery.
The tours will begin every 15 minutes from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and will last about an hour. A $3 donation will be collected at the entrance to the cemetery, located directly behind the Hardee's on London Boulevard in downtown Portsmouth. The cemetery's Fort Lane entrance will not be used.
``The majority of the tour will focus on Portsmouth personalities who served in the Civil War and who have some prominent part to play in the city's history,'' said Bill Blake, a local history buff who is helping to coordinate the event.
Blake is working on the project with M.H. ``Hank'' Morris, commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp No. 380. In recent months, Morris has been spearheading efforts to refurbish the burial ground, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Proceeds from the Halloween walk will be used as ``seed money'' for the 135th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Hampton Roads, a three-day event to be held in March. In turn, all proceeds from the celebration will go back into Cedar Grove.
``We have made some tremendous strides in bringing that cemetery back to the dignity which it so rightfully deserves,'' Morris said.
But more can be done. Grave markers need to be recut, and cracked headstones need to be repaired. Recently, a women's work crew from the City Jail painted fences, reset headstones and dug the base for a new flagpole.
Cedar Grove Cemetery is the city's first public burial ground, dating to 1832. Prior to that time, burials were made in private family plots and churchyards. The cemetery at Trinity Episcopal Church is the city's oldest.
During the historic walk, tour guides will take groups of 20 to 25 people - depending on the density of the crowd - to about a dozen grave sites within the cemetery. A lantern will mark each stop along the route.
``As a group approaches, the re-enactor who is impersonating the individual in that grave will tell historical facts about his life,'' Morris said.
Among those to be portrayed are authors John H. Lewis (1835-1917), who wrote a Civil War book called ``Recollections,'' often cited by Civil War historians, and John W.H. Porter (1842-1916), who wrote a Civil War classic in 1892 called ``Norfolk County 1861-1865.''
Other stops on the tour include the graves of the Rev. John H. Wingfield, former rector of Trinity Episcopal Church from 1821 to 1871; John L. Porter (1813-1893), who designed the CSS Virginia from the burned-out hull of the USS Merrimack; Dr. Thomas Williamson (1791-1859), the first surgeon in charge of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital; and Grace Phillips Pollard, a first lady of Virginia in the early 1930s. Her husband was former Gov. John Garland Pollard. ``There are many, many notables in there,'' Morris said. ``We picked them by significance and the ability to get somebody to impersonate them. Those were the driving factors.''
Giving a tour in Cedar Grove Cemetery is nothing new, said Blake, an English teacher at Cradock Middle School who along with his wife created a brochure for a self-guided tour through the graveyard.
``But to do it as a history walk at Halloween certainly is something that will be different,'' he said. ``We hope to show off the cemetery as much as we can.''
According to Morris, the Halloween tour will serve two purposes: It will teach visitors more about Portsmouth history, and it will show them the work that has been accomplished in Cedar Grove in the hopes that more money can be raised for future restorations there. MEMO: For more information about Cedar Grove's ``Halloween History
Tour,'' call 488-1397. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Bill Blake and M.H. ``Hank'' Morris examine the grave markers in
preparation for the first history tour of Cedar Grove Cemetery. by CNB