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The Cemetery Walk
Join us if you dare on a walk through  Palmyra's Old Village Cemetery.  If you are a connoisseur of Old and awesome graveyards you would love this one.  There are graves dating back to the early 1800's, and there are some very interesting headstones.   The cemetery walk is an annual event put on by Historic Palmyra.  The senior missionary couples have been involved for a few years.  I have been told that Palmyra's Cemetery walk is ranked third best in the nation.  Don't ask me who ranks such things but I guess someone has to do it. 

 I don't whose headstone this is but I thought it was cool.

I took most of the pictures during the day-light hours 

so try to imagine this when it is really dark.  Scary!!

 This is the tomb stone of Edwin Lewis, one of the people portrayed

on the walk.  He was a 17 year old boy who lied about his age so he 

could join the Union army during the Civil War.  He was wounded

at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.  He succumbed to his wounds on July 21, 1863.

 These are the tomb stones of his four brothers and sisters.  What 

makes this such a sad story is none of his siblings lived to adulthood.

The grave marker on the far right is his parent's.

 This picture was sitting under his tomb stone.  I don't know who put

it there or how long it has been there.  I am assuming it is a picture of

him not long after he enlisted.

 This is Josh, the young man that played Edwin.  He is 13 and did a marvelous job.  He began his presentation by pretending to play kick-the-can with his brothers and sisters.  It was really sad to listen to the story of Edwin Lewis, boy soldier.

I took a picture of this because I thought it looked really neat.  I am not sure what it means by a "Public Vault" but it sounds rather ominous.  I don't think I would want this as my final resting place.  But at that point I guess I wouldn't care.

Finally, here I am as Major John Hulburt Gilbert.  Why, you may ask, is he famous enough to be included?  He was the typesetter for the Original 5000 copies of The Book of Mormon.   When he got the printer's copy from Oliver Cowdery there was no punctuation so Gilbert put in most of the punctuation that is in the Book of Mormon today.  He lived to be 94 years old and never worked in the printing business after The Book of Mormon was finished.  He got the title Major because he was a talented musician and got that title because he played in a band. 

The Hat was a little tight so I had a headache by the time the evening was done.  All in all it was a very fun experience.  I am sure I will get another opportunity to do it again next year.  Maybe I will be someone else.  Playing a dead person kind of grows on you as long as I am not playing myself as a deceased  person!!