A Look Through History with North Webster Cemetery Walk
NORTH WEBSTER — North Webster Community Public Library held its ninth annual Cemetery Walk Sunday afternoon, Sept. 13.
The community could attend this free event at the library from 1 to 3 p.m., with tours leaving every 15 minutes. Snacks and refreshments were provided by the library and NewMarket. Guests started in a small lecture room for the Local History and Genealogy Center listening to the story of North Webster local Dennis Wagoner’s family. From there, the public was taken on a guided tour through North Webster Cemetery directly off SR 13, where enactors told the history of various families buried there.
The deceased persons featured in this year’s Cemetery Walk were selected from a Cemetery Walk Essay Contest held in March in which patrons researched and submitted essays about the life of a person buried in the local cemetery. The essay writers are Deborah Lovellette writing about JoAnn Harris, Paula Markely writing about Lewis Kiser, Faye Myers writing about Aquilla Lewallen, Cindy Keirn writing about Charles Dewey Scott, Brad Leedy writing about Clara Rose and Donald Wagoner, Debbie Conner writing about Minnie and Ezra Shock, Doug Bowser writing about Dick Shock and Rebecca Pressler writing about Caroline and Jonathan Wyland.
Many of the names were familiar ones in the Kosciusko community, most of them being farmers in the area. Aquilla Lewallen’s family sold a two acre property that is now called Camp Crosley in North Webster. His family settled in modern day Epworth Forest.
Joann E. Harrison, enacted by Lori Hickman, was a member of the North Webster American Legion Post 253. Harrison joined the U.S. Air Force in 1950 working as a supply clerk until she was honorably discharged during her pregnancy. “People do call me the cat lady,” quipped Hickman, “let’s just hope they don’t call me the crazy cat lady.”
Ezra Shock purchased a 40-foot piece of land on Lake Wawasee for just $800 in the year 1920. Dick Shock, a 1948 graduate of North Webster High School, and portrayed by his son Doug Shock, laughed as he told the audience about his love of fishing, even when it interrupted his school work. “I carried my fishing pole in the first Mermaid parade.”
The annual Cemetery Walk offers an interesting slice of history for the local community, sharing tales of those long gone but with names still recognized easily in the Kosciusko area.
North Webster Community Public Library has scheduled next year’s walk through history for Sept. 11.