Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
People experienced local history come alive Saturday at Oakwood Cemetery’s Heritage Walk.
Faye Myers, Heritage Walk coordinator and Kosciusko County Historical Society genealogist, said they had five groups of 30-plus people go on the walk and had some people come in just for the displays in the chapel.
Oakwood Cemetery Sexton Hal Heagy said this was the second historic walk since he’s been sexton, with the first being two years ago. There were previous historic walks, but they were before Heagy was sexton and he’s been sexton for about 19 years.
After the 2024’s historic walk, Heagy said everyone sat down afterward and figured out what they did wrong and what needed improvement.
Actors portrayed people buried at Oakwood at 11 different stops.
Those portrayed were Virgil and Blanche Brock, portrayed by Glenn Hall and Leanne Scacco; Col. Joseph B. Dodge, portrayed by Gerald Cox; Don and Sally Nichols, portrayed by Eddie Hartman and Lacey Brown; Ralph Lichtenwalter, portrayed by Randy Clinker; Pete and Faye Thorn, portrayed by Symin Dawson and Lily Fournier; George Lenke, portrayed by Gordon Petty; Arleen Koors, portrayed by Kathryn Anders; Hobert Creighton, portrayed by Ed Davis; Harold and Betty Kratzsch, portrayed by Craig Knight and Tara Rusinack; and Thomas Everett, portrayed by Emily Cough.
Most of those portrayed were veterans.
Peterson was the first soldier from Kosciusko County who died in World War I and the Warsaw’s American Legion Post was named after him.
Creighton was the founder of Creighton Brothers.
Lenke was a World War II veteran who became president of Da-Lite Screen.
Dodge fought in the Civil War, where he was promoted to colonel. Cox said as Dodge he had seven different horses shot under him. After the war, he served as trustee for Wayne Township and commissioner of the Kosciusko County Agricultural Society.
Don Nichols fought in the Battle of the Bulge and he later enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1950. Sally Nichols served in the United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve). Some of her duties were to order the supplies for the crew and facilitate the transfer of supplies from the Naval yard to the cruise ships. However, her most popular duty was payroll. They received the Order of Kosciuszko in 2010, which was the first time it was awarded to a couple.
Even though most of the people being portrayed were veterans, all the veterans buried in the cemetery could not be portrayed Saturday. Heagy said the problem is there are almost 4,000 veterans buried at Oakwood.
“So it’s kind of hard. Well, my heart’s there. My dad served, a lot of people. We’re standing here because they served,” he said.
In addition to the walk, there was a memorial wall set up in the cemetery chapel for people to put things on to honor veterans in their family.
There were also different military uniforms displayed in the chapel.
