HPI Cemetery Stroll Schedule and Information

The third annual Cemetery Stroll sponsored by Heritage Preservation, Inc. will take place on SATURDAY, MAY 3, AT 10:00 A.M. (Rain date is SUNDAY, MAY 4, AT 2:00 P.M.) at the Florence City Cemetery.

The Stroll will be directed by the talented Amanda Perry who has been part of local community theater for several years.

Lee Freeman, director of the Local History/Genealogy Department at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, has carefully researched the biographies of the following personages who will be portrayed by local actors under Ms. Perry’s direction:

  1. “Uncle” Reuben and “Aunt” Abby Patterson – slaves from the Sweetwater Plantation

  2. Dr. and Mrs. J.A. Keller – former president of UNA and his wife

  3. John Garibaldi – an Italian storekeeper in early Florence

  4. Alexander Falk – one of very few Jewish people interred in the Florence Cemetery

  5. William Edward Blair – a beloved law enforcement officer in early Florence

  6. Moncure Woodson Camper – founder of what we now know as the Times-Daily newspaper

  7. Virginia Foster Irvine – daughter of the builder of Rogers Hall and early owner/resident, with her husband, of Irvine Place (Coby Hall)

  8. Emmet O’Neal – followed in his father’s footsteps to become governor of Alabama

  9. Rev. Hiram Kennedy Douglass – Episcopal priest; donor of two of three houses comprising the Kennedy-Douglass Art Center

  10. Joseph Milner – founder of Milner’s Drug Store on Court Street

  11. Dr. William M. Price – early Florence physician; builder/resident of the large Victorian house at 520 North Walnut Street

  12. Charles M. Brandon – early industrialist in East Florence; Brandon School (now, Brandon Ministry Center) named in his honor

  13. “Mountain” Tom Clark – well-known outlaw about whom many local legends are based

 

Tickets cost just $5.00 each and are available at the gate on the day of the Stroll.

HPI