Bringing a cemetery back to life

Louis Houck, one of Cape Girardeau's great catalysts of progress, seemed like a nice-enough guy Friday night as he stood near his headstone in Old Lorimier Cemetery. Apparently the 80 years of lying in a grave hasn't hurt him that much.

"You're welcome to walk around here and look at where my bones are," Houck told visitors to his grave Friday night. Actually, it was Richard Withers, who was playing Houck in a rather congenial manner.

As many as 250 people visited the cemetery for a program that explained the historical significance of the cemetery from the perspective of those who are buried.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau organized the event, which featured several presenters dressed in period outfits at different spots throughout the cemetery talking about different aspects of the city's history.

Dr. Frank Nickell sees 200-plus-year-old Old Lorimier Cemetery as the most important place in Cape Girardeau -- in terms of history that is.

To Nickell, the cemetery is more than just a resting place for old bones. It's a place that comes alive with the stories of the town's most historic families and events.

"These people who are buried here are the names of Cape Girardeau," said Nickell, dressed like a Catholic monk in a brown robe tied at the waist with a belt. He was speaking to visitors at the cemetery Friday.

There are 1,200 headstones in the cemetery, Nickell said, with about 8,000 to 9,000 people buried representing numerous ethnic groups. He pointed to weathered headstones adorned with crosses.

These were the Catholic burials, separated from the Protestants by a large archway with a cross on top.

"In the 19th century, they wanted to keep people apart, even in the afterlife," Nickell said.

Sharon Anderson told visitors that, just 100 years ago, one could see from the cemetery to the river in the east and to Academic Hall in the west.

Steven Pledger was there as Uriah Brock, adorned with a red waist sash, musket and three-corner hat. Brock was a Revolutionary War soldier who moved to Cape Girardeau in 1842 and was buried in the cemetery.

Jane Randol Jackson told of the disasters that helped fill up the cemetery -- cholera epidemics that once killed 128 people in Jackson in 10 days and two steamboat accidents that claimed hundreds of lives.

Kelsey Martin, 11, and her 9-year-old sister, Kaylen, especially enjoyed the part about the disasters and were eager to hear the ghost stories that were told under the cemetery's central pavilion bearing Louis Lorimier's name when darkness fell.

It was Pledger's presentation that most appealed to 13-year-old Ryan Johnson and his 11-year-old brother, Josh, though.

When darkness fell, the crowd was ushered to the pavilion to hear ghost stories told by Withers among the glowing luminaria that dotted the grounds.

Withers told accounts of people who had felt cold, slippery hands rubbing them at the cemetery and others who had seen strange lights, bringing hushed "ooohhh" sounds from the audience.

One man who lived in some nearby apartments verified the story about the lights. "We often see the lights out here between 11 and 2 at night," the man said. "And we hear various sounds."

No ghosts were seen Friday, but the dead -- like Houck and Brock -- did get their chance to speak to the living.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182