People toured Oakwood Cemetery Saturday and learned about some of the people buried there.
Sexton Hal Heagy said Saturday’s historical walk was the first one since he has been sexton at the cemetery. He believed the last one was in 2003 or 2004.
With the historical walk, groups were taken around the cemetery to 12 stops, with actors portraying the people who were buried at each location.
On the tour, Rozella Ford was portrayed by Cindy Nash and Lin Metzger; Thomas Hubler was portrayed by Wyatt Phillips; John Butler Chapman was portrayed by Eddie Van Hartman; Jane Cowen was portrayed by Melissa Jordan; Dr. Clifford Dubois was portrayed by Gerald Cox; Betty Dubois was portrayed by Kathryn Anders; Homer Rodeheaver was portrayed by Todd Lucas; John Hansman was portrayed by Tim Aguilar-Davis; Ann Hansman was portrayed by Katie Aguilar-Davis; Virginia Asher was portrayed by Lori Widman; Justin O. Zimmer was portrayed by Craig Knight; Gen. Reuben Williams was portrayed by Glenn Hall; Robert Lichtenwalter was portrayed by Dave Baumgartner; Jacob Boss was portrayed by Gordon Petty, and Boss’ five wives were portrayed by Hannah Carter, Alicia Johnson, Adrianna Klein, Rachel Kruger and Ally Watkins.
Some of the things talked about during the tour included how Boss sold 30 acres to the city for a cemetery and he had to be the first person buried at the cemetery. Boss also married five different women, one of them twice.

  

 Eddie Van Hartman (L) portrays John Butler Chapman during Saturday’s historical walk at Oakwood Cemetery. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union
  

Chapman was part of the Indiana Bar Association. Hartman said there were people who wanted Oswego to be the county seat but Chapman made sure Warsaw was chosen. Chapman also pushed for the railroad to come through Warsaw. Hartman said even though Chapman is listed as being buried in Oakwood, there is no headstone for him.
Jane Cowen opened the county’s first secondary school for “young people.” At that time, it was more common to educate boys and leave girls in the kitchen.
“I staunchly disagreed with that stance based on my knowledge of the Holy Bible. And I made my views known to the men of the church. I knew far more about the Bible than most of them,” said Jordan as Cowen.
Williams started the Northern Indianian. He fought in the Civil War and was captured and released three times and was promoted to brigadier general. After the war, he returned to be the editor of the paper. Eventually, he bought several newspapers, including the Times and the Union, which merged to become the Times-Union, according to Hall.
Clifford Dubois was mayor of Warsaw. He was born in Missouri and Mark Twain handed Clifford his diploma from college at graduation. He moved to Warsaw in 1905. He was the first doctor in the county to vaccinate people against tetanus and typhoid fever.
People were able to take tours from 10 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. About halfway through the day, Heagy said about six or seven tours went through. The first three tours had about 50 people in each group. The tour took about 40 minutes.
Heagy said he hopes people who went through the tour got some of “great history of the past.”
Heagy said he took a couple people on the tour on golf carts because they weren’t mobile and they were clapping and they told him they were having fun.
After Saturday’s event, Heagy said they’ll debrief and possibly talk about having the tour every two years.