Every third Saturday evening, May through Oct., Oakdale Cemetery offers two-hour flashlight tours that tell the stories of some of the people buried there.
The tour Saturday, July 18, will start at 8 p.m., and Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., University of North Carolina Wilmington associate professor of history, will help lead it.
“It’s going to be a general historical tour. . . .We’re not exactly sure how large of a crowd we’ll receive. Dr. Fonvielle always has a good following. We are prepared to break into two groups, if need be,” said Eric Kozen, Oakdale Cemetery’s superintendent.
Fonvielle is excited about leading the tours.
“People really seem to enjoy the ambiance of going to a cemetery at nighttime,” he said. “It’s a very historical cemetery. . . . It was incorporated in 1852 and the first burials were in 1855.”
During the tour, Fonvielle will discuss some of the grave markers that interest him the most. “There are 30,000 people in there and every one of them has a story. Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear are full of rich history and culture and a lot of fascinating stories. Ironically, the first burial was the 6-year-old daughter of Dr. John DeRosset, who was the president of the board of directors of Oakdale Cemetery.”
Fonvielle also will discuss the cemetery’s Civil War graves.
“One of my favorite graves is Rose O’Neill Greenhow. She was a very famous Confederate spy who drowned trying to get into the Cape Fear River onboard a blockade runner called the Condor in 1864. Her body washed up at Fort Fisher. There was a huge ceremony at St. Thomas Catholic Church on Dock Street. The mother of the first person who was buried there was the person who prepared Rose Greenhow’s body,” Fonvielle said. “The story that goes along with Greenhow is that she had gold in her purse that contributed to her drowning. When you go by her grave marker today, which is kept by [the] United Daughters of the Confederacy, there’s always money on the gravemarker to replace the gold she lost when she drowned.”
Fonvielle will explain some of the cemetery’s unique graves, as well.
“There’s the story of the German-born fireman who immigrated to Wilmington. His name was William Ellerbrock. He was killed fighting a fire at Front and Dock streets and his dog tried to save him. When they found his body the next day, in 1881, they found the dog with his master, and so they buried the dog with the master. You look on one side of the obelisk, it talks about this young German-born fireman, and on the other side of the obelisk is a carving of a dog. Above it, it says, ‘Faithful until death.’”
Fonvielle is interested by some of the nontraditional burial services that took place in the cemetery.
“Another famous story is that of Nance Martin, whose father and brother were commission merchant and shippers in the 1850s. She died at sea on her way to Cuba with her brother on a trip. Rather than bury her at sea, as you would a sailor, they put her into a cask of alcohol — probably rum — and proceeded on their trip to Cuba and returned to Wilmington. Rather than remove her from the cask of alcohol, they buried her in [the] cask.. . . It’s not the only cemetery where a young girl is buried in a cask of rum, but it’s certainly an intriguing story.”
Tours cost $10 per person. Attendees are required to bring flashlights.
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