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Date: 10/26/2023
MONSON — On Oct. 28, join the Monson Cemetery Commission at the top of Hillside Cemetery for its second annual Cemetery Walk at 6 p.m.
In partnership with the Monson Historical Society, this is an event where you can watch volunteers role play as historical figures in town and learn a little about some of the historical buildings that were built. The program will also conclude with a guided tour of the Jacob Thompson House at the lower portion of Hillside Cemetery which is owned by the Historical Society and has been restored into a period piece home. This year’s theme is a few families in Monson that helped built some of the buildings that are the most instantly recognized architecture in town like W.N. Flynt and his wife Eudocia, whose Flynt Granite Company built Flynt Park in Monson; Horatio Lyon whose family erected the Monson Free Library in his memory; the Reynolds family, which donated land and $15,000 to build Monson Memorial Hall; Cyrus Holmes, who financed the Civil War Soldiers Monument in Monson; and Ezio DeSantis, who carved the World War I Soldiers Memorial in Hampden.
Cemetery Foreman Mat Wawrzyk said, “The reason why it takes place at the cemetery is because some of the historically significant people in town who we role play as we actually role play in the lots that they’re buried. People are able to see their headstones and a lot of the other architecture that Monson families incorporated into their burial lots 150 years ago.”
He went on to say, “Our goal for this year is focusing on dressing up the cemetery a little bit better. We received more grant money than we did from last year. One of our goals is to really try and do a lot of cool lighting and fall decoration which was something that we didn’t have the time or tools to do last year.”
In addition, there’ll be hot cider & donuts provided complimentary by the Monson Historical Society. Plus, roasted chestnuts which is something new the Commission is doing this year provided by the RePlanting Monson Tree Committee. The scripts for the walk were originally written about 25-30 years ago from a group of people who had done the cemetery walk. One of Wawrzyk ‘s cemetery commissioners found the scripts and asked if it was something the Commission would be interested in doing. Wawrzyk told Reminder Publishing it was something that he was excited to do because he’s always looking for something to do that is positive.
“A lot of the cemetery aspects is negative because of what it’s for, so to bring any type of community involvement into the cemeteries in a positive way was a no-brainer for us,” he said. The commission revised and updated the original script, got some volunteers, winged it for the first year and it went great.
“I want people to have the same experience that I got,” said Wawrzyk. “Mainly my job is cemetery maintenance and groundskeeping. I see these last names every day and had no idea who these people were and knowing this stuff gives me a better appreciation for living in Monson.”
He continued, “I’m essentially taking care of the memorialization of these families and now I get to put some history to these names and it gives me a better appreciation to do my job. For anybody that lives in Monson and doesn’t know who built our library or who financed and erected our Civil War monument is just another cool thing they can leave with.”
For questions about the walk, reach out to the Monson Cemetery Commission at www.monson-ma.gov/cemetery-department. It will lead to all of their contacts, phone numbers and email addresses. You can also visit the commission’s Facebook page.