Participants of this year’s Oak Hill Cemetery tours, sponsored by the Rock County Historical Society (RCHS), will discover the stories behind eight local people who “should have been commemorated” with buildings and roads named after them. Historical interpreters will share the stories, researched by local history expert Pete Skelly. Tour dates are October 22 and October 29 from Noon – 4 p.m. All tours are outdoors at the cemetery, 1725 N. Washington St., Janesville.
“RCHS is happy to offer these popular tours of Oak Hill cemetery again this year, with new historical information about some of the people who had an impact in Rock County yet are not recognized on local landmarks,” said RCHS Executive Director Tim Maahs. “The tours are a safe way for people to have fun while learning the intriguing history about some of the people buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.”
Just a few of the tour’s eight fascinating past residents highlighted in this year’s tours include:
· Captain Pliny Norcross, a civil war veteran and lawyer who in 1874 sponsored the law license of Lavinia Goodell. Goodell was the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin. Norcross influenced local industry, establishing the first electrical plant in Janesville. Late in life, Norcross’ death by drowning shocked the community.
· Enoch Taylor, who arrived in Janesville as a freed slave after enlisting in 1864 and serving in the United States Colored Troops. While in Janesville, Taylor worked as a blacksmith and became a property owner, before auctioning off his fruit farm in approximately 1914 and retiring to Detroit.
Tickets for each tour are $10 and available for purchase in a variety of ways: on the RCHS website at https://rchs.us/halloween; by calling RCHS at 608-756-4509; or at the cemetery during tour hours (cash only). Or, stop in at the RCHS gift shop at 426 N. Jackson Street, Janesville, during tour hours.
Tours are educational in nature and are not a “haunted” experience. Oak Hill is a working cemetery. For the Chill at Oak Hill tours, all headstones, mausoleums, and burial plots will be treated with respect.
Tours begin at the Oak Hill Chapel and will be held in all types of weather, unless there is lightning, in which case tours will be cancelled.
