Spirits of Erath Cemetery Walk benefits library

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Arantxa Sosa and Noelle Huffaker, Contributor

This past Sunday, the Stephenville Historical House Museum and Friends of the Dick Smith Library held the ninth annual Spirits of Erath Cemetery Walk, honoring those who have passed and their impact in the community of Stephenville.

The walk was created for those seeking to participate in spooky events on Halloween weekend, as well as those intrigued by historic events.

“It was actually the brainchild of the former director of the [Tarleton State University] library, Dr. Ken Jones,” explained Glenda Stone, the Spirits of Erath committee chair.

Ever since 2008, when the first cemetery walk was held, she was elected to oversee the walk.

“We have to choose the characters that we want; we have to research them, and then we have to write the script and then we have to find actors willing to portray them,” said Cindy Shipman, a historian and scriptwriter.

Finding information on the characters is not always a simple task.

“It takes a whole of time for everyone to do the research on the people portrayed. They have to go to the historical museum and books that have been published,” said Catherine Wilterding, coordinator for Outreach and Instruction Services and member of the Friends of the Dick Smith Library.

“What the Friends of the Dick Smith Library do is that they have fundraisers and they purchase things for the library that aren’t covered by the library. They helped us fund the digitalization project,” explained Wilterding.

The money that is collected at the registration table is distributed among the Historical House Museum, the Friends of the Dick Smith Library and the Spirit of Erath to take care of the cost of beverages and dry cleaning for the costumes that the actors wear.

The volunteers who portray the selected characters are in costumes that match what their characters wore back then.

Each year, they select a theme for the walk, choosing characters whose stories will fit into the theme. Previous years have included outlaws, people who have had streets named after them, and as Tarleton approaches the centennial celebration of joining the A&M system, this seemed like the most fitting theme to do this year.

The volunteers told the story of members of the community and those who not only helped the Stephenville community, but also the Tarleton community.

In this year’s walk, three of the characters portrayed played a large role in the helping build Tarleton, yet are often forgotten or unknown to many.

Robin Ritchie, the actress who played the role of Pearl Wylie Cage, discovered some very interesting things when she was given her character’s name. She unveiled that Cage was a major contributor to Tarleton becoming a part of the Texas A&M University system by donating money for the college to be considered.

Ritchie’s character also donated the use of the stones lining the original 40 acres of Tarleton, as well as the wall around the West End Cemetery.

“I enjoy doing this; I’ve been apart of Spirits of Erath for several years,” Ritchie stated. “I actually found out I was related to Pearl Cage by marriage.”

This discovery helped Ritchie form a closer bond to Cage, making her performance a meaningful one.

Every year around 150 to 200 people will come out and walk around the cemetery as volunteers of the community tell the stories of the characters, giving those who come out a quick history lesson and a good laugh.