Led by Darla Gebhard, research librarian at the Historical Society, the tour highlighted historical personalities of Brown County’s past. The tour also included explanations of burial practices of the pioneer days, as well as the symbolism of various gravestones. Over 50 area residents participated in the event.

Gebhard said she and Vicki Peiser started the event in the 1980s as a children’s cemetery tour.

“We took a group of young children out here and did rubbings on gravestones and taught them about cemetery etiquette, like, where should you stand? And what’s a headstone? What’s a footstone?” Gebhard said.

Gebhard said some of the parents who went along found the tour interesting and asked if the Historical Society could put together something for adults.

Wicherski Crypt is the largest subterranean burial site in the city, with two rooms and solid concrete walls.

“And so then we’re thinking, okay, how are we going to do that? We went out to the cemetery and talked to Wally Bloedel, and he got some old books out they had. They told about the symbolism. Because I thought, well, now how are you going to bring this up to an adult level?” Gebhard said.

“And so we thought, okay, now we know about the symbolism. And then it’s like, well, there’s some pretty interesting people buried out here. Maybe we could add, like, something about the people that are buried here. And from that, it went to, oh, my goodness, there’s the whole Dakota War. You could talk. So it just grew and grew and grew. And we’ve been doing this since the 1980s. And every time I come out here, I think, I wonder if anybody’s gonna show up.”

Due to the larger number of participants this year, the tour was divided into three groups, led by Gebhard, Sue Ullery and Wayne Wagner.

“Another one that I’m thinking of and I want to do before I get too old, I want to do my Neu Ulm bei Nacht tour, which is New Ulm at night, and at twilight, come out here and then have people in character come out, like some of the larger graves, like August Schell,” Gebhard said,. “And he would tell you about his life, and then you’d maybe go to Anton Gag. Somebody would come out. I’ve seen it done in other cemeteries. That one’s still in my mind.”

Darla Gebhard recounts the story of the Massopust family from Milford, the first victims of the August 18, 1862, battle.