 There's history here. And here. There's history there. History is everywhere. Good afternoon and thank you very much for inviting me to speak with you today. My thanks and appreciation to Dorothy Cotton for making all the arrangements and ensuring that I had everything that I needed. As you can see, she provided most everything. I'm wired. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Genealogy Library and their staff for the excellent records and reference material they maintain and make available on our historic cemeteries and those buried within their grounds. It is a tremendous asset and very much appreciated. I know that given your love of genealogy, most of you also have a fondness for visiting old cemeteries and walking the grounds, reading the names, studying the inscriptions, and symbolism. You are also aware of how important our cemeteries are as a tool when doing genealogy. Our historic cemeteries have so much to offer us. Our communities, residents, and visitors alike. They are all truly outdoor museums filled with history, artwork, wildlife, wildflowers, trees and vegetation to be seen and enjoyed by all. What I would like to talk about today is not only what our cemeteries have to offer, along with the importance of caring for them and maintaining them, but things that can be done to make people more aware of how important they are to our communities and how to attract visitors, new volunteers, donations, and support from the community. By offering regular, interesting programs, events and activities, we are keeping the cemetery as a current feature and an active part of our communities. When most people see or think of an old cemetery, they tend to dismiss it as simply a final resting place. Life is over. There is nothing further to be learned from those resting within its grounds and the cemetery has nothing further to contribute to the community. Well, in my opinion and shared by many, nothing could be further from the truth. These historic cemeteries around our state as well as the country have much to offer our communities its residents and visitors alike. In many cases, the establishment of a cemetery signaled the start of a new city or town and contains the history of those communities that we are now fortunate to call home. I believe that how well a cemetery is cared for can tell us a lot about that community and its residents. I would like to share with you some ideas of how a cemetery can become a more important part of the community and attract more visitors and hopefully some new volunteers to help care for it. Don't just think of it as a cemetery. Think of it as an outdoor museum, a historic site, a park full of artwork and history to be shared with the community. Now, I realize that not all cemeteries are the same and that the Jacksonville Cemetery is unique in a number of ways and that it helps to make some of the events and programs that we host a little easier. However, there are several ways to recreate and breathe new life into other cemeteries and accomplish similar results. Every cemetery is a special place to its community and has stories and history to be shared with residents and visitors. People are attracted to cemeteries for a number of reasons. Some come to see the wonderful and ornate grave markers and monuments that adorn our cemeteries. Many are carved by well-known local artists such as Wip and the Russells from Ashland. Others were shipped over long distances and under somewhat difficult circumstances when compared with today's mode of transportation. Some come to view and study the almost lost art of symbolism that can be found on many of these markers. Others visit to see and appreciate the beautiful ironwork that can still be found in many of our historic cemeteries along with other cemetery ornamentation such as urns, bollards, entrance steps with usually the family name and curbing that surround these family blocks. Other groups come to study genealogy, local or military history while others use the cemetery grounds for their daily walks or runs, some for dog walking, viewing wildlife and the various flowers and plants that can be found within the cemetery, especially this time of the year. It's absolutely gorgeous. Many just walk the grounds, studying the markers and taking advantage and enjoying the peace and tranquility that the cemeteries offer. There are even groups of artists who come to paint within the cemetery grounds. Plenair painting, as it is called, was featured in a story called Studio Under Sky published by the Southern Oregon Medium Group in Outdoors in Our Valley. Things to do and places to see in Southern Oregon. The artist shown on this photo were painting in the Jacksonville Cemetery. We especially appreciate the locals who use the cemetery for their daily walks and runs as they are our eyes and ears when we're not there working. And they report anything unusual to the police. They are our stewards of the cemetery grounds. We actually really encourage locals to use the cemetery grounds for walking their dogs and exercise. Some of the events and activities that we offer at the Jacksonville Cemetery are pre-arranged walking tours where docents guide their audience around the grounds and provide interesting information on the history of the cemetery and stories of those buried within its grounds. Our groups range from elementary and high school students to groups from the YMCA, retirement communities, groups and clubs from around Southern Oregon and cities beyond. We always try to find out well in advance of what the group is most interested in seeing and learning and then design our tour in that direction. It helps to make the tour much more interesting and rewarding for the group as well as our docents. For groups that may have some difficulty in getting around and can't really walk too far, we set up chairs and allow them to remain seated, not having to walk too far or too much. Our guests really appreciate it and it allows us to share the cemetery with even a larger audience. History Saturday in the cemetery, we have that event on the second Saturday of each month starting in the month of May and then continuing through the month of September. Thinking outside the box rather than just offering the usual and expected walking tour, each month a new topic is presented and is followed by a tour to the parts of the cemetery and grave sites relating to that topic. Our early programs covered such things as the history of the cemetery the history in the background of the various fraternal and religious organizations that make up six of the seven sections of the Jacksonville Cemetery. Monument makers, where the monuments were made, the styles and materials our local stone carvers and cemetery symbolism were a couple others. More recently, topics have been on early medical practices of the 1800s which featured a display of early medical instruments and the explanation of their uses that caused some squirming in the audience. Followed by a visit to grave sites of some of Jacksonville's early doctors and stories of their lives. Another was on Victorian morning customs with our dozens dressed in appropriate mourning attire. They discussed the practices of the time and the reasons people followed such a strict and proper procedure for mourning the deceased. A display of Victorian funeral announcements, pictures of the deceased which was very popular at the time, floral arrangements and a mourning wreath were also included. A very popular program was love and courtship with the talk on courtship practices in the 1800s and included a number of local love stories of those buried within the cemetery grounds. Other programs were on early business leaders scandalous stories mysteries and myths in the cemetery to name but a few. One that we did last year that was great fun was called what in the world was going on when they died. We visited a number of grave sites and talked a little bit about the individuals resting within that grave site and then we went on to speak of what was going on in the world in Oregon, the United States and the world when this individual passed. It was a very well received program and a great review of history. We first introduced History Saturday in 2011 and it continues to be a well attended and successful program. Last year we started a new event called Tuesday Evening Cemetery Stroll. We offer these after dinner strolls on the second Tuesday of the month May through August. Our goal was to be able to attract more people to the cemetery people who worked and had families and weren't able to make any of the events that we offer during the week and on Saturday mornings. It's a great opportunity to get out after dinner take a walk and enjoy the nice weather. The turnout last year which was our first year was wonderful and people really enjoyed the program so much that we will be offering it again this year, 2017. Well there's another big event coming up in the month of May, Memorial Day. We've been doing a program called A Meet and Greet on Memorial Day and we've been doing it for quite a few years and volunteers start that weekend by placing flags on the grave sites of all of our veterans. We have over 360 veterans buried in the cemetery and then the volunteers are on site on both Sunday and Monday from 11 to 3 to assist families in locating the grave sites of loved ones. We are also available to answer questions about the cemetery and the Friends Organization. As May is National Preservation Month we also take that opportunity to feature recent and past restoration and preservation projects that have been accomplished in the cemetery. We have photo boards set up at various restoration sites with before, during, and after photos. As people walk the grounds they're able to take in and really appreciate the work that has been accomplished. This event is a wonderful way to connect with families who have loved ones buried in the cemetery. It's a very rewarding day for not only the volunteers but families and friends as well. It's also, we find every year, not all the grave sites are marked with military markers. So this is a great opportunity when the families come and they see the flags, they see our station, they'll come over and inform us that their relative or friend was a veteran and then we're able to mark that grave site and we place a flag if not immediately before we leave for the day. So our list of known veterans grows every year. Meet the pioneers. This is our big yearly event and fundraiser for the Friends Organization which we put on each October. This event started out in 2006 and I'm not going to take credit as being the inventor. It was a borrowed program from the Historical Society in Grants Pass who has been doing a cemetery tour up there for a number of years. But we started in 2006 after going to their event a couple years as a way to make some money to allow us to go in and do some restoration work. Well, what we thought was going to be a one-time event turned out to be an ongoing event. Not begrudging, I'm happy, but it was just so successful that very first year it sold out and as people were leaving they were saying you are going to do this again next year so we have. In 2015 we celebrated our 10th anniversary. We did take the year off last year as a fundraiser but we were very fortunate that a group of local actors had approached me and put on a production. It was actually three weekends of Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology and that was done over at the Rogue Valley Community College and it was just such a wonderful event. I learned so much from that and hopefully can incorporate that and meet the pioneers which I'm very happy to say will return this year on October the 6th and the 7th. We will be having tours again. We have quite a following that return year after year. The program is guided walking tours that depart every 15 minutes and they go through the torch lit cemetery grounds, players in period dress, take on the lives of early pioneers and share their stories with the tour groups that are led through the cemetery. In addition to individual stories we also cover important and interesting topics of the day, 1800s and early 1900s such as Southern Oregon's Civil War, the smallpox epidemic, the last hanging in Jacksonville, the assassination of President Garfield and the Christmas Gala at the New County Courthouse to name but a few. People, both local residents and visitors alike really enjoy learning the history of the Rogue Valley and Southern Oregon through these living history programs. The costumes, props, torches, luminaries transform the cemetery into a very special theater for two evenings of the program. For the last few years the program has been filmed and then we do a movie and dessert night in January to share the film with all of the volunteers that help put the program on. Many of our presentations from over the years can be viewed on YouTube. Some examples of other types of events and activities that we have done to better showcase the cemetery and making it an important part of today's community were a Civil War memorial service to mark the anniversary of the start of our nation's Civil War. Civil War era poems were read, a prayer service was offered, bagpipes were played, and the names of all of those Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery were read aloud. It was a very moving ceremony. I spent a lot of time in the cemetery. What can I say? The mayor closed the city offices and facilities so that all of the city employees could attend. Another special service was when we placed a military marker on the grave of Private Hayes Benjamin Taylor. He was a young Spanish-American war veteran who was killed in action. While his remains were returned to Jacksonville and his family in February of 1900, some 11 months after his death, his grave was never marked. It was interesting that when reading old newspaper accounts regarding Private Taylor's remains being returned to his family in Jacksonville, the whole town turned out for that funeral. Then, over 100 years later, a large crowd from that same community turned out for the placement of his long overdue military marker. We also did a memorial service in July of 2014 to mark the start of World War I. Our organization has sponsored and hosted a number of special programs with guest speakers talking on various subjects. A couple of them we partnered with local libraries and held the programs in their community meeting rooms. We also have the use of the library, Jacksonville Library Display Showcase at least two times a year. Our organization sets up a display on various subjects that relate to the cemetery. Our May display relates to Veterans and Memorial Day, while the September display is usually a topic and features our October Meet the Pioneers program. These programs and displays allow us to bring the cemetery down off the hill and into the community. We set up information booths at street fairs and other community events as a way to let people know that there is an organization of volunteers who care for the cemetery and how they can help. Good exposure along with other community clubs and organizations. We also do special programs such as today and talk to groups such as the Southern Oregon Historical Society, Jackson County Library Services, Daughters of the American Revolution, and other retirement communities. This again is another opportunity to take the cemetery and its history out into the community. The Friends of the Cemetery hold monthly workshops on marker cleaning. We start in April, take May off because of all the Memorial Day activities, and then resume in June through September. And that's on the third Saturday of the month. And it's open to not only volunteers to help clean the markers in Jacksonville, but we encourage other cemeteries that have volunteers that are anxious to learn how to clean markers to please join us. We have conducted marker restoration workshops in a number of local cemeteries. And we sponsor three yearly community clean-up days of the cemetery grounds. We do one in March, May, and October. Our interpretive center, we took a small building, it's actually an old milkhouse that was on the cemetery property, and turned it into an interpretive center. We have display boards featuring write-ups and photos of our volunteers in action, cemetery news, upcoming events and activities, and cemetery rules and regulations. It contains a visitor register where people can leave contact information and also make comments if they're requesting any kind of information. This is also a good source when we're going after grants, either local or federal grants. We can demonstrate how many people actually come to the cemetery. And unfortunately, not everybody signs in. I'm sure you have that problem. We encourage people to sign in, but the majority fail to do so. This, along with our cemetery self-guided tour, brochure and map, we have 10 interpretive panels and benches that are placed throughout the cemetery grounds. Welcome visitors to take their time and stroll the grounds. These items all add and enhance to enhance a visit to our outdoor museum. News coverage, we all know how important that is to our organizations. All these events and activities usually receive great coverage by the local newspapers and TV stations. Wonderful way to get the word out about all the activities going on in the cemetery. I believe one of the reasons we've been successful is in partnerships that we have made with local officials, receiving their support, partnerships with other organizations in the community, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Jacksonville Boosters Club, fraternal organizations, and other civic and nonprofit groups all working together. Volunteers. Now, here's an organization that really knows how to get volunteers. I was almost going to delete this, but I thought, no, I'll just throw it in there. There might be somebody in the audience. The genealogy group does such a wonderful job with volunteers, and we're fortunate as well. But another way of getting the community involved is keeping them interested in a need for volunteers. Have a list of the various jobs and tasks that need to be done for the various events and activities. Have things on the list that will allow everyone to get involved, no matter their age or physical limitations. Don't turn anyone away. Some people are able to do more physically demanding work, such as helping with grounds cleanup and marker restoration, while others can help with marker cleaning and others may be able to help with greeting volunteers, having them sign in and passing out supplies. These volunteer activities, no matter what they are, give people a sense of ownership and pride that spreads throughout the community. In closing, I want to thank you for your attention and hope that perhaps I've given you some new ideas of things to look for and to appreciate on your next visit to one of our beautiful historic cemeteries. Also, that you may consider attending one of our History Saturday or Tuesday evening strolls that we have planned for this year. We'd love to have you join us. So with that, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.