Unearthing the stories beneath the stones
HERMITAGE - The population of Oakwood Cemetery exceeds any modern Shenango Valley city, and there’s a story beneath every stone.
In the past century and a half, more than 27,000 souls have been buried in its wooded, park-like 48.6 acres. The public can hear some of their fascinating stories Thursday evening during the Oakwood Cemetery History Walk, sponsored by the Sharon Historical Society and Oakwood Cemetery Association.
The single session of tours will begin at 6 p.m. Visitors are asked to arrive a half-hour early to allow time to park within the cemetery and walk to the Buhl Chapel area for the orientation. Groups of visitors will then be escorted to this year’s stops of interest, where docents will give brief talks at each.
The tour — which is only offered every few years — will include nine stops that are perennial favorites, like the grave of a gypsy queen who died while visiting Sharon in 1921. A free, 44-page, color keepsake booklet will include stories and photos from eight additional notable areas and grave sites in the cemetery.
This year’s stops:
The Buhl Chapel, which was built in 1899 by industrialist and philanthropist Frank H. Buhl. He and his wife, Julia, are interred in crypts inside the chapel.
Billy Whitla, the 8-year-old nephew of Mrs. Buhl, who gained national fame in 1909 when he was kidnapped and ransomed before being released unharmed.
Family mausoleums, including an opportunity to step inside the Owsley family mausoleum, one of 15 at the cemetery.
The outlaw Harold Brest, a hometown boy from Sharon gone bad. The career criminal — bank robbery and kidnapping were his biggest crimes — wound up in the infamous Alcatraz Island prison, where he and three others made a failed escape attempt in 1943.
The relocated graves of a cemetery that once stretched along West State Street in Sharon from the First Baptist Church to Logan Avenue. Hundreds of graves were moved to Oakwood in the 1870s after Sharon banned burials within its limits; Oakwood actually is in Hermitage, just outside the Sharon city limits.
A tribute to the more than 2,100 veterans buried at Oakwood, including three from the Revolutionary War and even a Civil War Confederate soldier or two.
The Fahnline family, which included John Fahnline Sr., who ran the Driggs-Seabury Co. (a Westinghouse predecessor), and John Jr., who was the founding president and general manager of radio station WPIC.
Peter L. Kimberly, a 19th-century capitalist who often partnered with Frank H. Buhl in business ventures. He made a fortune in vast mining interests in iron ore, coal, and gold.
The tour will take about two hours and involves walking about a mile over the cemetery’s rolling hills. Oakwood Cemetery is at the north end of Sharon’s Oakland Avenue.
The event is free and does not require a reservation. The historical society will hold another cemetery tour October 3.