Early this morning the sun also came up over the old section of Oak Wood Cemetery. That has surely been the case for the past 156 years, with or without parades, even before there was a Memorial Day. [1]
Literally off the beaten path, on a bit of a hill, and with so many grave stones losing luster, some may ask if this area is relevant Saline history on this day. [2]
If so, why—?
Just off Monroe Street, within what would have been a straight sightline to People’s Park and readily visible from the nearby sidewalk, there stands an impressive family marker inscribed “Ruckman.” Thanks to the devotion of heirs that came generations later, an easily read replacement tombstone crisply tells the place where individuals John, his wife Phoebe, and their son Webster were finally laid to rest.
“He must have stood right here,” Bob Lane told Saline Journal last week, referring to Webster Ruckman. “His mother died in 1858, so I’m sure he stood here in this spot, alive, before he was killed four years later and then when he was buried here.”
Locally, Mr Lane is perhaps better known for his role as curator of our own Saline History Museum. But he readily acknowledges being a very engaged taphophile. “I’ve only been before City Hall twice,” he said. “Both times, about cemeteries. Maybe it’s because this is about people, not things.” [3]
Rotary Club of Saline must share this passion. For two years now, they’ve produced enactment tours at Oak Wood Cemetery in Saline. It’s along the same lines as the presentation approach used at Rentschler Farm Museum during its “Living History Program” — except that here the presentations are grave side. [4,5,6,7]
The Rotary “2018 Enactment Tours” are scheduled for Sunday, September 30 between 2:00pm and 6:00pm (with a rain date of October 7). Each tour runs about an hour and involves a bit of walking.
Preparation is highly exacting.
As Ginger Winter of Rotary explained it, committee members research histories through the first quarter of the year. She is then responsible for using packets of information that come from this to write first-person dialogues for those acting the parts to memorize; this scripting takes place in April and May. Then comes casting and rehersals for another three months, concurrent with the process of acquiring costumes and props.
Robison-Bahnmiller Funeral Home downtown provides financing to help put on these tours. [8]
“It takes money to rent or buy costumes,” Stephen Robison said to Saline Journal. “These aren’t corner-store outfits: They have to be authentic-authentic. The expense comes up again because these aren’t the same stories year-after-year.”
To get an idea of just what one of those stories is like, here’s an excerpt from what Webster Ruckman will say. He will begin at a point after having grown up on a Macon Road farm in Saline.
I enjoyed school and went on to Normal School in Ypsilanti after graduating from high school. The Normal School was the start of Eastern Michigan University today. Seems you can’t always plan your life out I discovered. The Civil War started and all my friends from Normal School enlisted in the Union Army. There were 165 soldiers from the Saline area. Oh, yes, and one of them ended up in the Confederate Army. Yah, I wonder how that happened? Anyway, 45 of us died of disease or were killed in action.
… our 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment was among the units of General Ambrose E Burnside’s 9th Army Corps that were engaged on battle at Antietam. The fighting began around 9:00am just south of the Burnside Bridge. Around noon, a Confederate battery opened fire on the regiment ….
The Battle of Antietam, of course, “remains the deadliest one-day battle in all American military history.” On September 17, 1862, some 22,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing over the course of twelve hours engaged in fighting. Webster Ruckman of Saline Michigan died on that day, in that place. [9,10,11]
Then his body was brought home.
Sounds very much like a story that needs to be heard in its entirety, more than reason enough to make a special trip up the hill to this part, too, of Oak Wood Cemetery — particularly on Memorial Day.
References
- “Memorial Day History” US Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs.
- “Aging Headstones A Concern At Saline’s Oakwood Cemetery” Angelo Parlov (July 22, 2017) The Sun Times News.
- “taphophilia” Collins Dictionary.
- Rotary Club of Saline (home page).
- “Saline Rotary’s Second Annual Oakwood Cemetery Enactment Tour 2017” Saline Rotary.
- “Saline Rotary Second Annual Cemetery Enactment Tour” Saline Rotary.
- “Imagine Seeing Rentschler Farm Museum through the Eyes of a Child During Your Next Visit, Part 1” Dell Deaton (May 25, 2018) Saline Journal.
- Robison-Bahnmiller Funeral Home (home page).
- “Battle of Antietam” History.
- “Antietam Sharpsburg” American Battlefield Trust.
- “The Bloodiest Day in American History–Hope for Freedom” National Park Service.
