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September 2, 2010
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Group offers spooky cemetery tour
Published October 28, 2009
Celebrating the origins of Halloween as a festival of the dead, the Social Circle Better Hometown Association will be presenting its annual Cemetery Tour Friday and Saturday nights.
“Normally, evil spirits are not out except during late October,” said Paul Best, one of the organizers of the tour. “They do not like being disturbed — they do not like light or noise.”
The Social Circle Cemetery has historical roots in the town and includes more than 47 Civil War markers of Confederate soldiers buried in its hallowed grounds. The premise of the tour is a Union soldier who has spent several nights in the Social Circle Cemetery looking for his brother, Bobby, who lives in the area. The Union soldier came to Georgia from Iowa via New York with Gen. William Sherman and has become acquainted with several “spirits” he points out on the tour, saying he makes plans to return each year to meet more new spirits.
Best tells the stories of some of those buried at the graveyard, including a 16-year-old Social Circle boy who joined the Confederate Army in Monroe. The boy was made a drummer and traveled with the army up in Virginia. He died months later, was preceded in death by his parents and the tour attempts to help him find his family. The tour also includes a stop at the grave of Wylly Folk St. John, whose unique headstone includes the foreboding line, “But I am not resigned ...” Other stops on the tour include a children’s storywriter who likes cats and an artist who worked at the post office by day but taught young people how to paint.
Each year highlights new stories and provides more information about previous stories.
Members of the community and the Social Circle Theater join the cast, playing spirits haunting the graveyard. Monies raised from the tour benefit both the theater and the Better Hometown Association.
The cemetery encompasses several acres and is owned and cared for by the city. It is located off Highway 11 behind Social Circle United Methodist Church, bordering Memorial and Lakewood streets.
The 30-minute tours begin at 7:30 p.m. both nights and the last scheduled tour will begin at 9:30 p.m. Cost of the tour is $2 and begins at the main cemetery entrance on Memorial Street. For more information, call 770-464-1866.
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