HISTORICAL TOUR |
MICHELLE BANSE STOKES
Live Oaks & Dead Folks Highly-acclaimned cemetery tour teaches history, provides spooky good time. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY SUSAN CHANDLER Incredibly theatrical, hugely historical, and thoroughly entertaining, Nesbitt Memorial Library’s Live Oaks and Dead Folks Cemetery Tour offers a unique annual experience that leaves tourists spellbound. This year’s tour focuses on the Stafford-Townsend Feud of Colorado County, 1871-1911. “We’re trying to do characters from the feud that are buried in the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery,” shared Susan Chandler, library director. “Hopefully it will be a good history lesson for our community. It is hard to believe that it’s only been about 100 years ago since the feud ended. That’s not that far back in history, really.” According to the book No Hope for Heaven, No Fear of Hell by James C. Kearney, Bill Stein and James Smallwood, “Two family names have come to be associated with the violence that plagued Colorado County, Texas, for decades after the end of the Civil War: the Townsends and the Staffords. Both prominent families amassed wealth and achieved status, but it was their resolve to hold on to both, by whatever means necessary, including extra-legal means, that sparked the feud.” Tickets for the 2021 Live Oaks and Dead Folks event go on sale October 1 at the Nesbitt Memorial Library. The event is slated for November 6 at 6 p.m. at the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery in Columbus. All of the actors and guides are volunteers and the cost to take the tour is $10. That price hasn’t changed in 18 years. “Something that is new that we started last year is a shotgun start,” said Susan. “Everyone starts at the same time and so they all hear the same story, but in a different order depending on which grave they start at. The tour lasts about an hour and a half.”
Above, Donna Pustejovsky portrays Augusta Dick in a past Live Oaks & Dead Folks tour.
Although she’s never been an actor, Susan has a passion for researching the characters and helping to write the scripts and has also volunteered as a guide in years past. “So much more info is available now online and it’s exciting to discover some tidbit that you may not have known before,” added Susan. “It really adds flesh to their bones! Not everyone who lives and dies leaves a lot of information about themselves, especially in the past. It’s harder to do someone who led a quiet life versus someone who was involved in something tragic – those are the people whose stories are a little more interesting to tell. The people
18 | COLUMBUS, TEXAS
