ASHLAND —
Supporters of the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center and the Ashland Cemetery Preservation Fund are willing to pay a small fee for a meal and walking tour of the cemetery to raise funds for the museum’s education programs and the restoration of gravestones of city founders.
The seventh annual “Dining with the Past” will be Saturday, with cemetery tours scheduled for 3, 5, 6 and 7 p.m. The 3 p.m. tour begins at the cemetery’s office on Belmont Street and includes the tour only. The fee is $10.
The other tours will begin at the museum in the former Parsons building on Winchester Avenue and will include a box dinner. Following the meal, those on the tour will travel from the museum to the cemetery on city buses and return to the museum. The cost of the meal and tour are $15. Each tour is limited to 50.
Jim Powers, a retired director of the Boyd County Public Library and a local historian, is chairman of this year’s event. Despite the nearness of the date to Halloween, the purpose of the tour is not to frighten people with a scary trip through the cemetery, but to provide a somewhat different look at Ashland’s past by looking at the final resting places of those buried in the city’s largest cemetery, Power said.
Those on the tour will view the graves of members of the founding Poage family and other well-known Ashland leaders. They will hear about the so-called “Ashland Tragedy” and view the grave of the Secret Service agent who apprehended the man who shot President William McKinley, Powers said. They also will see unusual tombstones.
While some have taken the tour nearly every year, Powers said he hopes there will be many on this year’s tour who have never done so.
“Because the tours are limited to so few people, there are a lot of people who have never been on one,” Powers said. “Those are the people we are primarily targeting.”
However, for those who have been on previous tours, Powers said organizers are constantly adding to the tour as more information is discovered about those buried in the cemetery.
Powers said the late Sen. Ted Kennedy said individuals have to know their past to fully appreciate the present. The tour makes people who live here — even those who have spent their entire lives in Ashland — more aware of the city’s rich history.
Tickets for the meals and tours can be purchased at the museum at (606) 329-8888 or the Ashland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2649.
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Dining with Past tour slated for Saturday
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