History comes alive with 'Grave Discussion'

Mount Prospect has been described as a bedroom community that developed along the Northwestern Railroad line, but a closer look reveals some mighty colorful characters who contributed to the town's history.

Some of them come to life Friday and Saturday, when the Mount Prospect Historical Society holds its fifth annual "Grave Discussion" Cemetery Walk.

The popular oral history event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Mount Prospect's oldest cemetery owned, by St. John Lutheran Church, which is at 1100 S. Linneman Road, Mount Prospect.

Local residents will don period costumes to re-enact the men and women who helped shape Mount Prospect's early history. Actors include Mount Prospect village trustees Paul Hoefert and Arlene Juracek, to historical society members and local ministers, to Mount Prospect police officer Bill Roscop.

In all, 10 historic figures will be portrayed, including only two who are being reprised from last year's walk.

One of the more colorful ones is August Deeke, who left the safe confines of his farm home in Mount Prospect only to be arrested while trying to make it as a cattleman in Texas.

Fittingly, Roscop, who knows a thing or two about making arrests, will portray the wayward Deeke.

Standing beside their actual headstones, these would-be actors will share some little known history about those residents who went before them.

Some of those include Paul Meeske, a St. John Lutheran Church teacher and organist and father of Fred Meeske, who founded Meeske's Market; as well as John Conrad Moehling, Mount Prospect's first postmaster, station agent and owner of the general store that was moved a few years ago and now houses Capannari's Ice Cream.

Jo Robinson, a Mount Prospect Public Library staff member, will portray Selma Moellenkamp, whose husband, Emil, owned one of the large farms in town. While much has been written about the family farm, it turns out Selma came from the Kirchoff family in Rolling Meadows, and she has some local history of her own to add to the family legacy.

"One of their sons stopped by the historical society with all this information about them," Robinson says. "We really didn't have that much to go on about her without that."

Marilyn Genther, Mount Prospect Public Library executive director, has been involved as an actor in the past, but this year she returns to co-chair the event.

"It's just like you're meeting the person," Genther says. "As an actor, you just get so into it. It's not like you're just describing them, but it's like you become them. And that's the fun of it."

If you go

What: Mount Prospect Historical Society presents "Grave Discussion" Cemetery Walk

When: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: St. John Lutheran Church, 1100 S. Linneman Road, Mount Prospect

Cost: $10 or $8 for historical society members

Details: (847) 392-9006 or www.mtphist.org