Indoor 'walk' coming to Elgin Cemetery Walk Sunday

The Elgin History Museum's 32nd annual Elgin Cemetery Walk on Sunday, Sept. 22, will see a lot of changes, including:

A new pair of chief organizers for the first time in 13 years.

The first portrayal of famous Elgin sculptor Trygve Rovelstad - by the man Rovelstad's family picked to safeguard the artist's autobiography and notes.

A memorial to the “Silent City” mass grave section of Bluff City Cemetery.

An original musical piece in honor of Elgin's dead.

And even a second-week sequel on Sunday, Sept. 29, in which the re-creators will present their performances inside a historic church.

Each year, the walk features five or six people buried at Bluff City Cemetery. As visitors walk from grave site to grave site, actors who have studied the lives of the six and have dressed as them give 10-minute presentations about their “memories.”

Some of those changes were sparked when Steve Stroud, who had chaired the event's planning committee with his wife, Laura, for 12 years, died in April. To replace the Strouds, leaders at the history museum recruited two relative newcomers to the city, Rudy and Lillian Galfi.

“We didn't even attend the cemetery walk until last year,” said Rudy Galfi, who said he and his wife moved to Elgin from Carol Stream 15 years ago and have been volunteering at the history museum for several years.

“We started working with Laura and Steve earlier this year to plan the transition. Then unfortunately Steve's health took a turn for the worse and he died in April.”

One could say the Cemetery Walk events this year really spread across three weekends. They began at 3 p.m. on Sept. 14 with the dedication of a granite memorial marker in memory of an unknown number of bodies that were unearthed when the old city cemeteries along Channing Street (the site of today's Channing Elementary School) and Chapel Street were abandoned in the 1800s.

Michael Murschel, one of the re-enactors, said many of the Channing Street and Chapel Street bodies, along with their gravestones, were moved to new graves at Bluff City. But in many other cases, no grave markers remained and the bodies could not be identified. So, the remains were reburied in one big “common grave” at the southwest corner of the new cemetery.

In a ceremony on Sept. 14 led by Elgin Poet Laureate Chasity Gunn, Mayor David Kaptain and state Rep. Anna Moeller, a granite marker commemorating the common grave was dedicated.

That will be followed by the usual re-creation of several noteworthy people buried at Bluff City from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22.

That will be followed by a new event - an indoor version of the walk done theater-style called “Silent City Speaks” that will be performed at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, at Iglesia Principe De Paz Church, 263 DuPage St.

Built in 1892 for the city's Unitarian Universalist congregation and shaped like an Elgin watch, the DuPage Street church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It recently was renovated by its new Hispanic owners.

“The indoor event will feature the same five characters, the same five vignettes and the same actors as the walk in the cemetery on Sept. 22,” Galfi said. “One of our goals is to increase the number of people who can come.

“There are a lot of people who used to come to the cemetery but now either can't get around physically, or can't make it on the date of the walk. The walk will include two bus tours, at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. for people who can't walk the route. But the event at the church will enable even more people to attend.”

Elgin History Museum member Sherry Lynn Blazier also has written a musical piece about “The Silent City” that she will perform at the Sept. 19 indoor event.

Galfi said the Strouds already had started picking out the characters for this year's walk.

Trygve Rovelstad (1903-1990) is well-known, but had never been done before because the committee doesn't like to select people who have died too recently. Rovelstad, who died in 1990, was an artist and sculptor known for creating the Pioneer Family Memorial along Kimball Street, the American Roll of Honor at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, and numerous World War II-era military medals. A blowup of the Rovelstad-designed Combat Infantryman's Badge is on display in the Elgin Civic Center.

To portray him, the Galfis chose a perfect actor - Michael Murschel, a freelance funeral planner and grief counselor who happens to be the curator of Rovelstad's records.

“My wife's family knew Trygve's family, going back to the 1970s, so I have his autobiography, his notes, some of his preliminary sketches, and some recordings he made,” Murschel said. “So as I portray Trygve, I can quote some things in his own words. I know his vocal cadence and how he pronounced certain words.”

In another ironic crossing of events, in April Murschel presided over Steven Stroud's real-life funeral and burial services at Bluff City.

During the last two walks, Murschel did vignette presentations about Victorian burial customs and about the common grave.

The other characters featured this year will be:

Carl Parlasca (1882-1980) and

Maude Parlasca (1881-1954): Boy Scout/Girl Scout leaders and founders of the annual Hiawatha Pageant. Portrayed by Cemetery Walk veterans August and Bonnie Conte.

Benjamin Pearsall (1866-1935): Leading figure in Elgin's butter and margarine industry. Portrayed by Scott Toppel.

Alfred B. Church (1844-1911): Stepson of Gail Borden, he donated Gail Borden Public Library. Portrayed by Steve Lewandowski.

Laura Brey (1889-1980): Artist who designed prizewinning World War I poster and Red Cross Christmas cards. Portrayed by Julie McCarthy.

Speakers also will present five shorter “vignettes” about such topics as Bluff City's “holding vault,” where up to 60 coffins were stored while winter weather made it difficult to dig graves by hand.

For details, call (847) 742-4248 or visit www.elginhistory.org/events.

Elgin Bluff City Cemetery Walk

When: Walking tours start between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22. Sign language available at 1 p.m. only.

Where: Bluff City Cemetery, 945 Bluff City Blvd., Elgin

Tickets: $12 in advance; $10 for Elgin History Museum members and seniors older than 65; $15 for nonmembers at the gate; free for children 12 and younger. Advance tickets are available at the museum, 360 Park St., Elgin; at the Ziegler's Ace Hardware stores in Elgin; at the Bluff City Cemetery office; or online at www.elginhistory.org

Details or bus seat reservations: (847) 742-4248 or www.elginhistory.org/events