Put on your walking shoes, grab a sun-shading hat, bring some cool water, and enjoy a walking tour of Greenwood Cemetery.
The tour starts at 1 p.m. Friday, October 17. It is offered by the Friends of Eufaula Memorial Library. It will be narrated by Danielle Burchfield, a Eufaulan whose special interest is historical research.
Attendees will gather at the Ashbury Memorial, a large stone memorial with a cross on the top. It is located at the front/center of the cemetery, along the eastern fence.
You may park along the cemetery paths close by.
Burchfield will probably reveal how four of the five city founders buried in this cemetery were responsible for the city’s actual existence: David B. Whitlow, Joseph Mc-Donald Coodey, George Washington Grayson, and George W. Stidham. Maybe she’ll have some insight into why the fifth, Gray Eagle Scales, moved soon after Eufaula existed and was never heard from again.
The city’s first mayor, Cornelius E. Foley Sr. (1854-1944) is also interred here, along with many family members.
Many historical notable people are interred at Greenwood, including John Conover Nichols, U.S. Representative from Oklahoma (19351943), who died in an airplane crash in Asmara, Eritrea, was buried there, and later reburied in Greenwood in 1949.
Many of the older graves were moved here from other cemeteries when sites were submerged or relocated by the creation of Lake Eufaula. These include David B. Whitlow’s wife Edna and three other Whitlows. Cemeteries closed by the Corps of Engineers were Whitlow Cemetery, Buckner Cemetery, and Asbury Cemetery.
The Friends are pleased to bring this walk back in time to the community as part of its goal to enhance the cultural landscape of the community.
If you’d like more programs like this, please consider joining the Friends and become part of making such events happen.
Membership forms, available beside a box at the library’s checkout desk, can be filled in and deposited with a check of $5 or cash.
Members receive email notice of all upcoming Friends’ events.
