Event to breathe life into Rapides Cemetery on Saturday

The history of the early days of Alexandria will be told through costumed impersonators as they breathe life into Rapides Cemetery on Saturday during the Spring Stroll Through The Cemetery.

The event was originally scheduled for April 18 but was canceled by bad weather.

During the fundraising event Saturday, six people in costumes will portray some of the people who are buried in the cemetery, located on Main Street in Pineville. They will tell the story of their lives or their relatives' lives to those taking the walking tour.

Pat Boone, vice president of the Central Louisiana Genealogical Society and business manager for the Alexandria Historical and Genealogical Library, said the names of the six people to be brought to life are not being revealed before the event, except for one.

The one whose identity has been made known is Mary Henrietta Wells Fulton, wife of Alexander Fulton, the founder of Alexandria.

The Spring Stroll Through The Cemetery will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the cemetery.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets can be purchased at the cemetery Saturday.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will go toward preservation of the cemetery.

Saturday's event is being presented by the Central Louisiana Genealogical Society, the Friends of the Historic Rapides Cemetery and the city of Pineville.

A flier for the event says those taking the stroll will "meet some of the famous and not so famous historical personalities that founded Central Louisiana."

Rapides Cemetery dates back to the late 1700s and is the oldest cemetery in Rapides Parish. It is located on the site where Franciscan missionaries established a Catholic mission in 1711. The French built a post there in 1723, naming it Post du Rapide. The post was renamed Post el Rapido in 1763 under Spanish rule.

Among the people buried in Rapides Cemetery, in addition to the Fultons, are George Mason Graham, known as the "Father of LSU" for his efforts to help found the forerunner to that university; James Madison Wells, the governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction; Judge Henry Boyce, for whom the town of Boyce is named; and Pierre Baillio, the builder of Kent Plantation House.

"I don't think a lot of people realize what we have there," Boone said. "The history there is unbelievable, and then you read the headstones of all these people, and some of them come to life because there's so much on the headstone. It's fascinating."