Hear tales of Confederate past at Historical Cemetery Tour in Llano

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

LLANO — When Tommi Myers and the Friends of the Llano Library hosted the first Historical Cemetery Tour five years ago, about a dozen people showed up.

Now, many people would have become discouraged after pouring hours of work into researching several families with relatives in Llano City Cemetery and then writing scripts and producing a living history piece about those families.

But Myers wasn’t.

“I just really enjoy history,” Myers said. “This was a way to really connect people to Llano’s history and the people who not only lived here but many of the families who still do.”

The next year, after word spread about the event and how it worked, more than 200 people took the tour.

“We have the interest built now,” Myers said. “We have people contacting the city and the cemetery asking them when is the tour this year.”

The tour is Oct. 22 at the cemetery, 1400 Hickory St. The event is 5:30-7 p.m. with tours leaving every 15 minutes. Each one lasts about an hour and a half. Tickets are $5 (children 16 and under get in free) and can be purchased at the Llano Public Library.

This year’s Historical Cemetery Tour features men who served in the Confederate Army and their families. Myers began studying and preparing for the tour months in advance.

This isn’t just a walking tour with a guide pointing out a grave, giving a quick monologue about the person and moving on. Instead, history “speaks” during the event.

As a guide leads a group through the cemetery, they will stop at certain graves. This year’s tour features eight stops, each with a Confederate connection. At the grave, participants will find either actors playing the parts of the soldier or a family member waiting to share stories.

“I do a lot of research on the person and their family, then I write scripts for the (actors),” Myers said.

The actors portraying the people dress in period costumes. It’s all done to help bring history to life and give people a connection to Llano’s past. One of the unique things about the tour is many of the individuals selected as stops have direct family connections to families and residents living in Llano and the surrounding area today.

“What I’ve found is the families want to be a part of the tour,” Myers said. Through research and talking to family members, Myers has discovered interesting, and often forgotten or unknown, stories. During one walk through the cemetery searching for people to include on a the tour a couple of years ago, Myers came across the grave Theophil Carl “T.C.” Schorlemmer. On each side, she noticed graves for his two wives.

As she began looking into Schorlemmer’s life, his story and those of his wives opened up.

“What I learned was his first wife died leaving him with several children,” Myers said. “His second wife ended up raising the children. Here were these two women who were tied together through T.C. and his children, but they never knew each other.”

So during the cemetery tour, Myers had Cheryl Crabtree portray Maria Schorlemmer and JoAnn Costa portray Augusta Schorlemmer. The two women sat in chairs next to the graves and chatted.

“During the cemetery tour, I had the two talking to each other about their lives, the children and everything,” Myers said. “It turned out to be very powerful because here you had these two women so connected but who had never met.”

This year, Myers is focusing on individuals with Confederate connections. She located eight men buried in the cemetery who served in the Confederate Army and lived in Llano. But it’s not just about the eight men.

Myers learned about the men’s families and the struggles they faced while soldiers were away fighting.

“When I was looking into this, it sounds like so few men were left in the county (during the war) that the women faced some serious challenges,” Myers said. “This was still a frontier town at the time. Back then, it was a pretty scary time. So along with the soldiers, we’re also going to look at what the women and families dealt with during this time.”

While the tour starts in the evening, it’s neither scary or ghoulish. As the sun settles, volunteers illuminate the cemetery with translucent lights, adding to the atmosphere. Nobody is out to scare anybody, but, instead, the point is to share stories of Llano’s past through the eyes and voices of the residents.

“We just want to bring these stories to all the people who may have never known about them,” Myers said. “You know, I hated history when I was a kid because you just sat in some room while somebody lectured to you. But as I started delving into local history and started making connections to it, I’ve come to love it, especially with things like the tour where history comes to life. Sometimes it takes experiencing history to really appreciate it.”

Call the library at (325) 247-5248 or stop by at 102 E. Haynie St. for more information or to pick up tickets.

daniel@thepicayune.com