Boo-calaureate Education Part of a Lively Halloween Evening

While the rest of the town filled trays and buckets with candy, tidied up walkways, and fired up phalanxes of inflatable ghouls and goblins, Professor of History at Dean College, Rob Lawson, was regaling students and residents with historical tales from Franklin's Union Street Cemetery. If the atmosphere of a cemetery at twilight wasn't enough for attendees, a few of the stories had just a touch of the spooky about them.

In the photo, Lawson  is at the headstone of Orestes Doe, a prominent Franklinite of a century ago, whose home site, he explained, is now a familiar Dean building.

Also a favorite for Lawson's listeners, is the tragic tale of Deliverance Emmons, daughter of the town's long-serving Congregational Minister.  And, of course, the resting place of the Rays also came in for comment, given their central role in both Franklin and Dean College history. Other details covered in the talk included funerary motifs found on old headstones and their meaning, as well as the function of the underground crypts found in most older New England cemeteries.

Lawson has been conducting the tours on Halloween for many years and enjoys connecting the town and the college through their shared history.

When the tour completed, most of the 20+ people in attendance, followed Lawson to the Chancellor's office for a Halloween open house.