A Spirited Sunset Stroll

Life returns to Franklin's Union Street Cemetery every year on Halloween thanks to Dean History Professor, Dr. Rob Lawson. An expert on town and cemetery history, this year Lawson led a group of nearly 50 residents and students on a tour that charted the town's evolution, religious, cultural, and economic, through the styles and motifs of headstones dating back to the 1700s and the stories they tell.

He also linked his narration to some of the individuals and families that shaped the community, particularly Reverend Nathaneal Emmons, a very prominent Congregational minister and theologian who spent most of his long career in Franklin.

Today, the large obelisk marking his resting place and that of his family is still one of the most notable features of the cemetery. 

Lawson noted Emmons impact on two other famous Franklinites, Horace Mann and Oliver Dean, both of whom moved far from the hard-edged religious views of Emmons toward a kinder and gentler view of humanity and God.

As always, Lawson held his audience spellbound with his ability to connect the mute representations on stones with living stories that link the town's past to its present and future.

And the brisk  temperatures, and fading light lent some additional stagecraft to Lawson's annual tradition.