Dover Cemetery Comes Alive With “Spirited” Weekend Event

(Dover, NH) - Area residents will be able to interact with some of Dover's most historic figures as the Woodman Museum hosts the "Voices from the Cemetery" tours this weekend.

The tour will span 250 years of history and will feature actors portraying the spirits of those buried in the historic Pine Hill Cemetary, where the oldest surviving stone dates back to 1734.

Among the luminaries that will greet visitors are Henry Law and Cordelia Teatherley, known as "The Weeping Bride".
Teatherley is forever turned away from her former fiance's grave.  Law ended their engagement because he did not like her dog!

The spirit of 31-year old Elisha Thomas will detail his death in 1788 after he was found guilty of murder and was, perhaps, the first person ever hanged in New Hampshire.

Lucy Hale Chandler and her father will talk about their lives in the Civil War era.  John Hale was a U.S. Senator, and his young daughter counted Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior and Robert Todd Lincoln among her suitors. But her real love was a young actor to whom she was secretly engaged. Her photograph was found in the pocket of John Wilkes Booth when he died in a shootout with federal troops after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

When she died in 1915, Annie Woodman left her home on Central Avenue and 100-thousand dollars for the establishment of "an institution for the promotion of education in science and art". The home is now the Woodman Museum, sponsors of the weekend tours.

The "Voices of the Cemetery" tours will be held Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Pine Hill Cemetery on Central Avenue in Dover.

The guided tours leave every 15 minutes between 10 am and 3 pm.

For tickets and information, call (603) 742-1038.