Take a stroll through Bridgewater’s Brookside Cemetery with the Desbrisay Museum to learn about the town’s history Monday night.
Local historian Peter Oickle is leading the Cemetery Walk to raise funds for the museum, and will lead participants on a historic journey by highlighting the history of Bridgewater through exploring those buried at the site.
Oickle says he came up with the idea for the walk after realizing what could be taught about the days of the past by simply taking a stroll through a cemetery.
“I had started doing research on a book about Brookside Cemetery, and as I did, I thought ‘Gee, this would make a great opportunity to show Bridgewater who these people were and how they made the town what it is,'” he said.
The walk will educate participants on important figureheads who helped shape Bridgewater in both the town’s past and present.
Oickle says cemeteries were at one point a very popular place to visit, and can shed light on the deep lore and history of the towns they are in.
“If we look at the Davison cemetery plots here, you think back to E. D. Davison and the Davison Lumber Company, which was a massive company in Nova Scotia. People look at that and say this is our history, this is our background. That is what cemeteries give us,” he said.
The Cemetery Walk starts at 6:50 pm on Monday, Aug. 12 at the York Street entrance, and admission is $5. Comfortable shoes are recommended.
