We planned to publish a book entitled South Park Cemetery: Exploring Roswell’s Roots and an historical self-guided cemetery walking tour brochure called “Walking Through Roswell’s Past.” What better reward or motivation could there be than for students to know that their work would be read and appreciated?

From the sultry heat of August to the chilling snows of December, students canvassed our cemetery to see what they could discover and determine which gravesites they would research for the book and brochure.

Enticing our community members into the project was not too difficult as the word spread quickly via the local newspaper, television and radio stations, and from the public in general.

By mid January, we were done canvassing the cemetery and were ready to brainstorm, discuss, and debate the hard decisions about whose gravesites we wanted to be on the walking tour brochure and whose biographies we would write about for the book. Students also had to discover and decide upon who, what, and how to research the material that interested us the most. We visited our local library, combed our historical society archives, and explored the county courthouse. We conducted numerous interviews, had visitors into the classroom, and utilized the Internet for our research.

Each student completed at least one in depth research study on a person or persons of interest for the book. This research included obtaining documents from our courthouse such as deeds, wills, voter registrations, and other pertinent paperwork. Students learned how to utilize old newspaper records as they searched for obituaries on microfiche. They also conducted personal interviews with relatives of the deceased to gather material and information to write their biographies.

A rich variety of oral history emerged from these descendants who served as our primary sources. All of the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed by the students. A subsequent flurry of writing tasks took place in the classroom for the remainder of the school year: forty-one biographies, a collection of epitaphs, other historical information, such as a record of the sextons and headstone information, and two informational essays on the actual cemetery including the grounds and information about its history.

Students doing fieldwork to search for information in an older section of South Park Cemetery.

A unique headstone of painted tiles catches the camera's eye.

Canvassing all the headstones for historical details to include in the book.

A lesson in scrapbooking teaches students a unique method of preserving history.

On bad weather days, we entertained guests representing such groups as the Masons, the Woodmen of the World, and the veterans of WWII. Their stories brought shared laughter and shared tears for all of us. Veterans talked about the traditional burial customs like flag folding (which was demonstrated), the bugling of taps, and the twenty-one gun salutes for service men and women.

All of the community involvement served to demonstrate to students how traditions are passed on through generations of community people much like themselves. It also demonstrated how they would, in turn, become the future tradition bearers and the historical element for the town’s future. Ultimately, these guests all helped bring the history of our town to life for the students.

In order to present their work to the public at the project’s completion, the students hosted approximately sixty people at the cemetery, serving refreshments, giving interviews to the press, and autographing numerous books.

Students selected fourteen of the brochure sites as tour highlights and allowed visitors to come to them using the tour map. As visitors approached the designated gravesites, the students regaled them with historical facts and family stories about their stop. The public support and accolades received all served to help the students develop a more intimate connection with their community.

This article represents a shorthand account of a very successful school year, which brought students and the community together. Community members served as our sources of information, our audience, and our critics all rolled into one. The students responded by giving them a product that tourists coming to our city can use and books on our library shelves that real audiences can check out, read, and enjoy. If you would like more in depth information on this project, or similar learning projects, please contact me at HHuckabee@msn.com.