Portrayal melds past, present

During Buckley's sesquicentennial celebration, Betty Hull will stroll through a rural cemetery in a prairie skirt, blouse and bonnet, guiding visitors on a trip back in time.

Hull will portray her great-great-grandmother Betsey Hull in a cemetery tour. She and her nephew, Dean, will narrate the story of Betsey and Japeth Hull, who moved to Buckley in 1853. Japeth opened his home to slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad.

"I really thought it was important that family members portray (the Hulls)," Betty Hull said.

The presentation is one of six that will take place July 30 in St. John's and Woodland cemeteries. The tour will start at 1 p.m., and tour guides will split the audience into six groups to hear a 15-minute presentation about a prominent Buckley citizen at the site of his or her grave. The tours are free.

"It's hard to squeeze (a life story) into 15 minutes," Betty Hull said. "But we have scripts written out covering the important parts."

Buckley Postmaster Pam Fink and others started planning the event about a year ago by choosing a few Buckley forefathers to research.

Others who made the cut:

– J.D. Riggs, who moved to Buckley in 1856 as a boy and became a banker and a merchant.

– Pearl Ennen, the wife of Iroquois County Deputy Sheriff Henry Ennen, who in 1931 chased bank robbers and was held at gunpoint.

– J.M. Gross, first teacher at St. John's Lutheran School.

– Arlie Seymour, the Buckley Dutch Masters' business manager, who coordinated horse races, airplane rides and parachutists at baseball games.

– Jesse McClave, a Civil War veteran who moved to Illinois in 1872. Craig Luhrsen of Buckley will portray McClave.

"He kept extensive diaries of the Civil War, which made for fascinating reading," Luhrsen said.