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WILKES-BARRE — A walking tour of Hollenback Cemetery on Saturday offered a chance for area residents to look back on the history of the area, through the stories of men and women who went before them.
Wilkes-Barré Preservation Society director and Hollenback Cemetery Association board member Tony Brooks told attendees that he’s been leading the tour for about 20 years.
Brooks brought the lives of area ancestors to life and made them relevant to the present. He underscored that many paved the way for area life as we know it today.
The cemetery was named after George Hollenbackm who donated the 15 acres of land in 1855. It opened the following year.
Brooks said about 16,000 people were interred at the cemetery, with burials now only of those whose families purchased a plot there years ago.
Even though some of the valley’s most prominent citizens are buried in Hollenback, including doctors, lawyers and politicians, it’s not an exclusive resting place for the rich and famous, he said.
Numbered in those buried at the cemetery are both businessmen who made their fortunes in coal and those who died in coal mining disasters.
Notable figures
Brooks detailed the only father/son mayor team from Wilkes-Barre interred at the cemetery, first detailing the life of Ira M. Kirkendall, who served first as a Burgess of Wilkes-Barre borough from 1870 to 1871 and then as its first city mayor from 1871 to 1874.
He then told of George Hollenback, who wanted to leave his fortune to a son, but only had daughters, Brook said.
So, Hollenback interviewed his sisters’ six sons and decided to adopt her son “John,” who was then known as John Wells Hollenback and inherited his estate.
John Hollenback was married three times and produced only daughters, and no sons.
The Hollenback fortune, he said, ultimately was used to fund scholarships for students attending area colleges and universities.
Brooks, who deftly detailed more than a dozen historical area figures, included the story of Judge Jesse Fell who in 1808 used an iron grate to ignite anthracite coal, fueling the industrial revolution.
He also told of Attorney Stephen Teller who prosecuted those responsible for the Knox Mine disaster, both leadership of the company and the union. Twelve men, he said, lost their lives in that disaster.
Brooks said the city was laid out on 50 plots in what is now the downtown area within the perimeter of what is now South Street, North Street, River Street and Pennsylvania Boulevard.
Those who farmed did so on land outside the residential area, often near the Susquehanna to use as a water source.
Impressed with the tour
Karen Szczepanski, of Mountain Top, was attending the tour for the first time. She found out about the tour and knew she wanted to come.
She said she is a member of “Find a Grave,” an online resource that helps people learn more about their family history. She said not only did she find out a lot about her own family, but has helped others to do so, as well.
Szczepanski said she was impressed with both the tour and the cemetery, which she said told the stories of many.
About 75 people attended the tour, with many commenting on the “perfect weather” which made this year’s tour especially enjoyable.