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Yellow leaves shivered and fell as cold drafts blew through Woodlawn Cemetery’s white oak and maple trees. The teeth of young children, come to talk to the dead, chattered.
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Students from Hope Lutheran High School in Winona listen to Randy Schroeder, right, as he portrays Franz Georg Siemers Wednesday at the Siemers’ burial plot in Woodlawn Cemetery. Portraying Siemers’ daughters and wife are, from left, Nancy Edstrom, Abbey Quandahl and Emily Quandahl. About 200 students from the area previewed the cemetery walk which opens for public tours Saturday and Sunday.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
It’s not yet Halloween, but Winona’s most colorful dead folks have come alive for the ninth annual cemetery walk. Winona County Historical Society’s biggest annual fundraiser will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
On Wednesday, about 200 students from area schools previewed the one-mile tour in Potter’s Field. Community actors wearing feathered hats and bow ties helped connect Winona’s present with its past as they portrayed eight of the approximately 27,000 people buried in Woodlawn.
Margaret Littig fell in love with two of Winona’s brewers.
At 17, she met German immigrant Jacob Weisbrod. He stopped at the sewing shop where she worked in Rock Island, Ill., to get a shirt button fixed. It was love at first sight.
They married and collected Margaret’s $2,000 dowry, jumpstarting their future in Winona. They built a brewery on their East Burns Valley farm and soon started producing 500 barrels a day. They also operated Weisbrod Gardens.
“Beer was a lot like milk back then,” explained Phil Pheiten, who played Jacob Weisbrod. “They drank it with every meal.”
The group of sixth graders from Cochrane-Fountain City Middle School huddled on a pine bench perked up.
“Yuck,” said 11-year-old Byron Meng. His classmates giggled.
The Weisbrod’s beer business boomed and the soon opened a second brewery to keep up demand for Sugar Loaf Brew. Jacob appointed Peter Bub to be his brewmaster to help roll out 10,000 barrels of Sugar Loaf Brew a year.
A year after Jacob died in 1871, Margaret married Bub. They renamed the brew Bub’s Beer, which was produced until 1969. The limestone brewery burned down, but was rebuilt and is an antique mall today.
Margaret lived to be 94 years old and a 68-year resident of Winona, said volunteer actor Jody Brom.
Pheiten has volunteered at the past five cemetery walks. Three years ago, he portrayed his grandfather, who owned Sugar Loaf tavern.
Contact Amber Dulek at 507-453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
