- November 20, 2024
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Pilgrims Rest Cemetery on Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
A banjo playing skeleton welcomes people to the annual Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Brenda Fecher gives the crowd a little bit of history about the cemetery before the tour starts. Photo by Michele Meyers
Fans given away before the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour were printed with part of the poem "Those We Love" by an unknown author. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Brenda Fecher gives the crowd a little bit of history about the cemetery before the tour starts. Photo by Michele Meyers
Vicie Winn played by Laurie Taylor was the first stop on the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Reenactor Laurie Taylor played Vicie Winn who stood by her gravestone during the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Reenactor Ellen Svajko plays four-year-old Kansas Bennett, the first person buried at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. She was the sister to Barbara Fecher's great grandmother Vicie Winn. Photo by Michele Meyers
Joyce Benedict (right), an Ormond Beach Historical Society Board of Director, talks to the group attending the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Reenactor Ellen Svajko plays four-year-old Kansas Bennett, the first person buried at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. She was the sister to Barbara Fecher's great grandmother Vicie Winn. Photo by Michele Meyers
Reenactor Nancy Gniech plays Bertie Miller who is a descendant of two of the oldest families in the area--the Bennetts and the Winns. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mary Smith (right) plays Lucinda Bennett--4-year-old Kansas Bennett's mother--at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Douglas Brown plays his grandfather George Tippins while standing next to the cannon provided by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Douglas Brown plays his grandfather George Tippins while standing next to the cannon provided by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Bill Denny plays "Bear" Davis at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery 16th annual tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Bill Denny plays "Bear" Davis at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery 16th annual tour. He is one of the Ormond Beach Historical Society Board of Directors. Photo by Michele Meyers
Lynn Driggers plays confederate soldier James F. Hull at the 16th annual Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tours. Photo by Michele Meyers
Sons of the Confederate Veterans member Jerry Wozniak talks to the crowd as confederate soldier Zachariah Bennett at one of the 16th annual Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tours. Photo by Michele Meyers
A little disruption in the crowd did not faze reenactor Jerry Wozniak as he talks about the civilian hunting rifle at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Jerry Wozniak (left) and Lynn Driggers (right) lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of the song "Dixie" at the 16th annual Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tours. Photo by Michele Meyers
Jerry Wozniak and Lynn Driggers play confederate soldiers at the 16th annual Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tours. Photo by Michele Meyers
Sons of the Confederate Veterans' members Jerry Wozniak (left) and Douglas Brown (right) prepare the mountain howitzer to be fired at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Jerry Wozniak (left) and Douglas Brown (right) fire the mountain howitzer provided by Sons of the Confederate Veterans. Photo by Michele Meyers
Jerry Wozniak (left) and Douglas Brown (right) clean the mountain howitzer after it was fired at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Jerry Wozniak (right) and Douglas Brown (left) clean the mountain howitzer after it was fired at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery tour. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Brenda Fecher is related to close to 90-percent of the people buried at the cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Brenda Fecher. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Steve Fecher. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Steve Fecher. Photo by Michele Meyers
Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker Steve Fecher kneels by the headstones that have the same names, same date of death but different date of birth. Photo by Michele Meyers
An unmarked grave gets a regular visitor who leaves flowers at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Laurie Taylor (center) visits with Kim Gruber (right) as Bill Denny (left) goes over his notes at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Reenactors Laurie Taylor (left) and Ormond Beach Historical Society president Mary Smith look at headstones at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery. Photo by Michele Meyers
Tales from the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery were told by reenactors at the 16th annual fundraiser held at 791 W. Granada Blvd. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5. Tours were led by the cemetery caretakers in collaboration with Ormond Beach Historical Society officers, members and volunteers.
Ordinarily, the fundraiser was a one-night event but this year they decided to add an additional night for a total of four tours. The history lessons proved to be in demand when all the available time slots were booked. Tickets sold at $20 a piece with the proceeds being split evenly between OBHS and the care of the cemetery.
OBHS head docent Joyce Benedict, welcomed the crowd before introducing caretakers Brenda and Steve Fecher. Benedict is also one of the OBHS Board of Directors.
“I can’t say enough about this little cemetery,” Benedict said. “For the last 16 years all the ticket funding has been split 50-50 with the Ormond Beach Historical Society and this beautiful cemetery because this is all the money they get. It is strictly a non-profit labor of love.”
Brenda and her husband Steve Fecher took over the responsibility of taking care of the cemetery when Brenda’s mother, Nancy Partridge, died of cancer in December 2021. They are the third generation in Brenda’s family to become caretakers. Brenda said she and her husband were sitting with her mother in hospice when they both had an “aha moment”.
You only die when your name has not been spoken any more. When people quit talking about you and your memory is gone, that is when your dead. - STEVE FECHER, Pilgrims Rest Cemetery caretaker
“All of a sudden, a lightbulb came on, ‘we have to take care of the cemetery’,” she said. “We couldn’t just let it go. We had to do it. There’s a choice but there’s not a choice for us. At first, it was more like we have to do it but now we want to do it. We enjoy it.”
The tours are designed to take people through the cemetery making stops at different gravestones whose “occupants” are portrayed by reenactors from OBHS, the Sons of the Confederate Veterans or interested volunteers. Basically, they are reenactments of Brenda Fecher’s ancestry.
“I’m related to most of the people in here,” she said. “We believe between 80, 85 to 90-percent of the people I’m related to either by marriage or blood. Some I didn’t even know until as recently as a couple weeks ago.”
Her story began with the pioneer families who settled near the Tomoka River in the mid 1800s—the Bennetts, the Winns, the Harpers, the Campbells and the Grovers. They started the Tomoka Settlement which was located on what is currently known as the Tymber Creek subdivison. The settlement’s church and cemetery were organized there in 1879.
16 years later, a second freeze destroyed the families’ orange groves and they decided to move closer to Ormond Beach. Walter Campbell and William Bennett Jr. bought land where they could relocate the church. In 1906, they rolled the church four-and-a-half miles on logs pulled by a team of mules to where the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery is currently located.
Lucinda Grover was 15 when she married Bennett Jr. They had 15 children together. Their daughter Kansas Bennett died at the age of four and was the first one buried at the Pilgrims Rest Cemetery.
Lucinda (Grover) Bennett is Brenda Fecher's great-great grandmother. Her daughter Vicie Winn is Fecher's great grandmother. OBHS president Mary Smith played Lucinda Bennett, Vicie Winn was played by Laurie Taylor and reenactor Ellen Svajko played Kansas Bennett on the first three stops of the tour.
“Before I let you go, I just want to remind you...to thank my great granddaughter Brenda and her husband Steve for taking such great care of this cemetery,” Taylor as Vicie Winn said.
There are also seven confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery. James F. Hull was portrayed by Lynn Driggers and Zachariah Bennett was played by Jerry Wozniak.
Hull became part of the Florida Brigade under the overall leadership of Jeff Longstreet and fought for the confederacy for four years and six months. At the end of the Civil War, he settled in Ormond Beach where he became the postmaster and was involved in many other business endeavors. In 1862, Zachariah Bennett joined the 2nd Florida Regiment who were involved in many of the major east coast battles during the Civil War.
The Sons of the Confederate Veterans provided a mountain howitzer to be fired at the end of each tour. Driggers and Wozniak led the event-goers in a rousing rendition of the song “Dixie” by Daniel Decatur Emmett before Wozniak and Douglas Brown prepped and fired the cannon.
Brenda Fecher wants the community to know the history of the cemetery. She said she also wants to give people a feeling of “hometown-ness” even if they are states away and cannot visit their loved one’s gravesite.
“Even though it’s a cemetery, it’s alive,” she said. “We do it so nobody is forgotten.”
Steve Fecher said it is a lot of work but they love it and want people to come out and enjoy it.
“You only die when your name has not been spoken any more,” Steve Fecher said. “When people quit talking about you and your memory is gone, that is when you're dead.”
