Ladies Auxiliary Hopes to Begin New Memorial Day Tradition

by Jonathan Weaver

About a half-dozen women part of the Sarah A. Crawford Auxiliary Camp 43 will mournfully walk through the Kittanning Cemetery Monday morning.

Auxiliary Camp President Mindy Eckler explained the practice – classified as a ‘Widows Walk’ – that will take place starting at 8AM.

“It’s where we woman will walk in the cemetery and put flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers and talk about them a little bit,” Eckler said. “Memorial Day is to honor those who died while in war, and while the graves we will be putting flowers by are Civil War soldiers, they didn’t necessarily die in the war, they died afterwards.”

All women will be dressed in dark 1860’s attire, as well as a veil over their faces as the women in that time would have.

“The women of those soldiers at that time, they wept. They cried; they would sit and talk about the men that they lost and just remember that man that died,” Eckler said. “It’s so different from the way Memorial Day is celebrated today.”

Eckler said members will also read information from soldiers’ gravestones “to honor those men that served our country” – including from two auxiliary members that have ancestors buried there.

“To walk through the cemetery and find all the names takes a lot of time, but we’re doing the ones we can for now. Next year, we’ll find more in another cemetery or another part of Kittanning Cemetery,” Eckler said.

The ‘Widows Walk’ will precede another memorial at the John and Sarah Crawford graves as well as a firing and short service at the Colwell gravesite.

Both groups will also take part in the Kittanning Memorial Day parade as usual.

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