DUBOIS – On Saturday, eight spirits of DuBois City’s past took up residence as part of a lantern tour. Each giving history lessons as part of the DuBois Area Historic Society’s fundraiser.
This was the second year for the DuBois Area Historic Society’s Spirit of DuBois Lantern Tour. The tour benefits the non-profit Historic Society to help keep the museum open and pay its bills.
The first year had 175 people showed up. The second year over 90 had pre-registered. By the second tour the waiting room had become standing room early between the walk-ins and waiting for those who pre-registered for the time slot.
The lantern tour was originally going to be a ghost walk. Only there weren’t enough notable locations in DuBois for ghost stories. Tom Schott of the historic society came back with the idea of a spirit walk of historical figures after taking a similar tour in Pithole, Pa.
A beaver from the pre-logging beaver meadows. A generic mayor from around the 1920s. Thomas Edison who visited DuBois to see an early mobile home built in the city and the trolley system. James Cherry who was the first of the prominent Cherry family to arrive in the United States and a cobbler.
Next to the First Baptist Church of DuBois where tour walkers leaned the history of the church’s construct, transformation into an opera house and back to a church from theh Rev. M. E. Hare and Mrs. Sidney Fulmer. The latter the wife of the man who turned the church into an opera house after the congregation were unable to keep up with the mortgage.
From near the old public library to near the current library location the tour met a bus station clerk who worked for the now out of business bus station that put the old DuBois trolley system out of business. Nearby where the Beer Music Store once stood a barber shop quartet informed and entertained. The final stop was to see Delores “Dee” Mathews back when she was a high school student and a cheerleader.
The eight spirits were played by people from the area. Current DuBois Mayor John “Herm” Suplizio played the mayor from the past. The barbershop quartet was the group All 4 Fun; Paul Ramsey, Joe Kruckow, Kirby Nupp and Jeff Hetrick. Thomas Edison was played by Tom Shade. Delores Mathews by Carli Jones.
The DuBois Area Historic Society is planning on continuing the spirit walk next year. A date has already been set.
