If Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum weren’t such a well-kept establishment, the leaves over Lucretia and Bennett Butler’s 101-year-old graves would be thick enough to hide the headstones.

Standing in the breezy afternoon sunlight clutching a portable microphone, Leslie Goddard, manager of Programs and Education at the Evanston Historical Society, tried to bridge the century since the pair’s deaths.

She described the Iroquois Theatre Disaster to a tour group of 47 people Saturday.

“It was this devastating fire. (These two) died together in the first balcony,” she said. “It was a mother and her 15-year-old son, and he was burned so badly that they (could) only identify him by this letter he had in his pocket.” Goddard lofted a photocopied page over her head. “We think this is him,” she continued, pointing to a grainy portrait at the edge of the page.

The portrait page emerged many times during the one-and-a-half hour tour. Goddard led her audience past the graves of some of Evanston’s best- and least-known residents, pausing before each to share a life story or a shorter anecdote.

“Every stone has this amazing history behind it,” said Goddard, The Graduate School ’01. “I went down to see these graves and it was just incredibly moving.”

The tour paused at the elaborate mausoleum of Charles Gates Dawes, former vice president of the United States under Calvin Coolidge, but Goddard insists that most of the graves visited “aren’t usually (included) in Rosehill tours,” even though the names behind them are fundamental to the history of Evanston and Northwestern.

For some in the audience, the tour’s focus on Evanston was a definite plus. George Nauman, 72, has lived in Wilmette for 35 years and is familiar with Evanston’s history.

“It’s cultural,” he said. “It’s interesting to hear (Goddard’s) talk.”

For other attendees, the event proved to be more of a mixed success.

“It was good for what it was,” said Sharon Steffensen, 61, who lives within walking distance of Rosehill and visits the cemetery every Christmas and Thanksgiving. “I was disappointed it was all about Evanston. (That) wasn’t what I was expecting.”

The group agreed that Goddard did an excellent job humanizing Rosehill’s history.

“Healthcare is so good these days, it’s hard to remember how many little kids didn’t make it years ago,” said Nauman when the tour stopped by a statue erected in memory of a young girl.

Nauman, like others, noticed the dimes and quarters visitors had left at the foot of the girl’s statue.

Goddard also satisfied history buffs by discussing the common and uncommon cemetery symbolism littered throughout Rosehill.

“There are a lot of sundials in old cemeteries,” she pointed out when the group passed one. “They’re a great symbol of the fleeting nature of life.”

Butterflies, poppies, anchors, and books joined the ubiquitous cross as symbolic gravestone decorations.

The tour, which cost non-EHS members $7, might be repeated next year.

Goddard originally planned the tour for about 20 people.

“It’s a lot more interest than I had expected, which is great,” she said. “We’ll probably keep offering it if people continue being interested.”

Reach Anika Gupta at [email protected].