West Cemetery, Rt 30, Middlebury, VT

This tour is sold out! Call the Sheldon to get on the waiting list.

Local historian David Munford will lead an engaging tour around historic West Cemetery, one of the oldest in Middlebury, on Saturday, October 29, 10-11:15am (rain date, October 30).  

This tour will offer a window onto the past by telling captivating stories about local luminaries, including Gamaliel Painter, and the Stewart Swift, Battell and Slade families. Munford will also share some lesser-known stories about locally buried Civil War soldiers, journalists, and others. In addition, he will relate stories of love and tragedy of some whose graves you will visit. Munford will also unravel the mystery behind the Sheldon’s Egyptian mummy and tell us what the cemetery can reveal about what little is known about local communities of color. This not-to-be-missed tour will richly illuminate what old cemeteries can tell us about our past.  

Ages 14 and up. Space is limited. Tickets are $15 per person for Non-Members and $10 for Members.

David Munford, a graduate of Middlebury College and a retired high school history teacher, is a known local history storyteller. In 2020 he published the Images of America: Middlebury, a richly illustrated book full of stories about Middlebury’s past. David lives with his wife, Tami, on South Street in Middlebury, in the same house in which he grew up. He knows large and small stories about local life that few others know so well. In his own words: “Recorded prehistory and oral histories - all intertwined into a saga that is still in the process of unfolding itself. We know a great deal more than we did, but the story of Middlebury and its people remain a work in progress.”