photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Lawrence's Oak Hill Cemetery, 1605 Oak Hill Ave., is pictured on May 20, 2026.

A guided walking tour of Oak Hill Cemetery offered by the Watkins Museum provides a chance for local history buffs to step away from the familiar history of Lawrence and deeper into the early history of the United States.

The museum, as part of its America 250 events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, will host a guided tour Friday evening called “Revolutionary People of Oak Hill Cemetery” that will feature the stories of people buried in Oak Hill Cemetery who grew up in the young American republic — well before Kansas became a state.

Will Haynes, the deputy director for public engagement and the man leading the tour, said this project is an event that is “outside of (the Watkins Museum’s) wheelhouse.” Aside from the Native peoples who called Lawrence home, the written historical record in Douglas County and Lawrence normally starts in the 1850s. By focusing on stories of people who were born in the late 1700s, Haynes said it gives a chance to take a look at historic events that go further back.

“We get to expand beyond that boundary and talk about the Revolutionary Era,” Haynes said.

photo by: Contributed

Will Haynes, deputy director for public engagement for the Watkins Museum.

The tour will visit 16 sites of people who were born just after the Revolutionary War in the 1780s or 1790s, according to Haynes. Those people were born “during a very crucial period” in the country’s history as the structures of governments began to form, westward expansion was beginning and debates around civil rights began.

One of the stops on the tour will detail the life of Samuel Bailey Shepard. Haynes said he claimed to be born in 1784 and lived until 1909 — meaning he would have been 125 years old. Although there has long been debate on his true age, Haynes said Shepard had a fascinating life regardless. Shepard was born in Virginia as a slave. He moved with his owner to Independence, Missouri, in the 1820s before eventually becoming free and moving to Lawrence, where he was a “fixture on the local scene.”

Shepard’s life is a way to introduce how the issues of slavery and civil rights for Black Americans were discussed at the time, Haynes said, and each stop will give people a chance to reflect on other historical debates at the time.

“We’re introducing people to some very fascinating life stories of people who were involved in early American history before they came to Lawrence,” Haynes said.

The lofty ideas that were put in the Declaration of Independence like “liberty, equality and democracy” were not always the reality, Haynes noted, and those contradictions led to debates that reverberated through the country. Many of the people who eventually settled Lawrence were from New England, which was “crucial to the American Revolution itself,” Haynes said. Learning more about the aftermath of the war and building of the country can highlight a direct line to the “Bleeding Kansas” era.

“It wasn’t occurring in a vacuum,” Haynes said. “People (moving to) Kansas were inspired by the ideas they grew up with about democracy.”

Haynes said even as a historian, researching the stories of the people featured on the tour had been instructive for him, reminding him of historical events or topics he hadn’t talked about since high school or college. He said that anyone who comes on the tour will get the “same experience” of learning more about “what it was like to grow up in early America.”

The tour, which will meet at Old Section 5 of Oak Hill Cemetery, 1605 Oak Hill Ave. on Friday, May 22 at 6 p.m. is a ticketed event. Haynes said tickets are limited, but still available online at this website. Because of the interest of the event, Haynes said he hopes to be able to offer the tour again later in the year.