‘Haunted’ cemetery comes alive during tour
SUN PHOTO BY BARBARA BEAN-MELLINGER
Mary Seward Sandlin, aka Lynn Harrell, dusted her children’s graves during the Charlotte County Historical Center’s soldout tours on Saturday of Indian Spring Cemetery in Punta Gorda.
SUN PHOTO BY BARBARA BEAN-MELLINGER
Little Georgie Bryant’s mother (Jean Cihlar) comes to the cemetery every night to read to him, she said.
SUN PHOTO BY BARBARA BEAN-MELLINGER
Marshal John H. Bowman (Frank Desguin), his wife (Theresa Evan) and daughter Betty (Beth Shively), reenacted his murder by an unknown scoundrel.
SUN PHOTO BY BARBARA BEAN-MELLINGER
Thelma Johnson (Wendy Lang) searched for the engagement ring that was mysteriously missing when she drowned.
SUN PHOTO BY BARBARA BEAN-MELLINGER
Albert Gilchrist (Allen May) chatted with 12-year-old T. Peabody McClain (Alex Lang), the first to be buried in the county’s second-oldest cemetery.
PUNTA GORDA — John H. Bowman, marshal of Punta Gorda, sat in his chair — the very chair in which he was sitting when he was shot through the window by an unknown scoundrel.
His blood-spattered shirt bore the evidence of the horrific crime for eternity. By his side stood his wife and little daughter, Betty, whom he had held in his arms at the time.
