Augusta County Historical Society

Shadows, Secrets, and Sin: The Dark Side of Thornrose

Saturdays at 4 and 5 p.m. October 3, 10, 17, 24

Staunton’s historic Thornrose Cemetery will be the site for the Augusta County Historical Society’s newest program, “Shadows, Secrets, and Sin.” ACHS and Thornrose Cemetery Company invite you to join us as we visit the graves of a unique group of individuals whom few people know about today but whose stories of tragedy, violence, and murder filled newspapers, courtrooms, police reports, and eyewitness accounts throughout Staunton’s early history. Guided evening tours will offer an extraordinary glimpse into why truth is stranger than fiction – and in Thornrose, a cemetery that has never been haunted, the real stories of some buried there that are far more grotesque and grislier than any ghost story could ever be.

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the dark side of Thornrose that lies just below the surface.

Due to the subject content of this program, it is not recommended for anyone under the age of 18.
Tours last approximately an hour and take place regardless of the weather.
Wear appropriate clothing and sturdy walking shoes.
Tickets are $20 per person.

If you have questions, please call ACHS at 540-248-4151 or email us at adminachs@augustacountyhs.org.

Thornrose has been owned and operated by the Thornrose Cemetery Company since its inception in 1849. The cemetery remains active and is open to anyone who wishes burial there among those many city and country residents who lie at rest beneath its grassy slopes.

Augusta County’s history is America’s history.

Here in the county that once stretched west to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes…Native Americans clashed with pioneers opening the frontier…Revolutionary War patriots helped secure their nation’s liberty…America’s agricultural revolution began…a future U.S. President was born…Civil War armies vied for control of a state…and great artists shaped their vision.

Indeed, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Cyrus McCormick, Woodrow Wilson, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson all played important roles in our history, but so did Grandma Moses, George Caleb Bingham, Kate Smith, John Coalter ,and William Sheppard. Daniel Boone visited kinfolk here, Santa Anna stopped here, Charles Lindbergh landed here, Erwin Rommel studied here, and Billy Sunday preached here. Even history’s great names like Eisenhower and Lincoln traced their ancestral homes to this county. And, we cannot tell a lie – George Washington slept here.