Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center will host its last guided walking tour of the season featuring the Bloomfield Cemetery at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12.

The Old Bloomfield Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Skowhegan, located two and a half miles south on U.S. Route 201, down a private drive and in a pine grove on the bank of the Kennebec River. The cemetery holds the remains of many early settlers of Old Canaan, the Heywood’s, Weston’s, White’s, and other pioneer families including several soldiers of the Revolution and Civil War.

Guides Kay Marsh and David James will share stories relative to the earliest settlers of this area and point out original homesteads and gathering places, the basic pieces of community. The graves of Joseph Weston and his wife Eunice Farnsworth Weston Moor, who settled at this place in 1772, are located in this cemetery. Others resting here include Mary White who was the first school teacher to practice here, Josiah Locke a blacksmith and an incorporator of Canaan Academy in1806 which later became Bloomfield Academy, and Samuel Weston a leading surveyor of the region through the 1790s. One of the most important surveys conducted by Samuel Weston was the Bingham Million-acre Purchase for William Bingham of Philadelphia in 1792.

There are many stones with striking designs and lettering in very legible condition remaining in the Bloomfield Cemetery. This tour will highlight those stones and the formidable folks who lie beneath them.

Participants will meet tour guides at the cemetery gate and a $5 per person donation is suggested.

For more information: grammy.kay.cee@gmail.com.