Past Players visit local sites to share ‘their’ Civil War-era tales
By Larry Alexander
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
July 20, 2007

STRASBURG, Pa. - Stepping out from behind the veil of time, Pennsylvania Past Players spent Thursday mingling with modern-day visitors at two county tourist attractions.

The Past Players, 18 actors and Civil War re-enactors dressed in period attire, spent Thursday afternoon in Strasburg, strolling the grounds of Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and riding the rails at Strasburg Railroad.

Each actor has adopted the persona of a mid-19th-century Pennsylvanian to educate modern Americans about the state’s past.

“We have come back and stepped out of the pages of history to walk the trails and to tell our stories and inform today’s people of life in our time,” said the group’s leader, “Mary Bennett.”

Three members of the Past Players took part in Thursday’s visit to Strasburg. They were “Bennett” and “Mary S. Beatty,” both of Harrisburg and dressed in hoop dresses and bonnets, and Hanover entrepreneur “J.W. Gitt,” in a low top hat and swallow-tailed coat.

Like the other members of the group, Bennett, Beatty and Gitt are not their real names. The Past Players do not step out of character to divulge their true identities.

The 18 members of the Pennsylvania Past Players, which includes several Lancaster County residents, were recruited earlier this summer and underwent extensive training to prepare for their roles as guides and interpreters of the state’s Civil War and Underground Railroad history.

They began their duties July 5.

Pennsylvania Past Players is part of the state’s Civil War Trails/Prelude to Gettysburg and Pennsylvania’s Quest for Freedom programs, all of which will lead up to the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War, which begins in 2011.

The group is jointly sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development’s Cultural & Heritage Tourism program and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which owns the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

“This is one example of two state agencies working together to improve the visitors’ experience at all of the different historical sites across the state,” said David W. Dunn, executive director at the Railroad Museum.

“It’s fun to see the people in character and the visitors’ reactions to them.”

The group, which includes Union soldiers and civilians, covers Lancaster, Dauphin, York, Adams, Franklin and Cumberland counties. Some days the group works together, such as Wednesdays at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and Saturdays in Gettysburg.

Other times the Players operate in teams and hold simultaneous programs in places such as York, Columbia, Mechanicsburg, Carlisle and center city Harrisburg.

The players will be at the Railroad Museum on Thursdays from 11 to 11:45 a.m. and from 2 to 3 p.m., through Sept. 13.

“In each of the locations, we share stories, just as we are doing here today,” Bennett said.

While the characters are supposed to be inhabitants of the 1860s, they are aware of their modern surroundings.

Bennett said what astounds her most about Pennsylvania in 2007, aside from women’s clothing which, in her day, would have been deemed highly immoral, is the role women play in modern society.

“The thing that fascinates me the most on coming back is seeing the power women have gained since our time,” she said, staving off Thursday’s humidity with a hand-held fan. “We have women who fight in wars. We have women who run for Congress and even run Congress. That is unheard of in our time. I am very pleased about that.”

Beatty said what surprised her most was the state of communication, a far cry from the telegraph system of her day.

“With what you call a cell phone, I can speak with anyone in the world,” she marveled.

Most of all, the two women were happy to see the state has prospered and grown since they walked the earth some 140 years ago.

“I am so happy to be in this time period, to see the progress of this wonderful state of Pennsylvania,” Bennett said.

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