Peggy Dover

“We have visitors! Do come and join me in the parlor. I know Ben and Carrie will be pleased to see you.”

So my monologue commences after a chosen visitor cranks the antique doorbell on the historic Beekman House in Jacksonville.

It’s been a fabulous experience. For one Saturday a month over the past three months, I’ve assumed the persona of a citizen of the past. I wonder if Cousin Lulu’s aware of her modest immortality and if she would approve of me as her representative. Louise Sawyer Linn lives on in Jacksonville because she married into a prominent family — the Cornelius and Julia Beekman family — the wealthiest and most prominent pioneers in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Lulu tied the knot with Fletcher Linn, whose mother was a younger sister of Julia Beekman.

A cousin by marriage and close friends with Ben and Carrie, the Beekman offspring, Lulu was quite the society dame. Cousin Lulu taught music at the University of Oregon where she and Fletcher met. She was a soprano soloist at the First Presbyterian church after they moved to Portland. She’s a big city girl. I wish I could sit down at that magnificent, one-of-a-kind Mathushek piano and give out with a tune as she would have done.

As I get into the part and become the Lulu with whom I feel at home, I know she loved people and entertaining. She is relieved to momentarily escape the job of sorting through Carrie’s fine record collection to visit with callers. She’s aware of and slightly embarrassed about her haphazardly arranged bun because her hair was always just so before guests. But she handles the interruption with grace. Cousin Lulu is friendly and at home in her own skin. She loves people and is not ostentatious, as both the Beekmans and the Linns were humble, hardworking people despite their wealth.

As an interesting side note, most of the 1800s caskets in the historic Jacksonville Cemetery were made by David Linn, Lulu’s father-in-law. Fletcher took after his father and became a furniture manufacturer and industrialist of some renown.

I never cared for history when I was young, but it’s Jacksonville’s history and preserved buildings that saved the old town. Now, I’m curious. Maybe it’s because I have more history behind me than ahead. Carolyn Kingsnorth is to be highly commended for her years of hard work and dedication in caring for and bringing Jacksonville’s rich history to our valley. Check out Historic Jacksonville, Inc. (historicjacksonville.org) to discover the many homes and businesses on the the National Register of Historic Places and the ethnically diverse pioneers who made the town jump to life from the beginning.

I am far from the star of the Living History show, having a blessedly short part. Sherry Kramer provides a preliminary interface between then and now on the front porch. She gives the lowdown on the Beekman family and what’s happening in Depression-era Jacksonville. Robert Hight and Lynn Ransford have played Ben and Carrie Beekman for years. They’re excellent at bringing you into an authentic brother-sister exchange as they pack up their family home following the death of their mother. Ellen Martin is convincing as Louise Minear, longtime family housekeeper and close friend. Experienced docent, Linda Hammer-Brown, is our dear Aunt Kate Hoffman, Julia Beekman’s sister who lives nearby and stops for a tea visit.

There are three tours left Saturday, May 18, at 10:30 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Tickets for $10 may be purchased online at the above link. Walkups are allowed with cash, room permitting. Tours are capped at 10 people.

I’m forever grateful to Carolyn for asking me to join this wonderful crew of caring volunteers and for allowing me to stretch in a quasi-theatrical direction. It’s been a small dream realized. There are summer tours on the near horizon — free Saturday morning guided walking tours from the old courthouse, Beekman House 19th-century “Family Life” tours every first and third Saturday (tickets are $5), and free Beekman Bank tour opportunities every Saturday and Sunday.

Come and enjoy a peek at how much things have changed. Tell them Lulu sent you.

Happy Mothers Day to all hardworking moms, moms-to-be, to those with moms and others whose mothers remain present in memory.