(enchanted chime music) - This is a link in Portland's history.

- Every single stone really has a story to tell.

- It's the oldest cemetery in Portland.

And it has a lot of history.

Right from the very beginning, like the early 1600s.

- The cemetery was actually called the Burying Ground for the first 200 years of its existence.

And it started as the backyard grave site of one of our earliest settlers.

- People for centuries have been coming into the Harbor, getting off the ship, settling here on Munjoy Hill, dying here after living and working here.

And they're buried here.

- It was common in older cemeteries, when anybody passed away, they just brought them up onto the nearest hillside, overlooking a settlement.

And that happened to be right here.

So that's how this area became used as a cemetery.

And originally, people would just come up here and find a soft spot of earth and laid their loved ones to rest.

- It was from the middle 1600s until about 1800, it was open space so that anybody who lived here would be responsible for digging a grave and putting them in the grave.

So it truly was a public space.

- The original markers might've been wooden and the wooden markers would have rotted away, or people used rocks, unmarked rocks, to mark the graves.

And they said, well, here's a rock.

This is my sister Mary.

And this rock, this is my uncle Fred, which worked fine until another family came out and said, You know, we need a couple of rocks to mark our grave.

So they picked up Mary and Fred moved them all over the place.

And nobody ever knew.

- Now it wasn't until around 1800 that recordkeeping improved, rules around the cemetery improved so that we had a better sense of the order of the place, who was here.

By 1830, it changed its name from the Burying Ground to Eastern Cemetery.

- Mary Green is the oldest marked stone.

It may have been another marker there beforehand.

And then after she was laid side-by-side with Samuel Moody, it was her sister, Esther who had them laid side-by-side and probably had the stones carved for them.

- Bartlett Adams was the first gravestone carver.

Seven hundred of the stones here in the cemetery were carved by him.

And in particular, we have the three gravestones of his first three children.

Such a sad thing to have your children die, and you have to carve the gravestones for them.

- I just love learning about all these people.

Like the spirits, I appear here once a year, to help with the Walk Among the Shadows.

Every year, the last two weekends of October, seven spirits come forward.

Spirits of people who are buried here for the most part and tell their story.

Our last year's theme was women's suffrage.

It was the 100th anniversary.

I was one of the characters, a prohibition supporter.

I was in favor of anything that would improve the lot of poor women.

- My name's Billy Hans, William Hans, 1757 to 1831.

I was at Valley Forge that winter with General Washington, and it was a wicked cold winter.

And I woke up one morning and looked down and I noticed three of my toes just fell right off.

So every year, when we get people lined up here to see our Walk Among the Shadows, I bring my box out and I ask people if they want to see my toes.

- To me, it's so impressive to have the audience walk through in smaller groups and stop at six different places and hear six different stories about people attached to this graveyard in a spooky setting.

It's just great entertainment.

- If you're interested in Portland history, really the first 200 years can be told right here amongst all these people.

- I lived for years on Munjoy Hill and I never even walked in.

And so I try to tell as many people as possible how incredible it is and how it's right in town.

It's convenient and beautiful.

And I have learned a great deal.

(enchanted chime music) (enchanted violin music)