HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - These are the stories behind street and building names. This is Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll.

The 18th edition of the stroll, a signature annual Huntsville event in which volunteers portray over 70 historic characters (many of which are buried here) and period musicians, takes place 2-4:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at Maple Hill Cemetery, address 202 Maple Hill St. S.E.

Huntsville Pilgrimage Association sponsors the free event, which drew attendance of about 10,000 last year. Donations collected during the stroll are used exclusively for restoration at Maple Hill.

"It's probably 50 percent of our budget for the year or close to it," Huntsville Pilgrimage Association president Margaret Milford says. "We just simply could not do the work without the money Cemetery Stroll brings in. In the historic sections of the cemetery we restore the monuments, and most of these old monuments if not all of them are marble which is very porous and crumbles, and there are special processes that have to be done. Most of the newer monuments will last longer because they are granite. Lately we've addressed some of the fencing and iron work."

Huntsville's past uncovered

An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people are buried in the 75-acre Maple Hill Cemetery. Topper Birney's great-great-grandfather James G. Birney isn't one of them.

But James G. did reside in Huntsville and made a big impact here in the state, and later on, on the entire nation, and for the last 15 years or so Topper has portrayed his great-great-granddad in the Cemetery Stroll. He breaks out gray tails and a top hat for the occasion. On the afternoon of this interview he's wearing an Alabama jacket and seated at a round table inside the Maple Hill office.

"James G. moved to Huntsville in 1818," Topper says. "He was mayor of Huntsville and started an abolitionist newspaper. He eventually left Huntsville in 1832 and bounced all over the place trying to abolish slavery and ended up in Bay City, Michigan and ran for president twice, 1840 and 1844, and he didn't win. He was part of the Liberty Party and it was the first time abolitionism was on a presidential platform. He insisted that occur. The Liberty Party merged with the Whig party and this eventually became the Republican Party and in 1860 the Republicans ran a man named Abraham Lincoln for president, and everybody knows what happened to slavery under President Lincoln.

"So James G. from the grave got the last laugh."

Gay Hinds Money is seated across Topper at that Maple Hill office table. This year she'll again portrayal a relative of hers, Lady Grace Hinds Curzon, who was born in a riverside Decatur house and went on to marry a wealthy South American landowner who left her a cool $25 million after he died. Curzon would go on to wed a former viceroy of Indian. Money, who collects antique clothes, often breaks out a black sequined 1920s evening dress to portray Curzon.

"The reason why I like this is there's so much history," says Money, who today is wearing floral capris and a white top. "If you want to learn about history in Huntsville and the surrounding area you need to come here because it is so interesting."

Longtime Cemetery Stroll volunteer Van Brown, a convention services manager who favors rectangular glasses, adds, "History's wonderful but it's the stories. Stories don't have dates; they're timeless. But I particularly come back every year because I watch the children grow up and there have been children that have been coming here for the last 15 years. The children are the ones that are going to pass on, talk about our history, and I think if they can see it rather than read it in a book I think they're going to learn just as much and take it with them."

Each year for the stroll, Brown pulls his cow costume out of the closet to depict Lily Flagg, the dairy cow that Huntsville planter/socialite Samuel B. Moore took to the 1892 World's Fair in Chicago, where Lily Flagg became a blue ribbon winner.

New history

Moore and Lily Flagg are some of the characters "you've got to have" in the Cemetery Stroll each year, says the event's 2014 chairperson Fred Ecklund. Other must-have perennial characters include the pioneer, lawyer and "Father of Huntsville" Leroy Pope, who sold Huntsville the land for Maple Hill Cemetery, which was deeded in 1822. There's the legendary local madam Molly Teal, who left her brothel building- and the land on which Huntsville Hospital is now located - to the city. Five former Alabama governors are buried at Maple Hill.

That said, some new characters have been added to the 2014 Cemetery Stroll. These include: Huntsville Times founder Jacob Emory Pierce ("Quite a flamboyant and controversial character," Ecklund says); and Rev. Bartley Harris (Ecklund describes him as, "minister of Alabama's oldest African American Baptist Church. He baptized over 3,000 people at Big Springs").

While history is rich at Maple Hill Cemetery there's not much parking here. Thus, the stroll offers free shuttles departing from Jackson Way Baptist Church (1001 Andrew Jackson Way) to here from 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. Things you'll want to bring to the stroll: comfortable clothes and walking shoes. Things you don't have to bring: bottled water, a cemetery map and event brochure detailing characters, all of which are provided. A quick tip: if you see a big crowd gathered around a character you'll want to come back to them later, as it will be easier to hear and get the full effect.

Scottie Breen first visited Maple Hill Cemetery almost 30 years ago, with the Mountain Gap third grade class she accompanied here. Decades later, Breen served as a Cemetery Stroll chairperson. "The people in our community that participate are so involved," Breen says, "and it has been such a wonderful experience to meet these people and see them every year. Outside the cemetery you'll recognize them. And they become your friends."