A unique Hellertown tradition will continue this August with tours of Union Cemetery featuring re-enactors portraying famous Hellertonians from days gone by.
This year’s tours will visit the graves of Morris Dimmick (who will be portrayed by David Pearson), Charles Zimpfer (portrayed by William Frey), Elsie Bergstresser (portrayed by Dr. Susan Ackermann), Edward H. Ackerman (portrayed by Wayne Packer) and Walter & Addie Frey (portrayed by Terry Boos and Chris Sem).
Morris Dimmick was Chief Burgess of Hellertown from 1925 to 1945. The elected office of Chief Burgess was equivalent to that of today’s mayor.
Morris J. Dimmick was Hellertown’s longest-serving Chief Burgess (the early 20th century equivalent of a mayor) and held that office from 1925 to 1945. Among other things, he is credited with spearheading the development of the borough’s highly-regarded public pool and park system with funding from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. Dimmick Park is named after him.
Dimmick was born on March 10, 1888 in Lower Saucon Township and died on May 29, 1972, in the year that Hellertown celebrated its Centennial.
Morris Dimmick’s modest gravestone in Union Cemetery in Hellertown.
In the early 1920s he purchased a large Craftsman-style home at 1528 Main Street, which today houses an accounting business.
Dimmick was the husband of Carrie L. Boehm Dimmick (1887-1977) and the father of four children, including Gordon, 1916-1921, and Marcella Dimmick, who died in 2020 at the age of 105.
Corp. Edward H. Ackerman was the first soldier from the borough to die in World War I, and as such became the well-known namesake for Hellertown’s American Legion Post 397.
He was born on July 12, 1895 and was killed in action while serving with Battalion D’s 319th Field Artillery Regiment in France on Oct. 8, 1918.
The free cemetery tours will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 10-11 at the cemetery, which is located at 89 Main St., Hellertown.
In the event of rain, attendees should meet at 7 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Hellertown’s Fellowship Hall, 69 Main St., Hellertown, to hear the presentations.
Corp. Edward H. Ackerman’s gravestone in Hellertown Union Cemetery. Ackerman was killed in action in France during World War I, and is the Hellertown American Legion’s namesake.
