“They’re coming for you, Barbara!”
Featured in the opening scene of George Romero’s 1968 horror classic, Night of the Living Dead, is the grave of Nicholas Kramer — a German immigrant and veteran of the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry. The 134th Pennsylvania was recruited from Lawrence, Butler, and Beaver Counties for a term of nine months, and saw action at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville with a loss of 109 men.
Following Kramer’s time with the 134th, he enlisted in the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry where he served for the remainder of the conflict in the war’s western theater, finally mustering out in September 1865. According to the March 19, 1917, Butler Citizen, Kramer died of pneumonia on Saturday, March 17, 1917. He is buried in Evans City Cemetery in Butler county, Pa. Evans City Cemetery was the filming location for the original Night of the Living Dead.
