All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories: Recent Episodes
Joe Lex
Brief biographies of permanent residents of Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cywnyd, Pennsylvania. Often educational, always entertaining.
ABC:LHS #089-6 OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL...
...history of the United States when I asked CoPilot to create a country that abolished slavery at its beginning and then limited immigration. It gave me a startling picture of an unrecognizable country.
This section is almost exclusively generated by CoPilot.
ABC:LHS 089-5 In 1851, Lancaster County ...
... had become home to many self-emancipated formerly enslaved people. When slave hunters showed up to reclaim their "property," the people of Christiana gathered to protect their own. What resulted was the largest treason trial in United States history.
ABC:LHS 089-4 Robert Stewart Ralston...
...was attacked and severely wounded by his servant who had been his enslaved valet. The result was destruction of Black neighborhoods.
ABC:LHS 089-3 Stephen Duncan...
...was a Pennsylvanian who became a Natchez planter. Over a 50-year career, he accumulated tens of thousands of acres of land and more than 2200 enslaved human beings. But he firmly believed that slavery worked best under the US legal system and would only be destroyed by secession.
ABC:LHS 089-2 John Bohlen...
...and his brother Bohl made a world for themselves in the colonies as merchants whose offerings including liquor and people. German-speaking immigrants were common in the colonies, but especially in Pennsylvania.
ABC:LHS 089-1 More than 1500 enslaved people...
...lived in Philadelphia at the time the colonies declared their independence from England. Enslaved people shared the streets with indentured servants, freed Blacks, immigrants, visitors, and more than 50 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Slavery was essential to the economy.
This segment was released early as a separate podcast but included in the full recording.
ABC:LHS #089
...slavery was an essential part of the colonial economy. The enslaved people of President George Washington have been in the news recently.
John and Bohl Despite Philadelphia's northern location...Bohlen were German immigrants who made their fortunes in the New World dealing with "gin and slaves," according to their relatives.
Stephen Duncan was simultaneously a Pennsylvania businessman and a Natchez nabob, the owner of more than 2000 enslaved human beings.
Robert Stewart Ralston was severely beaten by his former enslaved manservant whom he had freed, but retained in employment.
The largest trial for treason ever conducted in the United States was conducted in Philadelphia following the Christiana Resistance of 1851, an armed pushback against slave catchers sent to retrieve some self-emancipated African Americans.
OPTIONAL: I asked CoPilot, a Large Language Model assembler of information, to develop a counterfactual for me - What would the USA be like if slavery were abolished with the Constitution, and Immigration were limited after 1800. Although purely speculative, it is a fascinating read.
BBB:LHWS #058 Seo Jae-pil, aka Philip Jaisohn...
...was the first Korean to become a US citizen, but he never gave up on his lifelong dream to return Korea to its own independence. In 1919, he chaired a Philadelphia meeting that ended with a march through the rain to the room where it happened at Independence Hall and the reading of a new Declaration of Independence.
ABC:LHS #088-2 GEN John Clifford Pemberton ...
... was a Philadelphian who threw his lot with the Confederacy, despite his graduation from the US Military Academy, where he had briefly roomed with George Gordon Meade. Jefferson Davis put him in charge at Vicksburg, where he was forced to surrender to Ulysses S. Grant after a 47-day siege.
ABC:LHS #088-1 Major General George Gordon Meade...
...took command of the Army of the Potomac with almost no warning and promptly led it to victory at Gettysburg. But instead of being remembered simply as the general who stopped Robert E. Lee, he spent much of his life defending what he did next. This is the story of Meade’s command, his caution, and his contested legacy.
ABC:LHS #088 July 4, 1863...
...is the day that the Confederacy knew their days were numbered. At Gettysburg, Philadelphian General George Gordon Meade stopped Pickett's charge and sent Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back south licking their wounds. On the same day, Philadelphian and Confederate General John Clifford Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Ulysses S. Grant after a 47-day siege. The two men, who had briefly roomed together at West Point, will always be remembered for that famed day.
BBB:LHWS #057-3 Jef Lee Johnson...
...played with everyone from Aretha Franklin to McCoy Tyner, primarily because he sounded like no one - except for the comparisons to Lonnie Johnson and Jimi Hendrix.
BBB:LHWS #057-2 Winston Samuels McGinnis...
...was a Jamaican singer with a moderately successful career until he backed Desmond Dekker on the worldwide hit "Israelites." He became an accountant in New York City while the reggae that he had helped create took over the music world.
BBB:LHWS #057-1 Rudolph Hennig...
...was a German born master of the cello who was the Philaldelphia Orchestra's first cello soloist after he had already been painted by Thomas Eakins. A century after his death, his portrait was again in the news.
BBB:LHWS #057 Three More LHW Musicians
- Rudolph Hennig was the first cello soloist for the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1901; a few years earlier, Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins had represented him in oils as The Cello Player, which was used as a bargaining chip more than a century later.
- Winston Samuels McGinnis was a moderately successful Jamaican ska and rocksteady performer who sang backup in one of reggae's first worldwide hits "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker.
- Jeffrey Lee Johnson, or simply JEF was the session guitarist who could apparently sound like anyone but was at his best when he sounded like Jef Johnson. The two usual comparisons are Lonnie Johnson ... and Jimi Hendrix.
ABC:LHS #087-5 Rev. William Smith...
...was a Scottish-born Anglican who impressed Benjamin Franklin with his ideas about higher education and set up the skeleton and backbone of what became the University of Pennsylvania today, but he made few friends and is little remembered today
ABC:LHS #087-4 Hilery Baker...
...was a German immigrant who became two-term mayor during the time when the city was also the nation's capital. He established the first city police force and was the first "Officer Down" in the city's history.
ABC:LHS #087-3 Alexander Murray...
... came from a family that was part of the Scottish diaspora to the New World after the Jacobite Rebellion in the early 1700s. Born in Maryland, he was a ship's captain before he was out of his teens and rose to become a Commodore in the Navy. By the time he retired, he was a battle-hardened veteran with years at sea.
ABC:LHS #087-2 Thomas Godfrey...
...was one of the New World's first native inventors. While working as a glazier, he was intrigued by the reflection and refraction of light through a shard of glass. This led to his invention that made life on the seas easier and safer, and saved thousands of lives in the process.
ABC:LHS #087-1
The concept of "celebrity corpses" to attract customers to a cemetery was nothing new. People had been digging up other people for years for legal, political, religious, scientific, and other reasons, so why not for commerce? Many transportable cadavers have made interesting journeys to their final resting places.
ABC:LHS #087
Even in death, some people don’t rest easy. Someone always wants to dig them up and move them. Though Laurel Hill East opened in 1836, several of its 18th-century dead were buried elsewhere first.
First, I trace the many reasons people exhume the dead. And there are plenty.
Thomas Godfrey invented a lifesaving navigational instrument. Buried first on a Germantown farm, he was later pursued by Laurel Hill as one of its earliest celebrity corpses.
Commodore Alexander Murray was as important a sailor as Isaac Hull or Stephen Decatur, but without the headline-grabbing legend.
Mayor Hilary Baker served when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital and crossed paths daily with the signers of the Declaration and Constitution. He died in office.
Rev. William Smith deserves recognition alongside Benjamin Franklin as a cofounder of the University of Pennsylvania, yet Franklin is celebrated while Smith is largely forgotten.
I had a blast making this one. I think you’ll have fun listening.
BBB:LHWS #056 George Gerbner...
...was a Hungarian refugee and combat survivor who grew up through the start of European Fascism during the 1930s. His discovered that the power lay with those who controlled the narrative and tell the stories. He used violence as an example to spread his message, but a deeper reading shows that his concerns were that American media were starting to resemble the prefascist state he had known in his youth. Needless to say, he was a controversial figure for many years.
River Section starts at the BODE plot
Join me on an audio guided tour of the River Section of Laurel Hill West, one of the original four segments when the cemetery opened in 1869. You won't miss and of the fancy mausoleums or Tiffany studio stained glass, since they came later.
You will meet the Father of Scientific Management and the Mother of Mother's Day, the man who literally changed two sports and his sister who wrote for The New Yorker, a man who decorated several rooms in City Hall and Masonic Temple, and a woman whose work is primarily at The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the first doctor to take care of Phineas Gage after the tamping bar incident (it wasn't a crowbar), and a bride who wore her dress for the first time in her coffin. Plus ... oh, I don't know, maybe a couple of dozen more. I promise you at least two or three stories you will want to tell others.
ABC:LHS #086-4 Drews and Barrymores...
...are among the best-known acting families in the United States. Although many of them started in an alternate final resting place, Louisa Lane Drew, owner-manager of the Arch Street Theater found a final resting place at Mount Vernon. Several years later she was joined by the ashes of her grandson John Barrymore, aka "The Great Profile." Thomas Keels tells their story.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 4
Oscar Rosier had married the prettiest salesgirl in town, who soon bore him a child. But Oscar had a roving eye which was apparently set on his secretary, another beauty and purported friend of his wife. It did not end well for anyone.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 3
Captain Clayton Erb decided to marry and produce an heir at age 50 and selected a young divorcee to serve as mistress of his Red Gables estate in Delaware County. When the woman's sister got involved, things went bad in a hurry. The court case revealed the mansion had been a house of horrors.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 2
John Hobbs knew he was being stalked and told his brother that if he didn't leave town soon, he would be a dead man. He was proved right when the woman he was avoiding caught up with him at the train station.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 1
Intimate Partner Violence dates to pre-biblical times and violence against women was sanctioned by laws until only recently. Up to 40% of all homicides involve a domestic partner. Men tend not to report abuse when it happens, although attitudes are changing. The adage that “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them" is sometimes reversed. Here are three women who killed their intimate partner; their stories are anything but simple and straightforward.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #049
John Hobbs was stalked and shot at a railway station in 1891 by a spurned lover.
CPT Clayton Erb was shot and killed, either by his wife or his sister-in-law, during one of many knockdown drag-out battles that had occurred in the brief marriage at the Red Gables mansion in Delaware County.
In 1922, businessman Oscar Rosier and his secretary Jerry were mortally wounded by Rosier’s wife, who was thought to be the prettiest salesgirl in Philadelphia. Oscar lived long enough to write a will, which completely blocked his soon-to-be widow from his modest estate.
These three men were victims of mariticide. Their stories follow.
ABC079, Part 5
The tale of the arsenic widows of Philadelphia will never be told fully, and hundreds of men may have died at their hands. Two of the women who looked the guiltiest were saved from a life in prison by brilliant African American defense attorney Raymond Pace Alexander.
ABC #079, part 4
Victor "Babe" Andreoli was raised in East Falls in a large, hardworking family, but fell in with bad company and was sentenced to life in prison. It didn't go well.
ABC-079, part 3
Willie was one of six brothers in the crime business. They never bothered to affiliate with the Mafia, but three of the six brothers were picked off during gang wars. Willie was one of the victims.
ABC079 - part 2
Potito "Little Petey" Bisciotti was on the lower rungs of the mob but wanted to move up in the numbers racket. A rendezvous with fellow gangsters led to his untimely death by sawed-off shotgun.
ABC079, Part 1: How and Why Crime Emerged
In neighborhoods across the city, ethnic groups clashed over control of gambling operations, protection, the numbers racket, prostitution, and eventually bootlegging. These criminal enterprises weren’t just about making money, but were also about gaining power and influence, sometimes even forging ties with local politicians and the police.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #079
This episode tells of Laurel Hill residents remembered today for their involvement with organized crime in the 1930s and 1940s. After the full podcast today, each segment will be released individually.
Petito "Little Petey" Bisciotti was a wannabe numbers man killed in what has become known as the Flag Day Massacre.
Willie Lanzetti was one of six notorious brothers in constant legal troubles; he met his end in a gangland slaying before his body was cremated and the ashes scattered at Laurel Hill West.
East Falls resident Victor “Babe” Andreoli was a cop-killer and Eastern State Penitentiary escapee who was gunned down at a breakfast café in Chester.
Finally, you’ll hear part of the long sordid tale of the arsenic poisoning for insurance ring that took dozens of lives in the late 1930s. Two of the accused with the most circumstantial evidence against them were found “not guilty” in their trials where they were represented by Raymond Pace Alexander.
Let’s get started.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #048
Today, I shine a spotlight on an all-but-forgotten Philadelphia politician John Henry Fow, known as “Foghorn” for his stentorian voice and “Ducky” for his quirky walk.
Fow was a tough lawyer with an uncanny knack for finding what was unconstitutional. He wasn’t afraid to challenge accepted knowledge, and debunked the story behind the famous “Washington Crosses the Delaware” painting and seriously challenged the Betsy Ross flag anecdote. Fow’s love for practical jokes kept his colleagues constantly on their toes, while his razor-sharp tongue silenced many rivals in court.
Despite his outsized personality and invaluable contributions, his name has faded from public memory. Join me as we rediscover John Henry Fow—Foghorn for the Talk, Ducky for the Walk—and celebrate his impact on Pennsylvania history.
Part 5 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #078
Edgar Loftus was a Wharton grad who rose in the Army Air Corps to Lieutenant Colonel. On VE Day, he was ranking officer in charge when a small squadron of German Aces landing their aircraft at his air base to end their war. The story is remarkable.
Part 4 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #078
Despite his very French name, Jacques Louis Francine was from a well-established Philadelphia family. HIs grandfather was a Union general, his father was the world's expert on tuberculosis. Jacques was the ultimate outdoorsman, collecting specimens for the Academy of Natural Sciences in northern Canada and starting a canoe camp. But he was also a decorated fighter pilot and bomber pilot with more than 30 missions to his name. He is buried in section V at Laurel Hill East.
Part 3 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #078
In 1924, Danish-born Holger Hoiriis moved to the United States and bought an airplane. After barnstorming for a few years, he hitched up with German American photographer Otto Hillig who wanted to cross the ocean. Holgier thus became the first pilot to carry a paying customer across the Atlantic. He was also the first pilot to complete night airmail delivery for the US Postal service. After the war and when Holger was no longer around to confirm or deny, Otto spun a tale about being hijacked by Nazi agents in their hanger at Grossinger's in the Catskills. This led to a futile treasure hunt more than 50 years later. Holger is buried at Laurel Hill East.
Part 2 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #078
Beer heir Grover Cleveland Bergdoll was an early adaptor to flight and it is his Wright Brothers biplane that suspends from the ceiling of the Franklin Institute. He was also the most notorious American Draft Dodger during the Great War.
You met Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker in an earlier podcast when fellow guide Paul Sookiasian and I talked about his athletic prowess; I return now to discuss his life as a pilot, and add new information uncovered only last year by ESPN.
Benjamin Lee II eagerly shipped off to be a flier before he finished his college days at Penn. His plane went down and his body never found. He has a cenotaph at Laurel Hill East.
Part 1 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #078
The first American balloon flight took place from Philadelphia, as did the great balloon riot of 1819. Thaddeus Lowe, who has relatives at Laurel Hill East, was the man who introduced the balloon to American warfare when he helped guide Union troops from 500 feet above the earth during the Battle of Fair Oaks. Until replaced by spy planes in the 20th century, balloons were one of the best surveillance tools in warfare.
Thaddeus Lowe is not buried at Laurel Hill, but has many connections there. He was an balloon aeronaut during the Civil War, thus father of the United States Air Force.
Grover Cleveland Bergdoll's family is in a huge mausoleum at Laurel Hill West. An early student of the Wright brothers, he became a poster child for privilege when he dodged the draft during the Great War. Hobey Baker's athletic gifts made him a natural pilot, but he crashed and died on the day he was scheduled to return stateside. Benjamin Lee II eagerly awaited his opportunity for a dogfight, but he was killed during a training accident.
Holger "Hold Your Horses" Hoiriis was a Danish American flyer who made history when he flew across the Atlantic with a paying customer.
Jacques Louis Francine was an All-American boy who used his flying skills to explore wilderness regions of northern Canada. His wartime service was very impressive.
Edgar Loftus was commanding officer at a European Air Base in the final days of the war when Hitler's Iron Eagle made a surprise landing at his base, but then perversely refused to surrender.
Fold up your tray table, fasten your seatbelt, and get ready as we take off into the world of pilots at Laurel Hill.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #057 for mid-August 2025
Sara Louisa Oberholtzer was a feminist, an abolitionist, and a temperance advocate who helped establish school bank accounts for millions of American children during the "Thrift" movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her legacy for thrift in Philadelphia is second only to Benjamin Franklin's.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #077, Part 4
Antoinette Westphal was Drexel through and through. While a student there in the late 1950s, she captained both the field hockey and lacrosse teams, and wrote the newspaper's gossip column. She married fellow grad Ray Westphal and they started a family as Ray turned an idea into a successful business. Antoinette started her own spa, and took an interest in Drexel's art collection. After her death, Ray's generous donation caused creation of the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #077, part 3
Joseph Wharton was a Quaker businessman and philanthropist whose work is still felt throughout the city and the world. He was the primary founder of Swarthmore College. His business acumen allowed the US Mint to make a healthy profit in the years he was involved. Fisher Park in northeast Philadelphia was his gift to the city. The Wharton State Forest in New Jersey is the largest mass of land owned by the state. And, of course, the world-famous business school that bears his name has graduated more eventual billionaires than any school in history. He is buried under a simple marble stone in a family plot at Laurel Hill East.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #077, part 2
Captain Henry Biddle was wounded in the Battle of Glendale and died a few weeks later after having befriended his treating physician. His wife donated money in his name to found Biddle College in North Carolina, which has since changed its name to Johnson C. Smith University. His son Spencer Fullerton Baird Biddle was a Navy man who became a cattle rancher and introduced the highland cow to America and was a co-founder of the American Hospital in Paris.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #077, Part 1
Charles Macalester established the town of Torresdale, founded Presbyterian Hospital, financially advised eight US presidents, and may have been the richest man in the world. A codicil in his will provided for the beginning of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the top-ranked liberal arts schools in the country. The river mansion Glen Foerd stands as another of his creations.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #077 - College Namesakes
Several Laurel Hill residents have institutions of higher learning named in their honor. Charles Macalester made a contribution that helped to turn a small liberal arts school into one of the finest small colleges in the land. Joseph Wharton made fortunes several times over, but is best remembered for starting what has become one of the top business schools in the country. Henry Biddle died from wounds received during the Peninsula campaign; his wife donated money to start a college for freedmen in his name in North Carolina. Antoinette Passos Westphal was Drexel through and through. She and her husband Ray made numerous contributions to the school. After her death, the university renamed the College of Media and Design in her honor.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #046
For about 30 years in the middle of the 20th century, medical wisdom had declared that destroying organically healthy brain tissue was a legitimate treatment for varying psychiatric disorders. The concept of psychosurgery dates back to the Neolithic period but became more prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The champion for destroying healthy brain tissue was a Philadelphia born-and trained neurologist Walter Freeman, who performed the procedure several thousand times.
Robert A. Groff, MD, also trained at Penn, as well as under the legendary Harvey Cushing in Boston. Toward the end of his legendary career, he was convinced to perform a lobotomy on a patient who had already failed the procedure once. Groff did it twice, and when the patient and his mother were disappointed by the results they sued. But Dr. Groff died after giving his deposition, but before his case came to trial.
This podcast gives a history of psychosurgery, starting with trepanning, and covers it through the horror days of blind lobotomies with a butter knife to present-day stereotactic deep stimulation techniques.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #076, part 5
Philadelphian Henry Naglee was a West Point graduate who fought in Mexico, the West, and the Civil War. He took a liking to the West Coast and built the first permanent commercial structure in San Francisco, installed vineyards that produced the finest brandy in the country, and is namesake for the Naglee Park section of San Jose. But he was a scoundrel with women, one of whom repaid him by publishing his love letters and his self-portrait of doing naked pushups on his bathtub. General Naglee is interred in the South segment of Laurel Hill East.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #076, part 4
Rat Catcher Lou Bossle was proud of his profession - it is even carved onto his Laurel Hill West tombstone. Twice in the 1890s, Philadelphia newspapers sent a reporter to keep him company in rat-infested basements while he was on the job.
I'll tell you about the long relationship between humans and rats, and share some of the methods used by ratcatchers of yore.
If you're a little squeamish, this one might make you squeam.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #76, part 3
Mabel Tinley was a Philadelphia-born con woman with a hypnotizing gaze who worked her way into New York Society with boldness and beauty. Fellow cemetery historian Tom Keels tells her remarkable story and suggests an inscription for her stone - should she ever get one.
Here Lies
MABEL TINLEY
AKA
Mrs. Richard W. Roelofs, Fickle Wife and Inattentive Mother,
Lasca Vega, Vaudeville Vamp,
Louise Vermeule, Serial Shopper,
Mrs. John (Catherine Stuyvesant) Van Ness Roberts, Buddy of Big Apple Bluebloods,
And a host of other aliases, too numerous and transitory to mention.
R.I.P.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #076
This segment of the podcast talks about the evolution of the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from nostalgia and soldier's heart to shell shock and battle fatigue and the thousand yard stare.
W. Griffin Gribbel was a wealthy Chestnut Hill businessman and Great War veteran whose wealth, career, and family could not save him from his post-war nightmares. His behavior often got so out of control that he had to be confined in an asylum. After a minor plane accident in 1929, he threatened everyone in his house with his collection of firearms. When a police officer came to the house to help take him away, Gribbel shot and killed the man, but was acquitted at his trial. Several years later, he stabbed a waiter in the throat at a local hotel. He is interred at Laurel Hill West.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #076, part 1
Morton McMichael Hoyt was named for his great-grandfather the mayor. His sister, Elinor Wylie, was a famed poet and author. Before he had turned 21, he married Jeanine Bankhead, older sister of up-and-coming actress Tallulah. When the marriage failed, they tried again. And then a third time. Then there's the time he jumped off a steamship on a bet ... or was it a dare ... to impress a 17-year-old. And he was captured by the Nazis in 1942 and spent the war in a German concentration camp. His ashes were consigned to earth at Laurel Hill West.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #076
The July 2025 episode tells of five people who really didn’t fit anywhere else.
- Morton McMichael Hoyt married the same woman three times and once jumped off a steamship to impress a 17-year-old girl.
- Major Wakeman Griffin Gribbel was gassed and wounded during the Great War; during one of several psychotic breaks, he mortally wounded a police officer, but a jury found him “not guilty.”
- Fellow guide and amateur cemetery historian Tom Keels tells the rollicking story of Mabel Tinsley, one of the great con artists of the Gilded Age.
- Louis Bossle was the city’s best-known ratcatcher; when he died, his nickname “Ratcatcher Lou” was carved on his obelisk.
- Tom Keels returns for a segment on one of our Civil War generals Richard Naglee, whose California vineyards made the finest brandy in the land, but whose amorous ventures got him in deep trouble more than once.
These five people come together under one podcast on July 1st, then each individual gets their own podcast on the 2nd through the 6th.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #045 for mid-June 2025
The card games whist and bridge arrived in Victorian Philadelphia and captivated its upper-class population. Bridge clubs formed all over town, but people soon realized the man in the know was Milton C. Work, a Philadelphia lawyer. A scoring system that Work popularized for contract bridge remains the one that most players use today.
Learn about the history of playing cards, the development of bid games, and a lot more on this month's episode.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075, part 4
Baron von Munchausen was a German military man who traveled the country spreading his tales of wonder, which always featured himself in the role of a hero. Clarence Wiener came from a wealthy Philadelphia family. He started to burnish his reputation during his brief stay at Harvard. Eventually, truth and fiction blended together. His widowed mother married an American-born violin teacher who was also a Baron. When Clarence died, he ended up in an unmarked grave in the family plot.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #75, part 5
Princess Olga Demidoff was from one royal family and married into another, the house of Trubetskoy. She eventually married Philadelphia archeologist Edward Stoever, but supported herself as both an escort and as madame in a high-end New York brothel. Her name is on the tombstone, but she is located on an island off of Spain.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075, part 3
In Paris before the Great War, he was known as Roberto Carles Eskens, but acquired the title of “The Marquis D’Eskens de Frenoys.”
Baron James Ivan Michael von Suttka was born in Canton, Ohio, and claimed to be an Olympic caliber pistol shot.
Both men married rich American women. It is difficult to prove whether their titles were authentic.
From all Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075, part 2
Elizabeth "Libby" Shindler was an Indiana farm girl / schoolteacher who caught the eye of philanthropist / hatmaker John B. Stetson and became his third wife. When left a widow with several million dollars, she was pursued and captured by a Portuguese nobleman who was not quite what he claimed.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075, Part 1
In the last quarter of the 19th century, there was a surge in marriages between European nobility and American heiresses as families exchanged money for titles. These women became known as "dollar princesses," and soon your east coast soiree was not complete without a contessa or marchioness to add to the flavor.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075
In the late 19th and early 20th century, more than 450 American heiresses traded their fortunes for a European title; they were called "dollar princesses."
Elizabeth Shindler Stetson was the hatmaker's third wife who married into a Portuguese title.
Roberto Carles Eskens claimed Belgian nobility as Marquis d'Eskens de Frenoys; or was he a German valet with a good story and a vivid imagination?
James Ivan Michael von Suttka has "Baron" on his headstone and "Olympic medalist" in his obituary; neither was true.
Clarence Wiener was a peripatetic military gadfly who claimed innumerable medals and honors for himself; he was especially upset when his wealthy widowed mother married Baron von Graetner. Wiener was in a category of story tellers as enthralling as the Baron von Munchausen.
Princess Olga Demidoff Troubetzskoy Stoever was from a royal Russian family and married into another. She was married to Philadelphia archeologist Stoever and her name is carved on his stone. Fate had other plans for the princess.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #044 for mid-May, 2025
John W. “Jack” Merriam made his fortune in real estate development – Oxford Valley Mall, Cedarbrook Apartment Complex, and many others. Among his acquisitions was the Curtis Publishing Building on Washington Square, with its magnificent Maxfield Parrish / Louis Comfort Tiffany glass mosaic in the lobby. Another was Maybrook Castle next to the Wynnewood Train Station on the Main Line. He was namesake for the Merriam Theater on South Broad Street, and he left tens of millions of dollars in support of local art institutions. Yet despite his massive wealth Jack Merriam and his wives are interred under a simple flat bronze marker at Laurel Hill West.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074, part 5
2LT Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill was a PAFA-trained artist who specialized in landscapes and beach scenes. He joined the Army in 1915 and served during the Battles of Ypres and the Somme. While he survived a gas attack, his lungs were apparently damaged, which led to his premature death in 1929.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074, segment 4
Alfred Reginald Allen, MD, was a UPenn med school grad, a clever researcher in neurologic injuries, a brilliant composer of operas and hymns, founder of the Savoy Company, and one of the finest photomicrographers in the world. But when he joined the Army, it was as a combat officer. He was killed, ironically, by shrapnel to his brain at Meuse Argonne. He has a cenotaph at Laurel Hill East.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074, segment 3
CPT Alan Wood Lukens was variously reported as killed in action, missing in action, hospitalized at an unknown site in France, and possible prisoner of war. He had been killed in action in September, but it took the Lukens family until January to determine what had really happened to Allen. He was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Service Medal
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074, section 2
1LT Dillwyn Parrish Starr joined the military long before the United States entered the war. He had been a football star at Groton and at Harvard. He ended up with the Coldstream Guard where he was killed in action during the Battle of Somme. He is buried in France, but his family has added his name to their stone at Laurel Hill East.
Excerpt from All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074, part 1
The United States tried to stay out of the European conflict that started in 1914 but eventually joined the fray. Philadelphia, "The Workshop of the World," provided doughboys with blankets, footwear, and head gear. By the time the US Congress declared war in April, 1917, hundreds of Americans had already been fighting, and many had died, the first of more than 125,000 Americans to die, including 1400 Philadelphians, in what many thought would be the "war to end all wars."
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #074
The United States was dragged into a war that it seemed nobody wanted, but that was inevitable anyway. Philadelphia produced massive amounts of materials for the American doughboys.
1LT Dillwyn Parrish Starr was impatient for action. He joined Britain’s esteemed Coldstream Guard and was readily accepted by them. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme before the United States even got officially involved.
CPT Alan Wood Lukens came from two families of steel mongers. Although he was killed in late September of 1918 at Meuse Argonne, his family did not discover the truth until several months later. Lukens was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
MAJ Alfred Reginald Allen trained as a research neurologist and became one of the best photomicrographers in the country. He wrote operas, overtures, and hymns, and he founded the Savoy Company to perform the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan. Yet when he volunteered for war service, it was as an officer in the Army.
2LT Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill trained at PAFA and in Paris with James Whistler. He was apparently wounded by poison gas and spent the last few years of his life suffering from its effects.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #043
Polish born violinist Timothee Adamowski was soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for many years and served as one of the first conductors of the Boston Pops Orchestra. For many years his name was romantically linked with that of famed Australian soprano Nellie Melba, but he surprised everyone when he married Gertrude Pancoast of a famed Philadelphia medical family. Timothee is interred in the Pancoast family plot at LHW.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 5
George W. Melville was the MacGyver of his day, seemingly creating something out of nothing when the situation called for it. As an engineer he was unsurpassed. He was one of only a few survivors of the ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole by the ship Jeannette, captained by George DeLong. He then went back to recover the bodies of those who had been left behind. He has a statue at the Naval Yard and was twice painted by Thomas Eakins.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 5
Admiral Sylvanus William Godon spent his life in the Navy. The high point was probably the capture of the USS Erie with its cargo of 897 enslaved Africans. The captain of that ship, Nathaniel "Lucky Nat" Gordon, went to the gallows for his crime.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 4
Commodore David Conner was responsible for the successful amphibious landing of 12,000 men at Vera Cruz during the Mexican American War. His presentation sword and two medals are on display in the Cincinnati Room of the Hill - Physick - Keith House, along with a fine portrait.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 2
Isaac Hull was a lifelong sailor from a family of sailors. He is best remembered today for being commander of the USS Constitution when it captured HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. Fellow tour guise Russell Dodge wrote this script and the life of this great seaman.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 1
The United States tried very hard to not have a Navy. It wasn't until the early 19th century that congress realized the need for a fighting force on the water. Capture of American merchant ships by the Barbary pirates and corsairs with letters of marque forced congress to release funds to fortify the Navy. Eventually the United States Navy was second only to the Royal Navy of England.
Commodore Isaac Hull was captain of the USS Constitution when it defeated RMS Guerriere in the War of 1812.
Commodore David Conner worked with Army General Winfield Scott to arrange the massive successful amphibious landing at Veracruz during the Mexican American War, which led directly to the taking of Mexico City a few months later.
Rear Admiral Sylvanus William Godon spent his life in the Navy and while a member of the African Squadron captured the slave ship Erie which led to the hanging of its skipper Nathaniel Gordon, the only man executed by the government for being in the slave trade.
Admiral George Melville was another Navy lifer. After he led a group back to civilization in the aftermath of the wreck of the SS Jeanette, he stayed in long enough to reach the rank of admiral. All four of these men are buried at Laurel Hill East.
Isaac Hull led USS Constitution to victory against HMS Guerriere in the early days of the War of 1812. Fellow tour guide Russ Dodge wrote this script but declined the opportunity to narrate it.
David Conner worked with Winfield Scott to arrange the largest amphibious assault of the 19th century at Vera Cruz during the Mexican American War.
While serving in the African Squadron, Sylvanus Godon captured the slave ship Erie, which led to the return of nearly 900 Africans to their home continent, and the hanging of “Lucky Nat” Gordon, the only man to be executed by the Government for buying and selling human beings.
George W. Melville was a genius engineer and Arctic explorer who was among the survivors of the doomed USS Jeannette Polar mission in 1879-1881.
Four men who spent their lives on the ocean and had startling tales to tell of their adventures in this month’s episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073 for April 2025 – Four Naval Heroes: Isaac Hull, David Conner, Sylvanus Godon, and George Melville.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 5
Dorothy Burr Thompson ("DBT") was acknowledged as one of the best archeologists of her day. Her work of Hellenistic terra cottas has never been surpassed. Her younger sister Pamela Burr wrote a play while at Bryn Mawr that featured her classmate, Katharine Hepburn.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 4
Anna Robeson Burr Brown was an American writer of novels, poetry, stories, essays, and biographies. Her The Autobiography: A Critical and Comparative Study (1909), was the first book on the subject.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 3
Henry Armitt Brown became the finest orator of his generation, frequently compared to Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. His life was cut short only weeks after his greatest triumph.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 2
Frederick Brown was a very successful druggist and a founder of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. When his friend John Jay Smith invited him to be a founder at Laurel Hill Cemetery, he accepted the offer.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 1
Charles Brockden Brown is regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. His best-known works include Wieland and Edgar Huntly, both of which display his characteristic interest in Gothic themes. His works heavily influenced both Mary Bysshe Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe.
Charles Brockden Brown was American’s first successful novelist. his influence on Edgar Allen Poe was immeasurable. He has a cenotaph in the South section of Laurel Hill East.
Charles' nephew Frederick Brown was a successful druggist because of his ginger root-based nostrums. He was also one of four co-founders of Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Frederick's son Henry Armitt Brown was considered the best orator of his generation and often compared to Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.
Henry's daughter Anna Robeson Brown Burr was a highly successful author with more than two dozen books to her name, both fiction and nonfiction.
Anna's daughter Dorothy Burr Thompson got her PhD from Bryn Mawr and was one of the best-known archeologists in the country. Pamela Burr, younger by 5 years, wrote a play which featured her Bryn Mawr classmate Katharine Hepburn.
Frederick and Henry are buried at Laurel Hill East, while Anna, Dorothy, and Pamela are at Laurel Hill West.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 5
A slight reworking of an earlier podcast about Cecil Kent Drinker, MD, (All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #041) now features his wife Katherine Rotan Drinker, MD, as they take on the investigation of "jaw rot" among young women who had worked as painters of luminescent watch dials.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 4
By 1921, Women's Medical College was on the verge of failure. The new president Sarah Logan Wister Starr was a master fundraiser who treated Women's Medical School and its hospital as her private philanthropic project. She did save the school, but she infuriated both faculty and student body when she fired the popular professor of obstetrics and gynecology Alice Weld Tallant.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072 - Segment 3
In the mid-19th century, women from around the world flocked to Philadelphia in order to become physicians.
Everyone has seen the Frederick Gutekunst photo of three medical students from India, Japan, and Syria.
Charlotte Yhlen came from Sweden and became the first Scandinavian-born woman physician but couldn't get work in her home country so returned to the United States.
Marie K. Formad was from Russia. She became one of the premiere gynecologic surgeons in the country.
Drs. Yhlen and Formad are buried at Laurel Hill West.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 2
William J. Mullen was the first President of Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. He is remembered for his tireless philanthropic work among inmates at Moyamensing Prison and for his over-the-top grave marker in the south section of Laurel Hill East.
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 1
With the help of several Quaker philanthropists, a medical school for women was chartered in 1850. Through the courage and strength of the founders and early graduates, it slowly grew into a respected medical school whose memory lives today through the Drexel University School of Medicine.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072 gives you a condensed history of Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. The entire podcast is available on March 1st. Each segment will be released as an individual recording in the days that follow.
First, I will tell you about the founding of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1850.
Second, I will talk about William J. Mullen, the school’s first President and a major contributor. He is remembered today for his over-the-top grave marker at Laurel Hill East.
Third, I will discuss the notable photograph of three women doctors in their traditional attire, followed by a discussion about Swedish immigrant Charlotte Yhlen and Russian immigrant Marie Formad.
Fourth, I will tell you about the near-mortal wound suffered by Women’s Medical when their new president Sarah Logan Wister Starr butted heads with one of the top surgeons at the hospital, which led to the resignation of the entire surgical staff.
And for dessert, if you missed it, is a slightly modified version of a podcast I did on Dr. Cecil Kent Drinker a few years ago, but now with the emphasis on his wife WMC graduate Dr. Katherine Rotan Drinker.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #041
John W. Forney was a publisher, a politician, a railroad agent, and the only person to serve as both Clerk of the US House and Secretary of the US Senate. Abraham Lincoln befriended the man, but political enemies called Forney "Lincoln's dog." Andrew Johnson drank to excess at Forney’s Stag party the night before he was sworn in as Vice President and the two men later became bitter enemies. John W. Forney, political gadfly, chameleon, and provocateur is interred in the River Section of Laurel Hill West along with several members of his fascinating family. You will hear about all of them in the February 2025 episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories.
ABC#071, segment 4
John Claver "Jack" Jones was a Philadelphian through-and-through - West Catholic High School, La Salle University. He was befriended by TV announcer John Facenda who got him hired at a local TV station. Jack rose to be evening anchor but died far too young.
All Bones Considered #071, segment 3
Doris May Harris was a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University who was the third Black woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to a long and distinguished career on the bench and introduced novel approaches to the punishment and rehabilitation of teen offenders.
ABC#071, segment 2
Florence daVida "Videe" Howard Johnson-Reid steadily worked her way up the ladder of education until she was Dean of Graduate Studies at Cheyney University, whose history dates back to 1837 and the Institute for Colored Youth. Learn about the evolution of education for Philadelphia's African American citizens and more.
ABC#071, part 1
Lynwood Blount was a municipal judge who worked his way to the top, including night law school at Temple. He was elected judge after a successful 20-year law career. He was also President of Mercy-Douglass Hospital during its waning years. He did not suffer fools lightly. Along the way he picked up the nickname "Count Blount." He also served as President of Mercy-Douglass Hospital in its final days, so you can learn about medical education for African American Philadelphia residents.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #071 for February 2025 - complete
Judge Lynwood Blount became a lawyer by going to night school and rose to be a judge in the Philadelphia criminal justice system. His manner and authoritative presence earned him the nickname “Count Blount.”
Florence DeVida Johnson-Reid came through the ranks to become Dean of Graduate Education and Continuing Education at Cheyney University, but her life was tragically cut short by cancer.
Judge Doris May Harris was only the third Black woman to graduate from Penn Law and became one of the most popular – and controversial – juvenile court judges in the city.
Jack Jones was a devout Roman Catholic from West Philadelphia who wanted to grow up to be famed announcer John Facenda. With Facenda’s help, Jones got an early start in a career in broadcast news that ended with him being the first Black anchorperson on local news. He too died tragically young from cancer.
These four, plus information about the legal system in Philadelphia, the education of African American children in Philadelphia since the 1830s, the evolution of Black lawyers in Philadelphia, and the city's Black Roman Catholic population.
BBB040, part 3
Herb Lusk was a running back who developed the habit of dropping to a knee and uttering a brief prayer after he scored a touchdown. He brought this habit with him to the pros and then quit after three seasons to become a very successful Baptist preacher. He was awarded a Super Bowl ring 39 years after he retired.
BBB070, part 2
Nate Ramsey played nine years with some pretty mediocre Eagle teams but was voted by fans as the best Eagle to ever wear uniform #24. The problem was his legal difficulties, which plagued him before, after, and during his career.
BBB070-part 1
Mac Roy "Slab" Jackson played college ball on one of the best Penn teams ever, then joined a professional league in Western Pennsylvania where he led a local team to a national championship. He is best remembered today for his skills in dog breeding and horsemanship.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #040
Mac Roy Jackson played college ball on one of the best Penn teams ever, then joined a professional league in Western Pennsylvania where he led a local team to a national championship. He may be better remembered as a master of the hounds and a judge of horse flesh.
Nate Ramsey played nine years with some pretty mediocre Eagle teams but was voted by fans as their favorite Eagle to ever wear uniform #24. The problem was his legal difficulties, which plagued him before, after, and during his career.
Herb Lusk was a running back who developed the habit of dropping to a knee and uttering a brief prayer after he scored a touchdown. He brought this habit with him to the pros and then quit after three seasons to become a very successful Baptist preacher. He was given a Super Bowl ring 39 years after his retirement.
All three of these men are interred at Laurel Hill West.
ABC 2025 bonus episode
Happy 200th birthday Richard H. Rush, born February 12, 1825. Richard’s grandfathers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton both signed the Declaration of Independence. Richard’s father served as a cabinet member under three presidents and unsuccessfully ran for Vice President in 1828. Richard attended the US Military Academy at West Point. When the Civil War started, Richard mustered and led from his Germantown neighbors the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, better known as “Rush’s Lancers.” Military historian and fellow tour guide Russ Dodge did the research and writing on this, but declined a chance to record it himself, so you'll hear me.
ABC#070, part
Henry Charles Lea was a publisher, researcher, and author, who wrote the definitive history of the Spanish Inquisition. His grave marker was sculpted by Alexander Stirling Calder and is one of the most photographed monuments on the property.
This is a partial rerun of #ABC018 - The Calder Connection
ABC070, part 5
John Roh was an inpatient at the Blockley Almshouse in 1885 when a fire raced through his wing and killed more than a score of male psychiatric patients who were locked in their cells. John Roh was one of the victims of that tragedy, and we’re pretty sure he is interred in the family plot at Laurel Hill East.
ABC070, part 3
Laura Matilda Towne was an abolitionist who studied homeopathic medicine and became an instructor for recently freed enslaved Africans on the islands off South Carolina. It turned into her life’s work for the next 30+ years.
ABC070, part 2
Edwin Henry Fitler made his fortune in rope at a time when Philadelphia had one of the busiest shipyards in the country. He was the first Philadelphia mayor to establish his office at City Hall in the years it was being completed. Fitler is namesake for Fitler Square and his obelisk is the tallest at Laurel Hill East.
ABC070, part 1
Thomas Craycroft was a medical student who volunteered to help in the 1855 Yellow Fever epidemic in Norfolk, Virginia. He was one of 15 Philadelphians who died during that mission of mercy but whose remains are now interred under the Yellow Fever monument at Laurel Hill East.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #070 - Happy 200th Birthdays!
Thomas Craycroft was a medical student who volunteered to help in the1855 Yellow Fever epidemic in Norfolk, Virginia. He was one of 15 Philadelphians who died during that mission of mercy but whose remains are now interred under the Yellow Fever monument at Laurel Hill East.
Edwin Henry Fitler made his fortune in rope at a time when Philadelphia had one of the busiest shipyards in the country. He was the first Philadelphia mayor to establish his office at City Hall in the years it was being completed. Fitler is namesake for Fitler Square and his obelisk is the tallest at Laurel Hill East.
Laura Matilda Towne was an abolitionist who studied homeopathic medicine and became an instructor for recently freed enslaved Africans on the islands off South Carolina. It turned into her life’s work for the next 30+ years.
John Roh was an inpatient at the Blockley Almshouse in 1885 when a fire raced through his wing, killing more than a score of male psychiatric patients who were locked in their cells. John Roh was one of the victims of that tragedy, and we’re pretty sure he is interred in the family lot at Laurel Hill East.
Henry Charles Lea was a publisher, researcher, and author, who wrote the definitive history of the Spanish Inquisition. His grave marker was sculpted by Alexander Stirling Calder and is one of the most photographed monuments on the property.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #039 for mid-December 2024
Henry Winter Syle went deaf as a child and soon abandoned speech. He used American Sign Language and the written word to share his ideas with the deaf world, many of whom had been excluded from religious ceremonies for centuries because it was thought they could not enter heaven. Although Syle's career was cut short by an early death, he is recognized as a saint of the Episcopal Church, with a feast day on August 26th shared with another pioneer of teaching the deaf Thomas Gallaudet.
Syle is interred in the shadow of the Betz mausoleum in the Summit Section of Laurel Hill West.
ABC #069, segment 5 (by Lora Lewis)
Charlotte Cardeza may be the model for every privileged, self-indulgent rich woman on the Titanic, what with her steamer trunks full of designer gowns, exotic furs, and precious jewelry. She hired the biggest suite on the ship and made certain that her son and maid were in the lifeboat with her. Her inventory of lost items ran to 20 pages. Her mausoleum at Laurel Hill West is unforgettable.
ABC #069, segment 4
Gretchen Longley was orphaned while young and raised by two aunts, who accompanied her to Europe in the Spring of 1912 to help her choose her bridal trousseau. Their return trip on the RMS Titanic gave Gretchen stories she would tell for the rest of her life.
ABC #069, segment 3 (by Savanna Fisher)
Lily Potter was trying to forget her grief since the death of her husband. Her daughter Olive was in a troubled marriage and soon to be divorced. They decided to relax and forget their cares while taking an ocean voyage on the RMS Titanic. Their plans did not turn out as they anticipated.
ABC #069, segment 2
Eleanor Elkins Widener was one of the wealthiest people on the Titanic. She watched helplessly from a lifeboat as the mighty ocean liner went down, taking her husband George and son Harry with it. Her second marriage was to an Amazonian explorer whom she met at the dedication of a Harvard library named for her son.
ABC #069, segment 1
The great tragedies of the sea are innumerable - literally millions of wrecks litter the floors of oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers, and innumerable victims have ended up in Davey Jones' Locker.
Laurel Hill East has a cenotaph for three victims - a mother and two daughters - from the Austria disaster in 1858, which saw a loss of 448 passengers and crew.
Laurel Hill West has a cenotaph for a brother and sister lost on the SS La Bourgogne in 1898, amid-Atlantic collision that saw 562 people die.
The RMS Titanic proved not as unsinkable as people thought. This introductory section gives you some specifics about the ship and the people involved.
After learning about the boat in this segment, you will learn about the individual women who survived and their triumphs and tragedies along the way.
When the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg in April of 1912, about 250 of the 1300 passengers were from the United States. While people with well-known names like Strauss, Guggenheim, Astor, and Widener were aboard the ship, it was primarily the women and children who were saved.
Six men and six women of Laurel Hill were among the passengers. All of the women survived. It is their stories we tell of in this episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories.
I will tell of other oceanic disasters and give you the basic information about the Titanic.
Fellow Laurel Hill Guide Lora Lewis will tell you about Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice and Charlotte Cardeza, two rich and powerful women who became legendary. Lora will also briefly cover Charlotte's maid Annie Ward, also interred at Laurel Hill West.
Young taphophile Savanna Fisher wanted to tell you about her favorite women onboard, Lily Potter and her daughter Olive.
I will tell you about Gretchen Longley, who had gone to Europe with two aunts in order to select her wedding wardrobe. The sinking delayed her marriage by a year.
Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #038
Waldo E. Nelson preferred to be called Bill. After he studied under pediatrics pioneer Graeme Mitchell at Cincinnati, he was recruited to Temple University School of Medicine in 1940 to begin a pediatrics department. The next year, he took over editorship of Mitchell’s textbook, which became the ubiquitous Nelson’s Pediatrics, now in its 21st edition. You will learn more about Dr. Nelson and the development and growth of Pediatric medicine in the United States in this episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #038 – Waldo E. “Bill” Nelson and the “green bible” of pediatrics.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068, Part 2, Section 3
Thomas Leiper was a Scottish immigrant who built the first permanent railroad in the United States and made his fortune in snuff. As a founding member of First City Troop, he served as personal bodyguard for General George Washington, and led his troops to rescue Congressman James Wilson during the so-called "Crisis at Fort Wilson". Thomas Jefferson rented a room from Leiper while he was serving as Secretary of State, and the two men exchanged letters for the rest of their lives.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068 - Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 2, Section 1 - Thomas McKean
Thomas McKean served multiple roles in colonial days – president of Delaware, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, President of the United States Congress, and Governor of Pennsylvania, among others. Although his efforts in 1776 were what made the Declaration unanimous, he was the last man to sign that historic document.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068 - Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 2, Section 1 - Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson was the man who knew where all the bodies were buried. During his 15 years as Secretary of the Continental Congress, he quietly ran the colonies and the country efficiently and effectively, and kept meticulous notes, which he later destroyed. He designed the Great Seal of the United States and personally notified George Washington that he had been elected President. His late-life dementia horrified Jefferson and others who had seen him function at his peak.
Charles Thomson was the Founding Father who served as secretary of the Continental Congress during its 15 years. Along with John Hancock, his signature graced the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Thomson also designed the Great Seal of the United States. After his initial burial at the family homestead Harriton in Bryn Mawr, his remains were transferred to Laurel Hill.
Thomas McKean served multiple roles in colonial days – president of Delaware, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, President of the United States Congress, and Governor of Pennsylvania, among others. Although his efforts in 1776 were what made the Declaration unanimous, he was the last man to sign that historic document.
Thomas Leiper was a successful tobacco importer who built the first railroad in Pennsylvania on his property at Nether Township. As a founding member of the First City Troop, he fought with the Patriots at the Battles of Princeton, Trenton, Germantown, and Brandywine. His personal wealth helped to subsidize the siege of Yorktown. He and Thomas Jefferson exchanged hundreds of letters.
All three of these men died before Laurel Hill opened in 1836, but they were all friends of Thomas Jefferson who eventually ended up at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
I did the research on Thomson & McKean, while the script for Thomas Leiper was written by fellow tour guide Peter Howell.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #037
John Trout Greble was a Philadelphian descended from colonial pioneers on both sides of his family. He graduated with honors from Central High School and to the shock of many, this delicate young man chose a career in the military. After he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1854, he spent time in Florida during the Seminole displacement of Trail of Tears, before he taught ethics at West Point and married the chaplain’s daughter. His first taste of war was as leader of artillery at the Battle of Big Bethel in Southern Virginia in June 1861 where he was killed in action – the first West Point graduate to fall in the American Civil War. Lt Greble is interred in the Merion Section of Laurel Hill West.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #067, Part 2
Spiritualism was a belief system that involved communication with the dead. Philadelphia gentleman Adam Seybert was a true believer and wanted others to believe. He left money in his will to establish a department at Penn to prove his point. The committee was headed by Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness and featured many Philadelphia notables. The real fun started when they interviewed Maggie Fox, one of the founders of spiritualism.
Researched and read by Patricia Rose
ABC#067, part 1
Walter Hubbell was a Philadelphia-born actor who would probably be forgotten today were it not for the Great Amherst Mystery, a book he wrote about Esther Cox, a young woman seemingly possessed by evil spirits which started after she suffered a failed sexual assault at gunpoint by a young man she trusted. Esther's nightmarish experiences affected not only her, but the people with whom she lived: she was even temporarily jailed as an arsonist when a neighbor's barn burned to the ground.
Walter Hubbell learned about Esther when his traveling troop ventured into the Maritimes. He thought that he could debunk the stories. Instead, he became a convert and wrote about it. Years later, much of what he wrote was debunked by a psychic skeptic. The whole story is mesmerizing.
Biographical Bytes from Bala #036: William, Edward & George Vare: The Dukes of South Philadelphia
The Vare brothers grew up unschooled, slopping hogs and hawking vegetables in "The Neck", the poorest section of Philadelphia. They got into trash collection and within a few years were scooping up city contracts by the armful. They grew rich and powerful along the way and eventually even collected a kickback from the mayor. All three Vare brothers are interred at Laurel Hill West.
Historian, author, and fellow Laurel Hill Tour Guide Thomas Keels tells you their story.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 4
Emory Richard Johnson was the only Professor of Transportation and Commerce in the United States when he was asked to come up with a payment schedule for people using the Panama Canal. His methods were used for more than half a century.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 3
Charles Day was a master builder. His Philadelphia firm Day & Zimmerman was first to pour concrete at the massive Culebra locks, which worked perfectly from day one.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 2
Lewis Haupt was son of famed railroad Engineer Herman Haupt (see Biographical Bytes from Bala #10: Lincoln's Railroad Man). Lewis became a civil engineer who was skeptical about a canal across Panama but joined the working committee when he was invited.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 1
John Cresson Trautwine was a civil engineer who wrote what became the definitive Engineer's Handbook which was standard text for decades; he also predicted that it would be impossible to build a canal through Panama.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066, Pushing Water, Section 2
Rudolph Hering was son of the famed homeopath Constantine Hering. He became such as expert on hydraulic engineering that he was invited to Chicago to assist with their drinking water problem, and he helped them reverse the river.
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066, Pushing Water, Section 1
Frederick Graff was a civil engineer / architect who quickly learned the principles of hydraulics when he was tagged to set up the water supply for Philadelphia. He became a master of his craft.
All Bones Considered #066: Pushing Water
- Frederick Graff took over from Benjamin Latrobe to develop the Philadelphia Water Works
- Rudolph Hering was summoned to Chicago to help them with their drinking water problem and helped them reverse the flow of the Chicago River
- John C. Trautwine is remembered for his book, called "The Engineer's Bible," and for predicting a canal could never be built across Panama
- Lewis Haupt was another doubter, although he served on the Panama Committee
- Charles Day Philadelphia company of Day & Zimmerman laid the first concrete at the famed Culebra Locks
- Emory Richard Johnson was the only man in the world with the training to figure out an appropriate fee schedule for the Canal; his formulas were used for more than half a century
ABC051-1
Indigenous peoples had been part of the Philadelphia landscape since the pre-Colonial days. Their dealings with William Penn and his family left them wondering.
ABC051-2
George Montgomery Harris died of wounds that he received in the Lava Beds of northern California while battling Captain Jack and the Modoc tribe in 1873.
ABC051-3
Benjamin Hubert Hodgson was killed during the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana against Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors – fellow Laurel Hill tour guide Tom Keels tells his story.
ABC051-4
LT James Hansell French was killed in the San Mateo Mountains of New Mexico territory in 1880 as the Buffalo Soldier troops under his command pursued the great Apache chief Victorio and his warriors.
ABC051-5
Jonathan Williams Biddle, whose father Henry Biddle had been killed in the Civil War, lost his life in the Battle of Bear Paw, also in Montana, in 1877 against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce.
ABC060-3
Anna Justina Magee was the last of seven siblings who lived together their entire lives. Her legacy for the family was a hospital designed for people who were convalescing from injury – The Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.
ABC060-2
Elizabeth Duane Gillespie came from a politically active family; she was the chief fundraiser and organizer for the Sanitary Fair of 1864, which put her in the position to lead the way for the Centennial Exposition of 1876. She ended up rescuing it from disaster.
ABC060-1
London-born Esther DeBerdt Reed married a man who became George Washington’s right-hand man and switched her Tory allegiance to become a radial patriot; the organization she founded to provide some relief to the soldiers fighting for her freedom didn’t quite go the way that she had planned.
ABC051-1
George Gordon Meade Easby, a wealthy and eccentric character named after his great grandfather, lived in a Chestnut Hill mansion called Baleroy for most of his 87 years. He didn’t mind sharing the space with phantom apparitions, which included his younger brother, his mother, Thomas Jefferson, and a malevolent spirit named “Amanda”, along with several others.
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William Welsh Harrison was a moneyed man due to America’s sweet tooth – he made a fortune as a sugar manufacturer. Part of his wealth went to build the family home, Grey Towers Castle in Glenside. His former home now serves as administrative offices for Arcadia University, but his presence is still felt on the property. Apparently, the castle and other campus buildings are haunted.
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William Morris Meredith, Jr., described himself as a "B+ poet who has written a few A+ poems". Despite his modesty, his poetry was recognized as some of the best in post-WWII America. He served for two years as US Poet Laureate and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He is interred at Laurel Hill West.
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Milton Hershey's beloved wife Kitty died in a Philadelphia hotel room and spent nearly three years in a receiving vault at Laurel Hill West until a new cemetery was built in Hershey as her final resting place.
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Grain merchant Franklin Baker once received a load of coconut as payment for a boatload of grain. Baker turned this serendipitous occurrence into a lifetime of working with coconut, such that the name “Baker’s” is almost synonymous with coconuts.
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Henry Oscar Wilbur was a Philadelphia chocolatier who was probably most famous for his small chocolate pieces with his name on the bottom. He called them Wilbur Buds and offered a spirited competition to Milton Hershey’s Kisses.
ABC #064- Part 1
The Olympics are here. If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
- Lawson “Robbie” Robertson won medals in the Intercalated Games of 1906 in Athens and went on to become head coach of the University of Pennsylvania track and field team. He took them back to the Olympics several more times.
You will learn about these four athletes along with the jumbled letters of the AC4A, the AAU, the NCAA, and the IAAF on this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Four More Olympians from 1904 to 1912.”
ABC #064 - Part 2
The Olympics are here. If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
- Jervis Watson Burdick was a UPenn student member of the Sphinx Club and the Canteen Club who competed in the1912 Olympics but did not medal.
You will learn about these four athletes along with the jumbled letters of the AC4A, the AAU, the NCAA, and the IAAF on this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Four More Olympians from 1904 to 1912.”
ABC #064 - Part 3
The Olympics are here. If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
- James Edwin “Ted” Meredith was the fastest schoolboy in the country and broke every distance running record from 100 meters to 1 mile; his Gold in the 1912 Olympics was for the 4 x 400-meter relay.
And don’t forget All Bones Considered #029: The Zany Games about Laurel Hill residents in 1900’s Olympiad II in Paris. https://jrlexjr.podbean.com/e/olympiad-ii-paris-1900/ or wherever you listen to podcasts.
ABC #064 - Part 4
The Olympics are here. If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
- Donald Fithian Lippincott surprised everyone, including himself, when he took both a bronze and a silver in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
And don’t forget All Bones Considered #029: The Zany Games about Laurel Hill residents at 1900’s Olympiad II in Paris. https://jrlexjr.podbean.com/e/olympiad-ii-paris-1900/ or wherever you listen to podcasts.
- John Rhea Barton was a master surgeon who has both a fracture and a professorship named for him.
- Thomas Story Kirkbride wanted to take Barton’s role, but instead got interested in caring for the mentally ill at a time when a new philosophy was being introduced. Kirkbride asylums became the standard of care for many decades.
- Anna Lukens was among the students from Women’s Medical College who were verbally and physically assaulted after an attempt at coeducational clinical teaching at Pennsylvania Hospital ended up in the “She Doctor Panic of 1869”.
- Richard Burr inadvertently became the poster child for Civil War embalmers when Matthew Brady captured his likeness while he was doing a battlefield procedure.
If you like what you hear, please leave a review and check out Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, parts 1, 2, and 3
ABC #065 - Part 4
Richard Burr was a Civil War surgeon who found there was more money in "treating" the dead and became an embalmer. Photographer Matthew Brady immortalized him with a battlefield photo.
This is section 4 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #065 - Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, Part 4. You can find plenty of other stories about American medical pioneers in earlier episodes.
Thomas Kirkbride trained as a surgeon but developed an interest in madness during his training. His blueprint for asylums became the standard for nearly a century.
This is one of four people I talk about in All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #65 - Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, Part 4. You will find many other stories about Philadelphia medical pioneers in Parts 1, 2, and 3.
Another excerpt from the upcoming podcast "Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine, Part 4. The full podcast will be released on 1 August.
John Rhea Barton was a student of Philip Syng Physick who carried on his reputation as an innovative and bold surgeon in the early 19th century.
I am experimenting with short form. I will continue to post the monthly long-form podcast on the 1st and 15th, but I will also start making available the individual people as separate recordings.
In 1869, Anna Lukens was one of the 30+ medical students from Women's Medical College who inadvertently caused an uproar when they showed up at the weekly clinics. Despite having permission to be there and purchasing tickets, their mere presence caused a riot among the "gentlemen".
Almost everybody loves chocolate.
Henry Oscar Wilbur was a Philadelphia chocolatier who was probably most famous for his small chocolate pieces with his name on the bottom. He called them Wilbur Buds and offered a spirited competition to Milton Hershey’s Kisses.
Although Hershey is not buried locally, his beloved wife Kitty spent nearly three years in a receiving vault until a new cemetery was built in Hershey as her final resting place.
Grain merchant Franklin Baker once received a load of coconut as payment for a boatload of grain. Baker turned this serendipitous occurrence into a lifetime of working with coconut, such that the name “Baker’s” is almost synonymous with coconuts.
You’ll hear about these three Laurel Hill West residents - two permanent, one temporary - in this episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala #034 – Sweet Tooth: Wilbur, Baker, Hershey.
An earlier episode of All Bones Considered covered the 1900 Paris Olympiad and some Laurel Hill residents who participated. This month features four more Olympians from the early 20th century.
Lawson “Robbie” Robertson won medals in the Intercalated Games of 1906 in Athens and went on to become head coach of the University of Pennsylvania track and field team. He took them back to the Olympics several more times.
Jervis Watson Burdick was a UPenn student member of the Sphinx Club and the Canteen Club who competed in the1912 Olympics but did not medal.
James Edwin “Ted” Meredith was the fastest schoolboy in the country and broke every distance running record from 100 meters to 1 mile; his Gold in the 1912 Olympics was for the 4 x 400-meter relay.
And Donald Fithian Lippincott surprised everyone, including himself, when he won a silver and a bronze in 1912.
You will learn about these four athletes along with the jumbled letters of the AC4A, the AAU, the NCAA, and the IAAF on this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Four More Olympians from 1904 to 1912.”
Abram Winegardner Harris was one of the top educators in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After he was schooled in Philadelphia and spent time with the Department of Agriculture, he served as president of the land grant school in Orono when it became the University of Maine. While there he helped establish the first general studies academic fraternity Phi Kappa Phi.
Then he spent a few years at a private secondary boarding school in Maryland where he established the Cum Laude Society for secondary school scholars.
Next stop: Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he was responsible for a massive expansion of the entire campus – gymnasium, stadium, science center, and much more. A tradition he began in 1916 continues more than a century later.
Harris is interred under a simple, tasteful stone next to the road in the River section of Laurel Hill West. It identifies him simply as “SCHOLAR / TEACHER / LEADER / FRIEND".
Americans struggled to establish their own identity as they separated from the British in the early 19th century. It was a time of blossoming for American theater and its playwrights, despite they’re receiving little honor and even less compensation.
- Richard Penn Smith wrote more than 20 plays but is best remembered today for inventing much of what we know as the legend of Davy Crockett.
- Robert Montgomery Bird was a physician who wrote a play for Edwin Forrest that became the basis for plays and movies into the 21st century; Forrest became rich, while Bird became an embittered man.
- Robert Taylor Conrad was a polymath whose writing was praised by Edgar Allen Poe and whose play Aylmere, or Jack Cade became another favorite of Edwin Forrest’s. He also served as Mayor of Philadelphia at the time of consolidation.
- George Henry Boker was one of Philadelphia’s most accomplished men – poet, playwright, politician, and co-founder of the Union League. He also solidified copyright laws in the United States so creators could be fairly paid. Oh – he was also minister to Turkey and Russia.
All four of these men are interred at Laurel Hill East and are little remembered today except by admirers and historians. I tell their stories in this episode of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Curtain Up! Four Philadelphia Playwrights”.
Dennis Sandole was one of the best kept secrets in jazz. Born Dionigi Sandoli in South-Philadelphia-born, his teaching techniques were sought by Art Farmer, James Moody, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, and especially John Coltrane, who became his most famous student. Coltrane spent hours practicing daily to master the material that The Maestro gave him and turn it into his own sound, which eventually became “Sheets of Sound” and then “Coltrane Changes”.
Sandole rarely recorded or performed live but he was revered by those who studied under him. He is interred in the Mausoleum of Peace just a few feet from Disc Jockey Jocko Henderson on the other side of Righters Ferry Road.
Philadelphia has always been the magazine-publishing capital of the United States. It reached its pinnacle in the 1840s, 50s, and 60s when three popular magazines – Graham’s, Peterson's, and Lippincott's - all came into existence.
Graham’s was the best, even though it only lasted a few years. George Rex Graham would wheedle articles out of Longfellow and Thoreau, and published many stories by his co-editor Edgar Allan Poe.
Peterson’s magazine followed shortly and lasted a few years longer. Charles Peterson was a lifelong friend of Graham who started his own magazine and was ready to hand it off to his son, Howard, who mysteriously disappeared during a weekend trip down the shore. What his wife did at the time of her death 31 years later will touch your heart.
Joshua Ballinger Lippincott was a late comer with his Lippincott’s magazine, but it lasted longer than the others and served as the bedrock for the famed Lippincott Publishing Company which went through several generations of family leadership.
George Rex Graham, five members of the Peterson family, and several members of the Lippincotts are featured on this month’s episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #062 – Three More Philadelphia Magazines: Graham's, Peterson's, and Lippincott's.
It wasn’t long after movies became ubiquitous in America that movie fan magazine appeared. Eventually there would be more than 20 of them.
Gladys Hall had a stellar reputation as a “safe” interviewer who could be depended on to tell a good story without any scandal. Her interview with Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi is one of the strangest things you could imagine.
She was married to glamour photographer Russell Ball, remembered today for his classic portraits of Louise Brooks, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, and Gloria Swanson, who used Ball as her private photographer.
Gladys Hall and Russell Ball are interred in an unmarked grave in the Lansdowne Section of Laurel Hill East. If you like watching movies, you’ll love this podcast about their early days – the mid-April 2024 edition of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #031 – Glamourizing Early Hollywood.
Henry Walter “Slick” Schlichter started as a bantamweight and a boxing promoter who became a sportswriter and then partnered with Black baseball pioneer Sol White to organize the best Negro league team in the country at the turn of the 20th century.
Cub Stricker was a good fielding 2nd baseman with a hot temper who was arrested on the field to avoid fan rioting when he struck a heckler with a thrown ball.
Jack McFetridge was the best amateur pitcher in Philadelphia for years; when he finally went pro, he wasn’t that good.
Pete Childs was a fine 2nd baseman and served in the role for the 1902 Phillies. It was while serving as player-manager for an Ohio League team that he pulled the unfathomable feat of throwing one pitch as a reliever and getting three out.
These four men were born in a ten-year span, three are interred at LHW and one at LHE. They are featured in this month’s episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #061 for April 2024 – Play Ball!, Part Three – Four More Laurel Hill Baseball Pioneers.
Grayce Nottage-Nicholas was an older sister of Civil Rights activist C. Delores Tucker, but she made a name for herself as a teacher, parole officer, police detective, and beauty queen at a time when women of color were not welcomed to traditional beauty pageants.
In this episode I tell you about the evolution of beauty pageants, how pigmentocracy and straight hair defined beauty from a white perspective, how African American women created their own standards of beauty and started their own beauty pageants, and much more on this Women’s History Month Broadcast of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories – Black Is Beautiful.
Woman have played a major but underrecognized role in our Nation’s history since its inception.
*London-born Esther DeBerdt Reed married a man who became George Washington’s right-hand man and switched her Tory allegiance to become a radial patriot; the organization she founded to provide some relief to the soldiers fighting for her freedom didn’t quite go the way that she had planned.
*Elizabeth Duane Gillespie came from a politically active family; she was the chief fundraiser and organizer for the Sanitary Fair of 1864, which put her in the position to lead the way for the Centennial Exposition of 1876.
*Anna Justina Magee was the last of seven siblings who lived together their entire lives. Her legacy for the family was a hospital designed for people who were convalescing from injury – The Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.
These three women are featured in this month’s episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #060 for March 2024 – Three More Women Who Changed Philadelphia.
In 1985, the City of Philadelphia did something unheard of in the United States – it dropped a bomb on one of its neighborhoods. The resulting fire killed 6 adult and 5 child members of a radical primitivist environmental anarchic group called MOVE. The fire spread along Osage Avenue, destroyed more than 60 homes, and left 250 men, women, and children homeless. Former MOVE members are interred in Nature’s Sanctuary, the green natural burial section at Laurel Hill West. Louise Leaphart James and LaVerne Leaphart Sims were sisters to the acknowledged group leader John Africa but left the organization before the conflagration. To tell their story, I must tell the story of John Africa, the formation of MOVE, and its frequent confrontations with neighbors and city officials in this month’s episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala #029: MOVE and Laurel Hill.
The Black population of Philadelphia dates to Colonial times but expanded tremendously during the so-called Great Migration that started around 1910.
Sarah A. Anderson came from an educated family – her father was the first Black dentist in Florida and her husband was a politically active podiatrist. Sarah served 17 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and quietly changed life for the better for thousands of Pennsylvanians, Black and white.
Samuel L. Evans was also from Florida and saw five lynchings before he was 10 years old. Through machinations that people are still pondering, he managed to make himself the “Godfather of Black Philadelphia” despite never being elected to public office. His wake was in City Hall.
Winifred Harris was the woman you wanted as your next-door neighbor. She rescued abandoned properties in West Philadelphia and converted them into vegetable gardens for the neighborhood, while planting more than 1000 trees for the city. Her shocking death at the hands of a home intruder was mourned by all who knew her.
For Black history month, learn about these three lesser-known heroes of Black Philadelphia in the February 2024 episode of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Three More Black Pioneers”.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has been one of America’s “Big Five” philharmonics for more than a century. As it was being assembled in the late 1890s, it looked like the job of “first conductor” would go to local concertmaster and second generation Irish-American Harry Gordon Thunder, but instead the position went to Johann Friedrich Ludwig “Fritz” Scheel, a German immigrant with seemingly unlimited energies and innovations, but the job probably shortened his life.
In contemporary times, the first violinist chair was held for decades by Germantown-born William Joseph de Pasquale, a calm, dependable right-hand man to the conductor, and one of four brothers who played together in a string quartet.
These three men – Thunder, Scheel, and de Pasquale – are part of the reason that the Philadelphia Orchestra has its universal reputation. You can hear about them this month on “Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #028 – The Philadelphia Orchestra and Laurel Hill West."
Several multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies got their starts in Philadelphia as neighborhood drug stores.
Weightman, Powers, and Rosengarten made their money by selling quinine to the US government.
James Smith and Clayton French did not know each and both started as neighborhood druggists; but family and business partners kept their businesses going and their names prominent long after their deaths.
The Wyeth Brothers invented a machine that standardized the size of pills and tablets, and William Warner learned how to sugarcoat them. Warner’s pharmacopeia was distributed internationally and served as the standard reference for doctors and pharmacists for years.
And McNeil Laboratories introduced Tylenol Elixir for Children in 1955, then watched it become one of the best-selling over-the-counter meds of all time.
McNeil is interred at Laurel Hill West, while all the others are at Laurel Hill East. All of them have intriguing stories you will hear in this episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #058 – Laurel Hill and Big Pharma.
Anna Weightman Penfield, the only daughter of quinine king William Weightman, became the richest woman in the world when her father died. In 1929 when she was in her 80s, she decided that she wanted to produce a Broadway musical featuring songs by two young friends. She even managed to convince impresario Earl Carroll, the so-called “troubadour of the nude”, to write the book and produce it. He called it “Fioretta”. Carroll used it as a vehicle for his current girlfriend Dorothy Knapp, a chorus girl who could not sing, act, or dance. Despite the casting of vaudeville legends Leon Erroll and Fanny Brice, the show flopped and closed after just a few months, and Mrs. Penfield lost a bundle of money. Then, the talentless Knapp sued Penfield, Carroll, and the composers for lost wages. To tell this story, I read you a newspaper article from 1947 and part of a chapter from Carroll’s biography. It's a story not to be missed.
Jack Rose was an old soul guitarist who took John Fahey and other fingerpickers as role models. Born in Virginia in 1971, Rose moved to Philadelphia in 1998, where he became part of the alternative music scene. As he taught himself the primitive styles of Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, and others, he took on the name “Dr. Ragtime”.
His album “Raag Manifesto” was named one of the top 50 records of the year by British music magazine “The Wire”. Davendra Banhart included one of his songs in the compilation “Golden Apples of the Sun”. His fourth recording, “Kensington Blues”, was his breakthrough and he toured extensively.
Rose’s career was tragically cut short in 2009 when he died before his 39th birthday and just before the release of his 5th album “Luck in the Valley”. He is interred in the Nature’s Sanctuary section of Laurel Hill West, one of our green burial spaces.
But his music lives on.
There are hundreds of people buried at Laurel Hill East and Laurel Hill West who were the victims of personal violence – accidental, intentional, and self-inflicted. This month’s episode tells you of nine people who were killed by others.
Author / historian Tom Keels will read you a chapter from his book “Wicked Philadelphia” that tells the amazing story of Singleton Mercer and Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton.
I will tell you of
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Mine supervisor George K. Smith who was purportedly killed by the Irish terrorist group the Molly Maguires
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Businessman George Haas, shot and killed on his lunch break by a disgruntled former employee
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Archibald McCurdy, night watchman in his brothers’ store who was killed when he discovered a burglary in process
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Ida Chadwick, a 9-year-old girl whose depressed father killed them both with illuminating gas
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C. Morgan Knight, Chestnut Hill financier and amateur yachtsman who died while attempting to capture a robber at Wanamaker’s.
There is also a new voice for you. Volunteer guide Sarah Hamill gives a sketch of a young mother and her two daughters who were shot to death by their disgruntled butler.
Murder Most Foul, Part 1 is the topic of the December 2023 episode of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories.
Isidor Schwaner Ravdin was a second-generation American and a fourth-generation physician who combined research with surgery and completely changed the fields of both. During his 40+ years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Ravdin rose to become Chief of Surgery and Director of Research.
During World War II, he ran what Vinegar Joe Stillwell called “the best gd* hospital in the Army” during the China Burma India campaign. When President Eisenhower was struck with a bowel obstruction in 1956, Ravdin was summoned to Washington to perform the surgery. He even appeared as a heroic character in a popular cartoon strip of his time.
If you have visited the HUP campus, you have almost certainly walked through the Ravdin pavilion. It is his story I will tell you in this episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala #026 – The Surgeon Is a General.
We don’t normally think of Philadelphia as being an oil town, but the Point Breeze refinery in South Philadelphia, easily visible from the Pratt Bridge on your ride to the airport, dominated the skyline for many decades with its storage tanks and distilling towers.
Born in the middle of Pennsylvania’s Titusville oil boom in the northwest corner of the state, J. Newton Pew established Sun Oil in 1890.
After its move to Philadelphia, Newton’s sons Howard and Joe Jr. ran the company for decades and established a refinery at Marcus Hook and the Sun Shipbuilding Company in Chester.
The Pews are known today for their charitable contributions throughout the city. The Pew Mausoleum at Laurel Hill West holds several generations of this prosperous philanthropic family.
Learn about oil, crude and refined, shipbuilding, philanthropy, and even some political intrigue in this month’s episode of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Philadelphia and Oil” from wherever you listen to podcasts.
William Wagner was a self-taught naturalist and a very rich man who believed in giving free education to anyone who wanted it. He opened his Wagner Free Institute of Science in 1855 and used his own collection as teaching aids – flora and fauna from around the world, fossils, rocks, bones – tens of thousands of items. When Wagner died in 1885, his museum was improved by Joseph Leidy, “the last man who knew everything,” and further expanded. Now a visit to the Wagner in North Philadelphia is a trip back in time more than 130 years while it continues to give free classes on a variety of topics and to offer its archives and library as a resource to anyone interested in the natural sciences.
Robert Cooper Grier was selected for the United States Supreme Court in 1846 to replace another justice who had died 841 days before – the longest gap in the history of the court. He served for nearly a quarter century and voted in many key decisions, including Dred Scott v. Sandford.
George Sharswood was the first dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. While serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he made a decision which probably delayed women’s rights to vote in Pennsylvania by more than 40 years.
James Tyndale Mitchell was also a Chief Justice. He was a superb lawyer and judge but may be remembered more for his giant collections of autographs and portraits of famous people, considered the finest of his day.
William Irwin Schaffer spent two years as state attorney general before he became an Associate Judge on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. One of his decisions delayed Sunday baseball in Philadelphia by several years.
Grier and Schaffer are buried at Laurel Hill West, Sharswood and Mitchell at Laurel Hill East. They are the topics for All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #055 for October 2023 – The Supremes.
Glenna Collett-Vare was one of the giants of women’s golf and the top American player in the 1920s and 30s. She won 49 amateur tournaments between 1921 and 1935. She could hit a ball straight down the fairway nearly 300 yards. She was the first woman to break 80 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which she won six times. She is in the golf hall of fame, and the Vare Trophy is awarded annually to the woman professional with the best scoring average. She played into her 80s but never turned professional. In her day, she was "The Female Bobby Jones".
She is buried at Laurel Hill West in a crypt that does not even acknowledge her presence – an unmarked grave. Glenna Collett-Vare is the subject for this episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories.
Septimus Winner was the composer of several catchy songs you sang as a child or have sung with your children
William Kirkpatrick was a hymn writer whose Christmas carol you have been singing all your life
Brenda Payton was lead singer for the R&B group Brenda and the Tabulations
Phebe Blessington was an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who was killed in an auto accident shortly after her 30th birthday
Singer / songwriter / A&R man Richie Barrett’s final services and cremation were at Laurel Hill West, although he is not buried there.
And yes, I will play you samples of their work, and a lot more. Get ready for ear worms galore on this month's episode of "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories
Andy Warhol considered him "the only person in town with glamour." The Philadelphia Art Alliance deemed him "the first gentleman of Philadelphia." Connoisseur Magazine named him one of the top ten art collectors of all time.
When Henry Plumer McIlhenny died in 1986, he left everything - an estimated $100M worth - to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he had served for 50 years as curator, trustee and chairman of the board. His collections were housed in both his magnificent Rittenhouse Square townhouse and at Glenveagh in Ireland, the largest privately-owned plot of land in the country. His parties were legendary. His friends were society's giants.
At his death, someone commented "I had always thought that no one was irreplaceable, but Henry is irreplaceable."
Fellow volunteer tour guide and historian Thomas Keels tells you of this remarkable man in the mid-August edition of “Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories.” Wherever you get your podcasts.
Philadelphia has been an epicenter for golf since the 1890s. There are dozens of golf courses within an easy drive of the city, and a few in the city itself.
Ida Dixon is today recognized as the first woman golf course architect in the United States.
Hugh Wilson and Charles Thomas were two of the six architects who made up what is called The Philadelphia School. The two of them helped build 4 of the top ranked courses in the country.
Charles Baily met his final destiny on the 4th green of Merion East Cricket Club.
Plus, you’ll learn about cleeks and condors, heroic holes and featheries, Randolph Scott, Mary Queen of Scots, and a golf hole called the “Mae West.”
Even if you’re not a golfer, there are things for you to learn on today’s All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Suited to a Tee: Golf Course Pioneers.
As transportation in and around Philadelphia improved in the mid 19th century and the population exploded, merchants found more people clamoring for their wares. Two Quakers – Justus Clayton Strawbridge and Isaac Hallowell Clothier – joined forces and opened a small fabric store on the corner of 8th and Market in 1868. By the end of the century, there were thousands of employees and they had expanded severalfold and became the biggest dry goods store in the country. Here is how it happened.
Man has been fascinated by the sky for as long as he has walked on earth. Star gazing has been the hobby – and the profession – of millions of people from around the world. One of America’s Founding Fathers David Rittenhouse was recognized in the colonies as being not only the finest astronomer in the land, but the finest builder of delicate, accurate astronomical equipment. Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson was a popular author whose work “Familiar Astronomy” was the best-selling astronomy textbook in the 19th century. They are both interred at Laurel Hill East. Photography pioneer William Rau was tapped to be a photographer for the 1874 worldwide evaluation of the Transit of Venus, but most people involved in that venture would admit that photography was useless in capturing new information. And Sarah Lee Lippincott, whose first husband was television pioneer Dave Garroway, became a beloved professor of astronomy and astrometry at Swarthmore University. Rau and Lippincott are interred at Laurel Hill West. You’ll hear stories about all four of these pioneers among the stars in the July episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Reach for the Sky.
The first American railroads were built with the blood, tears and sweat of Irish immigrants. An estimated 50,000 died in the process. In the 3-mph world of 1832, 57 fresh-off-the-boat Irishmen were hired by their countryman Philip Duffy. They were taken to live in a shantytown and work at mile 59 of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which is now part of SEPTA’s R5 Main Line. Cholera arrived a short time later and within a few weeks all of Duffy’s workers were dead and secretly buried near the Main Line, although ghostly sightings were reported by locals. 180 years later, through the tenacity of two brothers, some of their remains were recovered and identified and relocated to a plot near the gate at Laurel Hill West. Some of the recovered skulls showed evidence of severe trauma. What happened to the Duffy’s Cut 57?
Interred at Laurel Hill East are four young Philadelphians who died before they reached the age of 30 while battling indigenous people on the frontier.
George Montgomery Harris died of wounds received in the Lava Beds of northern California while battling Captain Jack and the Modoc tribe in 1873.
Benjamin Hubert Hodgson was killed during the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana against Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors – fellow Laurel Hill tour guide Tom Keels tells his story.
Jonathan Williams Biddle, whose father Henry Biddle had been killed in the Civil War, lost his life in the Battle of Bear Paw, also in Montana, in 1877 against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce.
James Hansell French was killed in the San Mateo Mountains of New Mexico territory in 1880 as his Buffalo Soldier troops pursued the great Apache chief Victorio and his warriors.
Note: I acknowledge that many indigenous peoples reject the name "Indian", but most of what I tell you in this podcast occurred at least 140 years ago when the term was used universally and even respectfully. All four of these men have the word "Indian" carved on their gravestones. The podcast title "Killed by Indians" is in quotation marks for this reason.
Charles Benjamin Dudley changed the world we live in when he helped establish the American Society for Testing and Materials. Prior to his work as a chemist with the Pennsylvania Railroad, there was no standardization for the composition of railroad tracks, which led to derailments, deaths, and loss of cargo. Dudley convinced the world that science combined with ingenuity is what all industries needed. Since its founding, ASTM has established more than 13,000 standards across hundreds of companies in dozens of countries.
Fellow Laurel Hill Tour Guide Rich Wilhelm will tell Dudley’s story and explain why he is the right man to tell it.
George Gordon Meade Easby, a wealthy and eccentric character named after his great grandfather, lived in a Chestnut Hill mansion called "Baleroy" for most of his 87 years. He didn’t mind sharing the space with phantom apparitions, including his younger brother, his mother, Thomas Jefferson, and a malevolent spirit named “Amanda” along with several others.
William Welsh Harrison was a moneyed man due to America’s sweet tooth – he made a fortune as a sugar manufacturer. Part of his wealth went to build the family home, Grey Towers Castle in Glenside. His former home now serves as administrative offices for Arcadia University, but his presence is still felt on the property. Apparently, the castle and other campus buildings are haunted.
I will tell you their stories and let you decide about their authenticity on this month’s episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – A Couple of Haunted Houses: Baleroy & Grey Tower Castle
John Carbutt is the forgotten pioneer of Philadelphia photography. Born in England, he spent the first years of his career as a railroad photographer in Canada and the American West. After settling in Mount Airy and opening a factory in Wayne Junction, Carbutt was the first person in the country to commercially produce dry photographic plates, the first to produce sheets of celluloid coated with photographic emulsion for making celluloid film, and the first to make commercially available dry plates for x-rays. Around 1890 he made film 35 mm width for the Kinetoscope, which set the 35 mm film standard for motion picture cameras and still cameras. At the time of his death in 1905, he was working on a method to produce color film. John Carbutt is buried in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill West.
J. Edward "Gas" Addicks made his fortune in the gas industry, but decided he wanted to be a United States Senator; he spent much of his wealth in a fruitless attempt at achieving his goal.
Samuel "Stars and Stripes" Ashbridge would give a patriotic speech at the drop of a hat and was elected Philadelphia’s mayor in 1899; he left office four years later a rich man. Fellow tour guide and Philadelphia author and historian Tom Keels will tell you his story.
Joseph Miller Huston was an up-and-coming architect who got the plum job of designing Pennsylvania’s State Capitol; instead of leading him to even bigger jobs, it became his professional downfall.
These three men interred at Laurel Hill are remembered today for their graft and dishonesty in a city that muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens called "corrupt but content." Learn about their crimes and punishments.
Three Quaker sisters – Hannah, Elizabeth, and Katharine Shipley – decided they wanted to start a school. Not another finishing school where girls learned to cook and crochet and behave in society, but a rigorous academic school specifically to train girls in languages and the sciences so they could get into Bryn Mawr and other colleges that were springing up for women in the late 19th century. In this podcast, you will learn about the evolution of girls’ education from before the founding of the country, and some special personalities that populated the Shipley School for its first 75 years. Welcome to “Courage for the Deed, Grace for the Doing: The Shipley Sisters and Educating Girls.”
March is Women’s History Month.
Dr. Nellie Neilson was one of the best – and best known – Medieval history scholars in the world, but she struggled to climb every rung to the top during her long career.
Sara Yorke Stevenson was a self-trained Egyptologist, a founder of the Penn Museum, a leader in women’s rights, and a popular newspaper columnist who gained respect from colleagues around the world – her story is told by fellow Laurel Hill Cemetery docent Pat Rose.
Elizabeth Head Fetter, older sister to maverick inventor Howard Head, was writing under the pen name of Hannah Lees about topics like masturbation and women’s extra-marital affairs in the prudish 1940s, several years before the Kinsey Report was released.
These three remarkable women shattered many glass ceilings in their long careers. I hope you enjoy their stories.
Raphael Coel was a World War II veteran and insurance executive. His wife Julia was a lifelong swimmer who served as the first Black female lifeguard for the City of Philadelphia. They serve as an anchor for this month's "Biographical Bytes from Bala." If you are White, learn what it was like to attempt to “Swim While Black” in the United States. If you are Black, you already know.
February is Black History Month. All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories gives you Three More Black Trailblazers.
Dr. James Alexander Batts was an early champion of improving prenatal care for Philadelphia’s African American population.
Barbara Blackshear rose from working as a “computer” and helping produce the legendary Xerox 8010 “Star” to become vice-president of strategic planning for the company.
Douglas “Jocko” Henderson was one of the top deejays on the East Coast, introduced Little Stevie Wonder to the Apollo Theater audience, and is considered by many to be the first “Rap MC” from Philadelphia.
All three of these Black pioneers are interred at Laurel Hill West.
Anna Meister was a Swiss immigrant in the 1850s who declared she was actually the third person of the Christian trinity and changed her name to Jehovah Elimar Mira Mitta. She had a following for many decades, even years after she died. Today you will hear the story of this bizarre religious cult from South Philadelphia on Biographical Bytes from Bala: J. Elimar Mira Mitta: A Cult of One’s Own.
Dr. George McClellan, father of the famed Civil War Union general, was founder of Thomas Jefferson medical school, but annoyed his colleagues so much he was expelled from the board of the school he had created.
Dr. William Henry Pancoast was a famed surgeon who performed the post-mortem examination on the 19th century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original “Siamese” twins. The same year he artificially impregnated a woman who had a sterile husband, but without her knowledge or permission.
Dr. Samuel McClintock Hamill was one of the most prominent pediatricians in the country, but early in his career he had conducted controversial experiments on orphans and abandoned children, some of whom were left with permanently damaged eyesight.
These three physicians are the topics of today’s edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Father of American Medicine, Part III – Some Ethical Dilemmas.
The largest playable musical instrument in the world sits in Center City Philadelphia, and there are several Laurel Hill connections.
William B. Irvine left his estate to the University of Pennsylvania but did not know they would use it to build an auditorium named for him, designed by architect Horace Trumbauer. The magazine publisher Cyrus Curtis donated an organ. All three of these men are at Laurel Hill West.
For more than 40 years, organist Larry Ferrari kept Philadelphians company on Sunday mornings by playing popular music on his organ. Larry is also at Laurel Hill West.
"Pulling Out All the Stops: The Laurel Hill Organ Episode" tells these stories and more on this month's "Biographical Bytes from Bala."
At one time, there were more than 900 cigar makers in Philadelphia who made a sizable portion of the 7 billion cigars sold every year in the United States.
Cuban native Joan Portuondo featured a top-quality cigar that was copied by many.
German American Otto Eisenlohr and his brothers made one of the bestselling fiver-centers in the country, the ubiquitous 'Cinco'.
Caleb J. Milne rented three floors of his Washington Avenue factory to a cigar company that illegally hired immigrant girls; a fire false alarm panicked them into a stampede and a stairwell of death.
Walter Garrett made a fortune in the snuff business which he left to his beloved wife Henrietta. But when Henrietta died more than three decades later, nobody could find her will and literally tens of thousands of people tried to claim her fortune as their own.
Four stories of tobacconists and their wares in the December edition of "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories."
What do baseball Hall-of-Famers Frank Robinson and Willie Stargell, a library in Northeast Philadelphia, the towns of Radnor and Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a bed and breakfast in Tennessee, and the Wills Eye Hospital have in common? The thread that connects these disparate entities is Bushrod Washington James, a Philadelphia physician and philanthropist who is interred at Laurel Hill West. Find out why his name is quietly known across the country in this month's edition of Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories.
Your walk or ride from the Righters Ferry entrance to the Barmouth entrance at the Cynwyd Heritage Trail is less than a mile, but you pass scores of grave markers and dozens of mausoleums, most with stained glass. This 47-minute narration gives you mini-biographies of more than 50 people who have resting places you pass along the route. They are captains of industry, philanthropists, teachers, physicians, artists, and others who helped shaped the history of Philadelphia.
This narrative is a complement to another recording that guides you from the Barmouth Entrance back to the Righters Ferry entrance, also available wherever you find your podcasts.
James Abram Garfield was the 20th President of the United States, a “dark horse” candidate in the 1880 election and the only sitting member of the house to ever be elected to the highest office in the land. His time as president was short, and four months into his term he was shot by a crazed office seeker in Washington. After lingering for 10 weeks, he died in New Jersey. What are his Laurel Hill connections?
- Philadelphia’s Samuel Jackson Randall defeated Garfield for Speaker of the House three times before Garfield leapfrogged him to become President.
*University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. David Hayes Agnew, probably the best surgeon in the country, was summoned to Garfield’s bedside as a consultant after he was shot.
*Penn’s Dr. Charles Karsner Mills testified against Garfield’s assassin Charles Guiteau and then assisted in Guiteau’s autopsy.
*Numerous Laurel Hill residents were involved in the grand unveiling of the Garfield Memorial in 1896. You have probably passed it dozens of times along Kelly Drive.
This and more in All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #44 – Laurel Hill’s James Garfield Connections.
This 13th episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala is for mid-October 2022 - and a little early on purpose. Who doesn’t love ice cream? Philadelphia has made huge contributions to the history of this delectable warm weather treat. If you’re from the area, you grew up with Bassetts and Breyers; maybe you got some nonpareils or sprinkles on your soft serve; or you looked forward to going into a center city drug store so you could sit at the counter and have an ice cream float. All of these have a Quaker City connection – I will talk about them and more today on Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories – Every Brilliant Thing: Ice Cream and Laurel Hill
Philadelphia has had skilled clock and watchmakers since colonial times.
Henry Voigt helped David Rittenhouse build his legendary orrery and supplied surveying instruments to the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
His son Thomas built a special clock for Thomas Jefferson that he used for his astronomical experiments. You can see his clocks both at Monticello and in the US Senate.
Isaiah Lukens not only built clocks that can still be seen at The Athenaeum and the Germantown City Hall, but he also built an air gun that may have been used by Lewis & Clark during their expedition.
Henry Seybert used the money left him by his father Adam to have a clock and a bell built for Independence Hall for the 1876 Centennial Celebration. Almost 150 years later, they still stand. And then there's the spiritualism...
I did not have time to talk about David Rittenhouse, Bailey, Banks & Biddle, Hugh Craig's pocket watch, the bell tower at Laurel Hill West, and the clock tower at City Hall. They will have to wait for Part 2.
Cynthia DeLores Tucker was a Philadelphia born and raised champion of Civil Rights in the 1960s and 1970s and worked closely with such icons as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, and Cecil B. Moore. She chose to spend the last years of her life fighting what she saw as the pornography of gangsta rap. She was vilified by the music community, which spared no words in trying to show how sad and out-of-date her thinking was. She now lies in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill West in Bala Cynwyd.
The United States Mint has been in Philadelphia since 1792. It has produced billions of coins, from half-pennies to 20-dollar gold double eagles. Many of the early officers were Philadelphians. In this podcast, you will hear about doubloons and trimes, Peter the eagle, the California gold rush and Colorado's Comstock lode, greenbacks, Gresham's law, and more. And you will hear some bad poetry. Think of this podcast as a four-parter. 1) Development of the Mint 2) Mint Directors Robert Patterson (father) & Robert Maskell Patterson (son) 3) Mint Director James Ross Snowden (uncle) & Mint Supervisor A. Loudon Snowden (nephew) 4) Painter, poet, playwright, and numismatist Augustus Goodyear Heaton
PLEASE NOTE: I accidentally uploaded the wrong files earlier. This is the correct file. Please delete the earlier one if you downloaded it. It is not mine to distribute.
This is a story about mutual love and respect among four women at the turn of the 20th century. All students of art know of the Red Rose Girls - illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green and muralist Violet Oakley. They became masters of their craft because of a fourth woman, Henrietta Cozens, who served as their mother, wife, nurse, gardener, cook, and muse. She is interred at Laurel Hill West. Without her, it is likely the Red Rose Girls would not have been.
Henry Sandwith "Harry" Drinker was a brilliant Philadelphia lawyer and a famed musicologist who befriended the von Trapp family when they arrived at Ellis Island. His wife Sophie Hutchinson Drinker was one of the founders of women's musicological and gender studies.
Cecil Drinker, MD, was a gifted physiologist who published more than 250 papers and did the original studies on The Radium Girls. His wife Katherine Rotan Drinker, MD, was his lifelong partner in research and publications.
Catherine "Kitty" Drinker Bowen was an accomplished amateur violinist who wrote best-selling and prize-winning biographies and history tomes, although she never earned a college degree.
Three more members of the Drinker family for you know, all buried together on a hillside at Laurel Hill West. Plus, you will learn about the iron lung, the Philadelphia origins of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and an amateur choir of 150 voices that gathered every Sunday evening for 30 years without ever performing in public. It's another jam-packed edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories. Harry, Cecil, and Kitty: Three More Drinker Siblings to Know.
In the mid-19th century, Philadelphia-born Herman Haupt was probably the top railroad engineer in the country - and he knew it. During the Civil War, his mastery of the rails provided the Union Army with thousands of tons of supplies, saved hundreds of lives, and may have preserved the Union’s victory at Gettysburg. Except to railroad buffs, he is little remembered today.
William Short was the first appointment to public office conferred under the Constitution of the United States. Thomas Jefferson thought so much of him that he happily called him "my adoptive son."
William Duane was the radical publisher of the "Philadelphia Aurora" who helped get Jefferson elected President against Federalist John Adams in 1800.
And Colonel William Drayton was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Unionist from South Carolina whose father had exchanged dozens of letters with Jefferson on many topics, especially agriculture.
Welcome to All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories podcast #040 for July 2022 - Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 1: I'm Just a Bill.
Helen Bradford Thompson turned the understanding of gender roles on its head. Her groundbreaking work at the turn of the 20th century, summarized in her PhD thesis "The Mental Traits of Sex," exploded on the psychology scene like nothing that had come before it. And yet the name Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley was little remembered for decades, only recently being rediscovered because of the blossoming of feminist studies. She is interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
If you have walked or ridden your bike through West Laurel Hill Cemetery from the entrance just off the Cynwyd Trail all the way to the Pencoyd exit on Righter’s Ferry Road, you have probably passed dozens of mausoleums and gravesites that you had questions about. Now there’s an audio narration to help you quench your curiosity. It is done by Joe Lex, the same person who researches and narrates Laurel Hill’s twice-monthly podcasts “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories” and “Biographical Bytes from Bala: West Laurel Hill Stories.” Find out about William Luden, inventor of the mentholated cough drop; Charles Harrah, who made his fortune in Brazil; Eldridge Reeves Johnson, inventor of the Victrola, and many more. And at long last, you can discover the mystery of “Cocktails at Six.” The tour covers only people interred on the right-hand side of the road and takes about 40 minutes. Look for its companion audio covering the other side from Pencoyd back to Barmouth in a few months.
Beer has a long history in our country, and Philadelphia has played a surprisingly strong role in its development. There's even a neighborhood called Brewerytown, and hundreds of Philadelphians live in apartments that used to be breweries. This episode talks about beer from different perspectives. How did breweries start in our green country town? Where were they located? Who drank it? How did one brewery stay in one family for ten generations? What happened at the Centennial Exposition to spread the word about Philadelphia beer? Even though Louis Bergdoll was one of the most respected brewers in the country, why did his surname became reviled because of one of his grandsons? And we'll finish with the story of a legendary Philadelphia bar fight and its aftermath. All this – and more – in the June edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – In Heaven There Is No Beer.
Loren Eiseley grew up in a troubled family on the plains of Nebraska and drifted across the American West on trains during the Great Depression. Yet during his life he earned 36 honorary degrees and was one of the most respected researchers, educators, and writers in the country. He was Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History of Science, and the curator of the Early Man section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Like Henry David Thoreau, his writings on man and nature are treasured to this day. When Eiseley died in 1977, many people felt as though they had lost a close personal friend, even if they never met him. Science-fiction author Ray Bradbury remarked that he "is every writer's writer, and every human's human ... One of us, yet most uncommon ..."
Industrialist Eldridge Reeves Johnson used money from the millions he earned in developing the Victor Talking Machine Company and purchased the original copy of “Alice’s Adventures Underground,” lettered and drawn by the author himself.
Bibliophile Morris Longstreth Parrish purchased as many of Carroll’s works as he could, all in the best possible condition, so that Parrish's name became synonymous with “mint condition.”
Lithographer and artist Arthur Burdett Frost impressed Carroll enough that he supplied illustrations for one of his books of poetry.
And in a tenuous but fun connection, I will tell you of a center city restauranteur whose specialty was mock turtle soup.
Parrish and Frost are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Johnson and Soulas at West Laurel Hill. It's going to get crowded in the rabbit hole as we all enter together.
Francis Xavier Dercum grew up in Philadelphia and trained as a neurologist. When President Woodrow Wilson had his massive stroke in 1919, Dercum was called in as consultant. Years later when Wilson's widow Edith wrote her memoirs, she insisted that it was Dr. Dercum who had encouraged her to run things while he recovered. Francis's sister Clara also became a physician and spent much of her career giving charity care to the poor in Philadelphia, while working tirelessly for women's rights. Their half-sister Susanna went in a different direction and became Leopold Stokowski's choice for the voice of Maria Aegyptica when he conducted the American premier of Mahler's 8th Symphony in 1916. Three Dercums, three different stories for the April edition of Biographical Bytes from Bala: West Laurel Hill Stories.
Tucked away in Laurel Hill South near the border with Fairmount Park is a family plot that – foot for foot – may have more interesting people than anyplace else in the cemetery.
Boies Penrose was the second smartest man in his class at Harvard, became a representative from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and speaker of the house before moving to Washington D.C. as State Senator where he spent the rest of his life.
His brother Charles Penrose was the only person with better grades in their Harvard class. Charles became a respected surgeon and gynecologist and brought the practice of surgery forward with his methods, along with leaving his name on a commonly used device.
Richard, named after his father, became a geologist and surveyed some of the great precious metal reserves in the American west. His will left millions of dollars to organizations which are in existence today because of him.
The baby of the group Francis had a mental breakdown in his teens and became a lifelong resident of an upper-class psychiatric hospital, but his legacy has been embellished all over the web by someone claiming to be his niece.
Plus, stories about political corruption in Philadelphia, gluttony, the Johnson County Range Wars, and a bizarre theory about the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic.
Our sixth episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala is for mid-March 2022 and tells you a of a suffragette and a leader in the Women’s Peace Movement for more than 50 years Hannah Clothier Hull, daughter of a founder of Strawbridge & Clothier, sister of an International Tennis Hall of Fame member, and wife of one of the great Quaker historians and peace activists William Isaac Hull. Both Hulls lived a Life for Peace.
Three Victorian Philadelphia sisters helped make Philadelphia what it is today.
The oldest Mary Channing Wister petitioned for music in the public schools, more public parks for all, and placement of the Broad Street line underground.
Frances Anne Wister was a founder of the Philadelphia Orchestra and became the city’s patron saint of preservation; without her there would likely be no Old City or Society Hill.
The youngest sister Ella Wister Haines got a late start on her career but became the public face and voice of Philadelphia Electric Company for 20 years, especially during the Great Depression.
All three of these women are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. I tell their stories today.
Raymond Pace Alexander was born in Philadelphia to former enslaved people, but graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and became the go-to civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia. In 1959, he became the first black judge to sit on the Court of Common Pleas. His wife Sadie Tanner Mossell was the first Black women to earn an economics degree in the US, but then also became a lawyer. Together they spent their lives battling racism in Philadelphia. Their stories are truly inspiring.
Ira de Augustine Reid was one of the top sociologists in the country in the late 1940s, but because of his scholarship, he got swept up in the “Red Scare” of the mid-20th century. Dennie Hoggard, Jr., of West Philadelphia was a tight end at Penn State who helped to integrate the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on New Year’s Day of 1948. Marion Stokes had an obsession – to videotape every cable news program on television, and she did so for almost 35 years, amassing a treasure-trove of history. And Joseph Beam could not find any literature by Black gay men like himself, so he put together a best-selling anthology. These four found their final resting place at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd. I will tell their stories in this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Four Black Trailblazers.”
Theodore Presser got a late start in his career, but he ended up making millions of dollars from publishing a magazine for music teachers around the world, and then by selling them sheet music. And then he gave away much of his money in his lifetime and the endowments he left continue to aid music students across the country. His story is inspiring and his legacy is huge.
Tennis came to the United States in the 1870s and was quickly taken up by the East Coast upper crust, the nouveau riche of the Gilded Age. Germantown’s Clarence Clark became one of its primary organizers, and his good friend and neighbor Frederick Winslow Taylor joined him as a doubles partner. William Clothier was the son of department store magnate Isaac Clothier and played his way into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Howard Head found that he was not a very good tennis player, so he changed the equipment to improve his game, just as he had done for skiing. And William Clothier Jr. hobnobbed with the likes of Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe while also serving as a spy for the CIA. All five of these men are interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.
This is the story of a woman who was so beautiful that she turned down more than 50 marriage proposals before she wed a newspaperman who became the United States’ first ambassador to the Soviet Union, and who then had an affair with one of the most famous illustrators of the 20th century, and who married a second time to a famed opera composer, and who then spent World War II as a radio propagandist pushing for the rights of women, and then spent years in New York City running one of the most exclusive weekly salons in the city. And one of her brothers invented the iron lung. And another brother founded the Harvard School of Public Health. And a third brother sponsored the Von Trapp family for their first few years in the United States. And her sister was an award-winning biographer. Welcome to the story of Aimee Ernesta Drinker Bullitt Beaux Barlow, aka "Commando Mary."
Photography in its infancy made its way to Philadelphia in 1839, literally weeks after Louis Daguerre invented the technique that carries his name. Lampmaker Robert Cornelius was interested and took what is now recognized as the first “selfie.” Frederick Gutekunst opened a studio where people flocked to have their picture taken. Mathew Carey Lea helped photography make giant strides forward through his knowledge of photochemistry and then invented an entirely new branch of chemistry almost through serendipity. Coleman Sellers II was a nationally renowned mechanical engineer for whom photography was a hobby, yet he managed to produce what is now acknowledged as the first motion picture. All four of these photography pioneers are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery or West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Harold Hering Knerr came from a family of physicians, but rather than joining them he became an illustrator and cartoonist. For 35 years he drew one of the most popular comic strips in the United States, The Katzenjammer Kids. He is the topic of this second episode of "Biographical Bytes from Bala."
Annie Inglis spent her brief life in a wheelchair, but her dying wish was to make her prized possession, a one-dollar gold piece, into something which would help others. Joseph Jurciukonis Jr. was a gifted young cellist whose life was cut short by a bullet. May Bibighaus was described as a good, church-going girl who developed a narcotic habit as a teenager; it would be her undoing. And several members of a Philadelphia social club chose the wrong time for a casual summer cruise and paid with their lives.
Alan Calvert was a Philadelphia body-builder who found that available equipment did not meet his needs, so he invented what we now recognize as the modern bar-bell and the science of progressive resistance. His innovations have now become a standard around the world.
Wes “The Icicle” Fisler scored the first run in major league history but lay in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill for more than 90 years. Lon Knight threw the first pitch in major league history, yet still has an unmarked grave. Harry Luff was an awful human being who nonetheless played eight positions for six different teams in four major leagues before finally doing jail time. And Orator Shafer was confined to right field because of his constant chatter but he still holds the Major League Record for most outfield assists more than 140 years after setting it. All are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery or West Laurel Hill Cemetery. Even if you're not a baseball fan, I think you will like these stories.
Joseph Clay Neal, whom many called “the American Dickens,” started his writing career with an evening newspaper “The Daily Courier,” and ended up fostering the career of a teenage girl who became one of the primary woman authors of the 19th century. Louis Antoine Godey, whose “Lady’s Book” was struggling until he had the good sense to hire an Episcopalian woman from Boston as his editor, and turned his magazine into one of the most widely circulated in the country. And Morton McMichael, who was not only a writer, editor, and publisher, but Philadelphia County Sheriff and City Mayor, yet is little remembered today. The three of them came together for several years in the 1830s and 1840s to produce two moderately successful publications, and inspire another young author named Edgar Allan Poe. All of this and more in the September 2021 edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories.”
Future Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill residents went to Paris in 1900 to compete in Olympiad II. Meredith Colket was a Penn scholar who placed 2nd in the pole vault. Bascom Johnson was a Yale pole vaulter who failed to compete, but went on to an amazing career in public health. Edward Bushnell was a middle-distance runner whose name eventually became synonymous with sports at the University of Pennsylvania. John F. Cregan was another middle-distance man but from Princeton. And rower James Benner Juvenal won gold with the Vesper Boat Club three years after he eloped to New York City on a tandem bicycle. In perhaps the most disorganized Olympics ever, several of our residents excelled. And find out why they were '"The Zany Games," all in the next hour of "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories."
Dr. Samuel George Morton was a pioneer of American anthropology and the father of American invertebrate paleontology, but he was also a compulsive skull collector whose measurements and conclusions were used to justify enslavement and eventually racial cleansing. George Robbins Gliddon taught Americans more about ancient Egypt than anyone up to his time, but he got caught up in Morton’s scientific racism, as well as the thrill of robbing graves for their heads and mummified remains. James Ernst Worrell Keely was either a supergenius whom science has not caught up with more than 120 years after his death, or one of the great hucksters of the nineteenth century. Morton and Gliddon are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery, while Keely is a permanent resident at West Laurel Hill. All three have astonishing stories.
Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous was a prolific author and editor who specialized in "glandular secretions;" he is remembered today as the Father of American Endocrinology ... and the last of the de Medicis. Chevalier Quixote Jackson mastered the skill of retrieving foreign bodies from the lungs and esophagus; he is the Father of American Endoscopy. Hilary Koprowski was a Polish-born virologist who beat Salk and Sabin to the development of an effective polio vaccine, but who is little remembered today. His wife, cytopathologist Irena Koprowska, was a co-developer of the Pap smear. Sajous is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery; Jackson and the Koprowskis are interred at West Laurel Hill.
William Wood started as an actor but soon moved to managing Philadelphia theaters. Many people consider Mary Ann Lee to be America’s first professional ballerina. Frank Mayo was an actor who became beloved through more than 3000 performances as Davy Crockett. And Wedgwood Nowell produced or acted in more than 300 plays before moving to Hollywood and acting in more than 300 movies over his long career. William Wood and Mary Ann Lee are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery, while Frank Mayo and Wedgwood Nowell are at West Laurel Hill. I think you will enjoy their stories this month on “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories.”
It is very easy to get lost in the Wister family. Anyone familiar with Philadelphia History probably knows about Caspar Wistar, who founded the Wistar Institute, and author Owen Wister, who wrote the first Western novel “The Virginian” and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. But this was a large family. There are 40 Wisters and 30 Wistars buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, along with 3 Wisters at West Laurel Hill. Today I am going to talk about four Wister brothers and one of their sons buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. William Rotch Wister was lawyer and founder of the Germantown Cricket club. John Wister was founder and manager of a major iron works and a bank. Langhorne Wister was a colonel with the Bucktail Regiment during the Civil War, shot through the mouth at the Battle of Gettysburg. And Rodman Wister ran away from home to become a drummer boy. John Caspar Wister, son of William Rotch, was considered the dean of horticulturists in the United States. Their stories are fascinating and informative.
Christine Wetherill Stevenson came from a prominent family and made her mark in Philadelphia, where she founded the Philadelphia Art Alliance, as well as California, where she founded the Hollywood Bowl. Katharine Elizabeth McBride was a brilliant researcher in neuropsychology, but is mostly remembered today for being president of Bryn Mawr College for 28 years and bringing it into recognition as one of the top institutions in the nation. Bernice McIlhenny Wintersteen came from a family of collectors and at one time had one of the finest private collections in the United States while serving many roles for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And Ruth Dietz Eni joined the family business as a young woman, staying with it for more than 60 years and enjoying a late-life recognition as the company’s spokesperson, the beloved Momma Dietz of Dietz & Watson. All four of these pioneer women are buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd and Laurel Hill Cemetery on Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia.
One of the highwater marks of Philadelphia music was in the 1970s when Gamble and Huff started Philadelphia International Music and stole thunder from both Motown and Memphis. Two of their biggest stars were Billy Paul and Teddy Pendergrass. Another Philadelphian, Grover Washington Jr., became one of the top-selling jazz artists in history and is credited with laying the groundwork for what became known as “smooth jazz.” And where did you hear the latest sounds? On the radio, of course, where Hy Lit was one of the top names on-the-air for five decades. All four of these pioneers are buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, just a ten-minute drive from Laurel Hill Cemetery on Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia.
East coast birdwatchers probably can tell you famed Philadelphians involved in birding. John Cassin, who described 194 new species of birds in his lifetime and has five species of North American birds named in his honor; Titian Ramsay Peale, son of Charles Willson Peale and meticulous illustrator of wildlife whose artworks are as highly sought as those of John James Audubon. Titian’s older and less-well-known half-sister Sophonisba Angusciola (Peale) Sellers, America’s first female ornithologist. And Witmer Stone, who worked for more than 50 years in the Ornithology Department at the Academy of Natural Sciences. But even birdwatchers may not know about the father and son oölogists Joseph Parker Norris Sr. and Jr., who had the largest collection of bird eggs in the United States.
And since the show is called The Birds and the Bees, I’ll talk about Dr. John Lawrence LeConte, who was responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime, and his younger partner Dr. George Henry Horn. And physician / naturalist and entomologist Thomas Bellerby Wilson, who spent his personal fortune buying collections from around the world for the Academy of Sciences.
Even if you’ve never lusted after a pair of Vortex Diamondback HD binoculars, you’ll enjoy this episode of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – The Birds and the Bees.”
While the textile business in the United States started in New England, it did not take Philadelphia long to catch up and pass our northern neighbors. Three people who immigrated to Manayunk helped build what had been a small village into one of the major manufacturing centers of the country. Joseph Ripka was a draft dodger from Silesia who at his peak employed 2000 men, women, and children in his mills, but went out of business at the start of the Civil War. Sevill Schofield came from England and took advantage of the Civil War to manufacture 365,000 blankets for the Union Army. Samuel Winpenny also came from England, but he declared bankruptcy before his 35th birthday. Several of his sons and grandsons were far more successful, but others were not and still have interesting stories to tell. I do not have time to talk about Thomas Drake, another mill owner, whose daughter Charlotte Cardeza was a survivor of the RMS Titanic sinking; I will cover them in a future episode. Even if you know nothing about the textile business, I promise you will be informed and entertained for the next 90 minutes as I present All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #21, Me and My Machine: Three Textile Barons of Laurel Hill.
The United States Marine Corps was born in Philadelphia on November 10, 1775 and the city is the burial site for many famed members of the Corps. Major Levi Twiggs was born in Georgia in a military family; he joined the Marines when he was 19 and made the Marine Barracks at Philadelphia Naval Yards his home for many years before heading off to fight in the Mexican-American War. Brigadier General Jacob Zeilin was born in Philadelphia and spent 45 years as a Marine Corps officer, culminating in being their first General-level officer. Sergeant Richard Binder was a German immigrant who joined the Marines at the beginning of the Civil War and was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Fort Fisher; he returned to Philadelphia after the war and opened a series of very successful barber shops and hair parlors. Podcast #20 gives short biographies of each, and a brief but fascinating history of the Corps itself.
You might think that F. Scott Fitzgerald, a Midwesterner who made his name in New York City, would have no Philadelphia connections. You would be wrong. Sigourney Webster Fay was born in Philadelphia to an old-line Episcopalian family, but left that religion to become a Catholic priest; he became the most important influence in the life of the schoolboy F. Scott Fitzgerald and the inspiration for one of his most widely-loved characters in This Side of Paradise. While Fitzgerald matriculated at Princeton, he was three years behind the Golden Boy Hobart Amory Hare “Hobey” Baker, who not only showed up as a minor character in This Side of Paradise, but gave one of his family names to the character Fitzgerald identified as himself, Amory Blaine. Get ready for a literary exploration of two amazing Philadelphians in this October edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – The Other Side of Paradise.
Alexander Milne Calder was a Scottish-born sculptor who came to Philadelphia and was given the commission for statuary for the City Hall. He managed to squeeze in a monument for the Warner Family at Laurel Hill Cemetery that is probably the most photographed grave site on the property. His son Alexander Stirling Calder is best remembered for Swann Fountain on Logan Circle, but he was also commissioned to do the statue for the grave of famed historian Henry Charles Lea, also at Laurel Hill. The Calders are interred at West Laurel Hill under a large Celtic cross.
Robley Dunglison was born and educated in England but recruited to be the first Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia, where he also became Jefferson’s private physician. Later he moved to Philadelphia and was recognized as the Father of American Physiology. Constantine Hering was born and educated in Germany and learned the homeopathic methods of fellow countryman Samuel Hahnemann; he brought these beliefs with him to Philadelphia and is considered the Father of Homeopathic Medicine in the United States. Malcolm Macfarlan was born in Scotland but educated in the United States where he served in the Civil War; upon returning to Philadelphia, he worked under Hering as Chief of Surgery and became the Father of Homeopathic Surgery. Oscar Allis was US born and educated; he became the Father of Orthopedic Surgery at Jefferson Medical College and invented a surgical instrument which is still used thousands of times daily around the world.
Before the internet, before television, before radio, there were magazines. Philadelphia was the place you wanted to be if you were in the magazine business. It had the best presses, the best printers, and the railroads to get them where they needed to go. Cyrus H.K. Curtis was the king of magazine publishing, but could only do it with the help of two amazing editors – his wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis, and his hire from Boston, George Horace Lorimer. Lorimer needed the help of another Philadelphian, Adelaide Walbaum Neall, to make the Post a success. And while everyone thinks of Norman Rockwell as the painter of Saturday Evening Post covers, Katharine Richardson Wireman was painting covers for the Post and the Journal long before Rockwell. And when Curtis built his headquarters Building on 6th and Walnut, he hired a local architect Edgar Viguers Seeler. All six of these people are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery or West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Edward Fry was impresario for the Astor Place Opera in 1849 at the time of the famed Shakespeare riots, when dozens of New Yorkers were killed. Adam Forepaugh was a wealthy horse trader who more-or-less accidentally took over a circus, but gave P.T. Barnum a run for his money in post-Civil War America. J. Fred Zimmerman was one of a small group of men, fittingly called the Theatre Syndicate, who controlled a majority of theatres on the east coast, essentially determining what plays would be staged and what actors would work.
Ethel Huhn Bailey was the spoiled daughter of the spoiled second wife of Philadelphia multimillionaire George Arthur Huhn, who is buried on Millionaire’s Row. Florence Leontine Lowe was the granddaughter of Philadelphia builder and architect Richard Dobbins; under her nickname and married name of Pancho Barnes, she became a stunt pilot and opened a popular drinking spot for test pilots near Muroc Air Field. Princess Olga Demidoff Troubetzskoy Stoever was briefly the wife of Germantown-born and raised archeologist and businessman Edward Royal Stoever; her life is the thing of legends. None of the women are buried at Laurel Hill, but they have great stories.
Dave Garroway was one of the most successful announcers in the early days of television, but things fell apart when he walked away from "The Today Show." Main Line socialite Anne Francine might be better remembered for her time on stage or in cabaret performances, but she spent a memorable season in a TV show starring Barbara Eden. And anyone who lived in Philadelphia over the past 40 years knew about Edie Huggins and Sheela Allen-Stephens. Four permanent residents of Laurel Hill Cemetery and West Laurel Hill Cemetery who found a place "On the Tube."
Giuseppe del Puente was considered the premier baritone of the late 19th century. Eleanor Mayo had a budding career derailed by a bad review and a marriage. Camille d’Elmar was never a star but she made a living from opera. David Bispham was "The Quaker Singer" who was a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt. Robert Carson's Night at the Opera turned out to be lethal.
Martha Coston invented the signal flare that bears her name and in so doing saved thousands of lives in wartime and in peace. Rachel Lloyd had to go to Europe to get her PhD in chemistry, but she then jump-started the sugar beet industry in the United States. Mary Engle Pennington, the “Ice Lady” completely changed the way your food is prepared, shipped, and stored.
Admiral John Dahlgren was the father of Naval Ordnance, and the father of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren of the infamous Dahlgren affair during the Civil War that may have directly led to the assassination of their friend Abraham Lincoln. Bishop Matthew Simpson - you've seen his statue on Belmont - was a confidante who delivered Lincoln’s funeral oration in Springfield, Illinois.
Richard Rush served in the cabinets of three presidents and ran for Vice President in 1832, but is frequently an afterthought to his Founding Father parent Benjamin Rush. Henry Gilpin was appointed US Attorney General just in time to argue the United States case in the Amistad affair. And there are seven Pennsylvania AGs, each with a fascinating story.
Alice Barber Stephens was one of the premiere magazine illustrators of the late 19th century. Cecilia Beaux was a painter acknowledged in her day as one of the best portrait painters in the country. Harriet Frishmuth was a sculptor whose art deco works continue to astound viewers.
If professional baseball had a Founding Father, it would be Harry Wright. Philadelphia was one of the early cities to adopt the game, and sporting goods manufacturers Ben Shibe and Al Reach took advantage of it. And if you listened to the Phillies on the radio, you knew broadcast announcer Harry Kalas.
There are many father-and-son combinations buried at Laurel Hill: today we cover portrait artist Thomas Sully and his military son General Albert Sully, Generals Robert and Francis Patterson, both with somewhat tarnished records, and Gilded Age capitalist extraordinaire Peter Widener, and his son George and grandson Harry who went down on the USS Titanic.
Many architects made Philadelphia the showcase city that it is today. I have chosen 4 to talk about here: John Notman (The Athenaeum, Laurel Hill Cemetery), Napoleon LeBrun (Academy of Music, the Cathedral), Frank Furness (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, gatehouse at Philadelphia zoo), and Horace Trumbauer (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Free Library of Philadelphia).
Before the Civil War there were two national holidays - Independence Day and Washington's Birthday. But in the Laurel Hills are 4 people who made American holidays what they are today: Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who invented Thanksgiving; Martha Tillman, the woman who MAY have invented Memorial Day; and Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother’s Day; and Stephen F. Whitman, the man who invented Whitman chocolates
Three creators of the mythology of the Wild West are buried at the Laurel Hills: Henry Deringer, inventor of the pocket pistol and father of concealed carry; Owen Wister, who wrote the first definitive Western novel "The Virginian"; and John Batterson Stetson, the man who invented the hat that defines the Old West. This podcast include interviews with two of Laurel Hill Cemtery's volunteer guides.
Explorer Elisha Kent Kane was one of the most famous Americans of the mid-19th century. He knew that he would die young, and he pushed the limits. Maggie Fox was a spiritualist and medium from New York. Somehow they got together and became a couple. Their story is pretty sensational.
Most people who walk into Laurel Hill Cemetery for the first time are struck by the greenness of the place. The 78-acre property stretches between Ridge Avenue and Kelly Drive, and between East Falls and Strawberry Mansion - a large, open, green space with more than 75,000 inhabitants, hundreds of statues, miles of paved roads, wildlife, and 850 trees in the middle of a very modern city.