All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Next Door Neighbors: The Drew / Barrymore Clan at Mount Vernon by Thomas Keels

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #086, part 4
The Drews and the 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."

WALKING TOUR OF LAUREL HILL WEST from Barmouth to Pencoyd

With the warm weather here, you can take advantage of Laurel Hill's location as part of the Trails System that connect the Cynwyd Heritage Trail to the Wissahickon trail system. 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. 

WALKING TOUR OF LAUREL HILL WEST from Pencoyd to Barmouth

With the warm weather here, you can take advantage of Laurel Hill's location as part of the Trails System that connect the Cynwyd Heritage Trail to the Wissahickon trail system. 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. 

The Potter - Vanuxem Clan

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #086, part 3
These brothers-in-law were best friends. Potter served as President of Thomas Jefferson University for many years despite the lack of a college degree. Vanuxem left a legacy for Princeton which is still being celebrated. 

Charles & William Kindred: Go West, Young Men

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #086, part 2
Charles & William Kindred became rich men in land speculation. There is a town named for them in North Dakota. They broke quite a few rules along the way. 

Francis Sully Darley: The Best Organist in the City

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #086, part 1
Francis Thomas Lilly Sully Darley was the grandson of the famed portrait painted who married the daughter of locomotive manufacturer Matthias Baldwin. He wrote operas, played the organ, conducted choirs, and his art collection was staggering. 

A Few Loose Ends: Cleaning Out Some Old Files

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #086 for May 1, 2026
I was tied up with preparing some new tours and could not finish the podcast on the Bible Riots of 1844. I scrounged around and found a few scripts I had written and never used. And then I remembered a segment that Thomas Keels recorded for me for an abandoned project. 
Francis Lilly Sully Darley was the grandson of a great portrait painter who married the daughter of Matthias Baldwin and became the most sought-after organist and choir director in the city.
The Kindred Brothers went west to Minnesota and North Dakota and became fabulously wealthy with their shady railroad real estate deals. One served as mayor of Fargo. 
William Potter and Louis Clark Vanuxem were best friends and brothers in law. Through years of dedication, Potter's name is inextricably tied with Thomas Jefferson University, while Louis's name is preserved at Princeton.
Fellow guide and amateur historian Thomas Keels tells the story of how the Great Profile Shakespearean actor John Barrymore ended up without a marker in a nearly abandoned cemetery decades after his demise. 
 

Samuel Perkins and the City Hall Cats

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 5
 
Samuel Perkins was the driving force behind getting the job done at City Hall. He established a close relationship with architect John McArthur, Jr., and sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, who honored him with a series of playful cats tucked away in the south entrance vestibule. 

John Christian Bullitt: Philadelphia and the Bullitt Bill

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085-4
 
John Christian Bullitt was a native Kentuckian who was pro-slavery, but who made his career as a Philadelphia lawyer. His constitutional knowledge and skills led to him rewriting the City's Charter, which immediately became known as The Bullitt Bill. He also helped clear Fitz John Porter of his court martial charges 15 years after the fact. His statue has stood at the northwest corner of City Hall for more than a century. 

John McArthur, Jr.: Nude Defending a Staircase

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, Part 3 for April 4
 
Like sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, Architect John McArthur, Jr., was a Scottish immigrant. He specialized in huge buildings that were meant to last a long time, which explains his selection as architect for Philadelphia's city hall, which when finished was the largest building in the Western Hemisphere. Calder honored him by having him model for the visage of "science" in the eastern portico. He is naked. 

Matthias Baldwin: Taking Pleasure in Perfection

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 2 for April 3, 2026
Matthias Baldwin was always good with his hands. He started as a jeweler, but progressed to bookbinding before he built one of the first steam engines in the nation. When the Age of Steam emerged, Baldwin became the foremost manufacturer of reliable locomotives that were also works of art. 

Re-introduction to City Hall Statues, This Time Outside

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 1 for April 2, 2026
 
I have already talked about the 250 statues inside Philadelphia's City Hall back in ABC:LHS #018, part 1. But including Billy Penn on top, eight named statues also grace the building's outside, including two Civil War generals, a martyred US president, a civil rights hero, a merchant king, and two others. Industrialist / capitalist / philanthropist Matthias Baldwin and John Christian Bullitt, the lawyer who rewrote the city's charter are at Laurel Hill East. Hear their stories, plus two other fascinating character studies, in this month's episode. 

Four Statues Outside City Hall: Baldwin, Bullitt, McArthur, Perkins

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085 for April 2026
 
Philadelphia's City Hall doubles as an art gallery and sculpture garden. More than 250 of Alexander Milne Calder's statues grace the massive walls of the building. But at ground level on the plaza outside the building there are seven more statues, two of them equestrian. 
Matthias William Baldwin was a precision jeweler turned locomotive manufacturer who gave away most of his wealth. His factory manufactured 75,000 railroad engines before it closed down.
John McArthur, Jr., was a Scottish architect who specialized in massive buildings. City Hall in its time was the largest building in the Western Hemisphere. 
William Bullitt was a transplanted southern lawyer who believed in both slavery and secession, yet he was chosen to rewrite the city's constitution in the 1870s. 
Samuel Perkins was the Director of the Public Buildings who ruled over the proceedings with an iron fist and was rewarded with a private joke in the south entry portico. 

Sophie Hutchinson Drinker: Smashing the Patriarchy with Music

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #054 for mid-March, 2026
 
Sophie Hutchinson Drinker (1888-1967) came from one Philadelphia blueblood family and married into another. She and her husband Harry led musical singing parties in their Merion home for 30 years. When Sophie started a woman's choir, she was frustrated in her search for music by, for, and about women. She made it her life's work to discover how woman had been shut out from their early roles in religion, medicine, and music. Her 1948 book Music & Women is a feminist classic. The Sophie Drinker Institute of Bremen Germany carries on women's music studies in her name and tradition. 

Clare Wofford: Emerging from the Shadow of Harris

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 4
Emmy Lou "Clare" Linford Wofford was present at the creation of the United States Peace Corps, along with her husband Harris Wofford, one of John Kennedy's "Best and Brightest." While Harris served as college president and United States Senator, Clare served in the background at three Philadelphia Universities. 

Florence Cowanova: Teaching Dance and Elegance

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 3
 
Florence Cowanova (born Cowan in 1901) was the daughter of dancers Edward and Mary Cowan. On the suggestion of dancer Anna Pavlova, she adopted the surname Cowanova. Florence grew up immersed in dance, with her father specializing in kinesiology and her mother in dance instruction and publicity. By her teens, Florence was recognized as a versatile dancer and teacher, running a popular studio that staged large recitals at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, featuring hundreds of students. Thousands of Philadelphia girls fondly remember their sessions with Mme Cowanova, who made them all feel like princesses. 
 

Tillie May Forney: Getting the Scoop from the Woman’s Perspective

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 2
 
Matilda "Tillie May" Forney, raised in a prominent Philadelphia family with journalistic roots, gained experience as her father’s secretary and became a columnist known for her “Fashionable Luncheon and Tea Toilets” column, which focused on high society fashion and etiquette. Her column catered to an affluent audience, discussing topics like French fabrics and social customs. 
Tillie never married or left her family home on Washington Square. She was buried in her father’s plot at Laurel Hill West. Her life and career reflect both the opportunities and constraints faced by women journalists of her era.

Emily Elizabeth Holman: Philadelphia's Leading Woman Architect

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 1
 
Emily Elizabeth “Lillie” Smith Edwards Holman (1854–1925), aka "E.E. Holman," emerged as a trailblazer in architecture. After starting as a clerk in an architect’s office, she quickly demonstrated design talent and transitioned into practicing architecture independently. Holman designed numerous homes, theaters, and institutional buildings over a career spanning about twenty years.
Holman encountered gender bias from clients but often overcame it by delivering quality work. She believed successful women architects must master all aspects of the profession, including technical knowledge, supervision, and business acumen, while disregarding gender stereotypes.

Four More for Women's History Month

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084
 
Emily Elizabeth Holman was an accomplished architect who preferred using her initials so as not to disclose her gender.
 
Matilda “Tillie May” Forney followed in the steps of her newspaper publisher father John Forney. She made newspaper work her career at a time when women were barely tolerated in the newsroom.
 
Florence Cowanova was the ballet teacher all the little girls loved. Among her famed students: Zelda Fitzgerald, Imogene Coca, and Princess Grace.
 
Emmy Lou Lindgren married Harris Wofford in 1948 before going to live in India for 9 months. While Harris became one of JFK’s “Best and Brightest,” under her married name Clare Wofford became a lynchpin in the successful formation of the Peace Corps.

Walter R. Livingston, Jr.: Building with a Black Esthetic

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #053
Architecture expanded during the 19th century period of European colonialization, ignoring influences from Asia and Africa. Although not buried at Laurel Hill, African American architect Julian Abele is thought to have designed mausoleums at both properties. Walter R. Livingston, Jr., interred at Laurel Hill West, is considered Philadelphia's top Black post-War architect; his masterwork is the Zion Baptist Church on North Broad Street. 

Mpozi Tolbert: Mpozitivity in Naptown

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 4
 
Mpozi Mshale Tolbert was a West Philadelphia native who became a beloved photojournalist and DJ in Indianapolis. Despite his 6'6" frame and waist-length dreadlocks, he was described by all who knew him as a gentle giant. Two murals of Mpozi exist in Indianapolis’s Broad Ripple and Fountain Square neighborhoods, celebrating his life and work.

Julia Komai: Freedom for Liberia

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 3
Reverend John Komai, son of a Krahn chief, and his wife Julia Komai were prominent Liberians who fled their homeland during the 1989 coup, leaving behind their estate and enduring a perilous journey to Sierra Leone before resettling in the United States. John became a community leader for Liberian refugees in the U.S., working as a counselor and continuing efforts to support Liberian refugees. Julia was a political activist who had been jailed in 1979 for opposing human rights abuses and later served as Assistant Director of the African Unity Conference Center. Julia died in a car accident in 2004, and John survived but required lifelong care until his death in 2012.
 
 

Rev. Leonard Smalls: A Parish of Prisoners

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 2
Leonard Leland Smalls was a Baptist minister who dedicated much of his life to prison ministry and community development. After military service and education at Virginia Union University, he was ordained in 1956 and became the first Black minister certified as a prison chaplain in Pennsylvania. He was active in civil rights, associated with figures like Martin Luther King Jr., and involved in political activism including a 1967 mayoral candidacy focused on consumer fraud issues.

Frances "Mom" Williams: "Get Off Your Rocker and Vote!"

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 1
Frances “Mom” Williams was a dedicated community leader and advocate for seniors and the disabled in Philadelphia. Despite an unsuccessful run for City Council in 1979, her influence extended through her family and her activism, leaving a lasting impact on her city and community.

Four More Black Champions

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083 for February 1, 2026 for Black History Month
 
Frances “Mom” Williams was a dedicated community leader and activist in Philadelphia who campaigned for City Council in 1979 with a focus on seniors and neighborhood safety. Her son Hardy and Grandson Anthony became State Senators. This segment will be released as a separate podcast on February 2nd.
 
Rev. Leonard Leland Smalls became the first Black minister certified as a prison chaplain in Pennsylvania. Smalls associated with Martin Luther King Jr. and local activists, though he described himself as not nonviolent. Released as separate podcast on February 3rd. 
 
Liberian native Julia Komai was a political activist who became an outspoken advocate for human rights and had been imprisoned before escaping to the United States. She died in a car crash, along with a former Vice President of her native land. Separate podcast on February 4th. 
 
Mpozi Mshade Tolbert was deeply admired in two cities: in Philadelphia, he captured iconic images of the hip-hop scene, while in Indianapolis he became a beloved photojournalist and DJ, known for his genial spirit, generosity, and influence on the arts community. Separate podcast on February 5th.
 

Mary S. Costanza: Finding a Glimmer of Light in the Darkness

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #052 for mid-February 2026
 
Mary Scarpone Costanza was raised Roman Catholic. She claims she never met a Jew until she went to Temple University. After obtaining a degree in teaching, she developed an interest in art produced by victims of the Nazi Holocaust. It turned into her life work.

Samuel Patch Frankenfield: Laying Out the Dead

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082, part 5
In 18th- and 19th-century Pennsylvania, women played a central role in caring for the dying and the dead, performing tasks that combined practical, emotional, and ritual duties. Over time, the profession of undertaking evolved, becoming male-dominated and more specialized, reducing women’s involvement in death care. Early undertakers often apprenticed from trades like cabinetmaking, expanding into funeral services; Samuel Patch Frankenfield was a notable example who developed a family undertaking business.

Dr. Thomas Hewson Bache: Cofounder of Children's Hospital

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082, part 4
Script by Russell Dodge, narration by Joe Lex
Thomas Hewson Bache co-founded CHOP, the first children’s hospital in the United States. He also served as a Major in the Medical Corps, where he was involved in the Gettysburg Campaign and remained with wounded soldiers even as a prisoner of war. Bache also served as curator of the Mütter Museum from 1866 to 1885 and oversaw significant acquisitions like the Joseph Hyrtl skull collection. He was also involved with the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

Daniel Pabst: Philadelphia's Top Cabinet Maker

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill stories #082 for January, 2026
Happy 200th Birthday!
Daniel Pabst
Daniel Pabst was a prominent 19th-century Philadelphia cabinetmaker known for his exceptional craftsmanship and distinctive designs, blending traditional Victorian styles with emerging artistic movements. His work served affluent clients and reflected evolving furniture styles from Renaissance revival to Modern Gothic. His work done with Frank Furness has been unsurpassed. 
 

Henry Hagert: Prosecuting Catto's Accused Killer

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082, Part 2
Happy 200th Birthday!
Henry Hagert: Prosecuting Catto's Accused Killer
Octavius Valentine Catto was a pioneering African American leader and activist in Philadelphia during the Reconstruction era, advocating for civil rights, voting rights, and racial integration. His assassination in 1871 during violent election-day riots marked a significant and tragic moment in Black American history. The prosecution of his alleged killer, Frank Kelly, was led by Henry S. Hagert, a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer and district attorney known for his meticulous legal skills.

Martha Coston: She Had a Certain Flare (encore episode from 2020)

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082 for January 2026 - Happy 200th Birthday! 
Part 1 - Martha Coston: She Had a Certain Flare
Martha Coston significantly advanced maritime communication by developing pyrotechnic signal flares that could be seen day and night, improving naval operations and safety at sea. Ships originally used signal flags and lanterns to communicate, but these were limited by visibility and weather conditions, especially at night. Martha received her first patent in 1859, initially in Benjamin’s name, and after extensive testing and negotiations, the U.S. Navy purchased her patent in 1861 during the Civil War. Coston flares were crucial for naval communication, identifying friend or foe, and aiding in rescue operations, remaining in use until marine radios emerged in the 1930s. Martha and her sons expanded the business internationally, supplying various navies and services, with family members continuing operations into the late 19th century. Martha Coston died in 1904, with her invention enduring for decades; she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Happy 200th Birthday to Five Laurel Hill Residents

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082 for January 1, 2026
It's January! Time for our annual 200th Birthday Bash for people born in 1826.
After Martha Coston was widowed at age 21, she used her husbands notes and reputation to invent airborne signal flares that saved hundreds of lives.
Henry Hagert was assistant District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia when he prosecuted a man for the murder of Civil Rights Activist Octavius V. Catto.
Daniel Pabst was the finest cabinetmaker in town and people waited years for him to create their household masterpieces, many of which are today in museums. 
Dr. Thomas Hewson Bache was a co-founder of Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania, curator at the Mutter Museum, and a battlefield surgeon at Gettysburg. He was also Benjamin Franklin's great-great-grandson. Military historian Russ Dodge researched this one.
Samuel Frankenfield was a German immigrant carpenter who discovered there was money to be made as a coffin builder and successfully switched professions from carpenter to mortician. 
All were born in 1826. 

James "Jimmy" Bland: From Minstrelsy to Mummery

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #051, Part 4
 
James "Jimmy" Bland is NOT buried at Laurel Hill, but he serves as a logical link between minstrelsy and mummery. Many people called him the "Black Stephen Foster," and songs he wrote like "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" and "Hand me down My Walking Cane" have become standards. One of his more popular tunes, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" became the theme song for Philadelphia Mummers. 

Frank Dumont: "Gentlemen Be Seated" - Standardizing Minstrelsy

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #051, part 3
 
Born in 1848 in New York to French immigrant parents, Frank Dumont became a seminal figure in minstrel culture. He began to perform as a boy and joined Christy’s Minstrels by 1862, a troupe that set the enduring standard format for minstrel shows: a semicircle stage arrangement with an interlocutor (emcee) in the center and end men characters Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones at the sides. The interlocutor opened the show with the phrase, “Gentlemen, be seated,” which became iconic. Dumont later joined other minstrel troupes and eventually settled in Philadelphia around 1880, where he introduced popular songs such as “Silver Threads Among the Gold” and “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” both significant sentimental ballads of the era. He "died with his boots on," as it were as he sat in the box office for a St. Patrick's Day matinee.

Carncross & Dixey: Two Fathers of Modern Minstrelsy

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #051, part 2
E.F. Dixey & John Carncross were the bedrock of Philadelphia minstrelsy for more than 20 years. Many people did not feel a trip to the Quaker City was complete if they didn't make a stop at the 11th Street Burnt Cork Opera House. The podcast also discusses pigmentocracy, historical nonracial uses of blackface, scientific racism, Black Philadelphia society in the mid-19th century, and much more. 

A Brief History of Performance

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #051, Part 1
 
Human performance has ancient roots in ritual, storytelling, music, and dance, evolving from prehistoric communal activities to formalized theater in ancient civilizations.
 
Mumming originated in pre-Christian seasonal rites involving masked performances symbolizing death and rebirth, later becoming popular folk dramas in medieval Europe with themes of good vs. evil and resurrection. Minstrels were traveling musicians and storytellers who entertained courts and villages, distinct from troubadours who focused on courtly love poetry.
 
In the 19th century, minstrel shows featured white performers in blackface who caricatured African Americans through music and comedy, and popularized certain instruments and songs but perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Minstrelsy influenced American entertainment forms but reinforced racist myths, using exaggerated dialects, stereotypical characters, and appropriated dances, with complex legacies acknowledged by modern scholarship.

Mummers, Minstrels, and Laurel Hill

Biographical Bytes from Bala #051
Philadelphia has been the home of Mummers for centuries and you can still see their antics every New Year's Day. For the latter part of the 19th century, Philadelphia was also the place to see a minstrel show. The Carncross & Dixey company made both of its owners rich men and provided entertainment for thousands of Philadelphians for mere pennies. Frank Dumont literally wrote the book on how to perform a minstrel show. Although James A. Bland is not buried at Laurel Hill, his music is still beloved by millions of people around the world, and one of his songs has been adopted by the Mummers as their theme. 

Benjamin Richards: Merchant, Mayor and Cemetery Cheerleader

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #041, part 4
 
Benjamin Wood Richards' tenure as mayor coincided with challenges such as public health crises, infrastructure needs, and social tensions in Philadelphia. In 1819, Richards co-founded a large commission house in Philadelphia, a business acting as an intermediary for securities and commodities transactions, earning income through commissions.  He served in the Pennsylvania legislature in 1827, advocated for public schools, was a canal commissioner, and was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to direct the U.S. Bank and Mint.  Appointed mayor in 1829 and elected in 1830-31, wealthy merchant Stephen Girard died during his term. Richards helped found the Girard Trust Company in 1835, serving as its president until his death, with the bank later becoming Girard Bank. When Richards toured Europe, he was inspired by Paris’s Père Lachaise Cemetery, and helped found Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery, where he was a major stakeholder.

Nathan Dunn and His 10,000 Chinese Things

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081, part 3
Nathan Dunn was born to Quaker parents in New Jersey. After early financial difficulties and disownment by the Philadelphia Quaker Meeting, he sailed to China around 1818 to rebuild his fortunes. In Canton, he gained respect by avoiding the opium trade and engaged in commerce involving tea, silks, porcelain, and other goods. In 1835 he joined with John Jay Smith and others to form Laurel Hill Cemetery, for which he served as primary financial backer. 
Dunn’s decade-long residence in China allowed him to collect a vast array of authentic Chinese artifacts, reflecting a broader American interest in understanding China beyond commerce. His collection later formed the basis of the Chinese Museum in Philadelphia, opened in 1838, one of the first American institutions dedicated exclusively to Chinese culture. The museum featured thousands of objects, life-size wax figures, dioramas, and detailed exhibits of daily life, religion, and governance in China. Dunn transferred the museum to London in 1842, where it was visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Late in life, he was accused of illegal homosexual activity and put on trial for the crime of sodomy. 

John Jay Smith: A Founder's Non-Cemetery Life

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081, part 2 - released December 3, 2025.
 
When Laurel Hill Cemetery co-founder John Jay Smith died in 1881 at age 83, he left behind a significant legacy in Philadelphia’s cultural and civic institutions. His obituary highlighted his diverse roles as librarian, editor, cemetery founder, and member of the Society of Friends, as well as his family lineage connected to other notable Philadelphia founders. Other accomplishments included introducing paper made from straw and inventing something that sounds suspiciously like the Book of the Month club a century before the real thing. 

The First 20 Years of Laurel Hill

Part 1 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081: Laurel Hill - In the Beginning
Inspired by the allegory of Old Mortality, Laurel Hill was founded in 1836 by John Jay Smith and other reform-minded citizens as a response to overcrowded urban graveyards and changing attitudes toward death and memorialization. Modeled after rural cemeteries like Paris’s Père Lachaise, Laurel Hill emphasized scenic landscaping, remembrance, and inclusivity for various religious and social groups, although early regulations still reflected social prejudices. The founders established distinctive rules, invested in prominent sculptures and monuments, and promoted the cemetery through “celebrity corpses” and innovative designs by architects such as John Notman. Laurel Hill’s development mirrored broader trends in American burial practices, the rural cemetery movement, and the expansion of non-sectarian spaces for commemoration and education, while also sparking debates about the relationship between beauty, solemnity, and social class in cemetery culture.

Some Laurel Hill Founders: The First 20 Years

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081 for December 1, 2025
Laurel Hill Cemetery was founded in 1835 and opened in 1836 by four men with strikingly different backgrounds, but with a common cause - to give the people of Philadelphia a final resting place worthy of the "Athens of America." 
John Jay Smith was a polymath librarian / horticulturalist who had a rather unpleasant experience in seeking the grave of a recently deceased daughter and vowed to change the way people commemorated their dead.
Nathan Dunn was initially a failed merchant who regained his fortunes in the Chinese trade and became the financial backing for the cemetery corporation.
Benjamin Richards was ex-mayor and a business partner of Smith's who on a trip to Europe was inspired by the revolutionary Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to provide something similar in Philadelphia.
Along the way you will also learn about Sir Walter Scott, varying splinter sects of Christianity like the Swedenborgians, what the Opium Wars were really about, the history and significance of The Library Company of Philadelphia, with a brief look at Chinese male-male love as commemorated in the legend of the Cut Sleeve. 

Lon Jourdet: The Face of Early Quaker Basket Ball

Lon Jourdet was an All-American footballer who also excelled at basketball. He spent 23 non-consecutive years as coach at Penn and captured more than 200 victories, but he left in 1943 with a bitter taste in his mouth for the University, which has come close to forgetting him. He ended his own life in 1959. 

Basket Ball and Laurel Hill

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #050
The sport basket ball started on the day James Naismith nailed 13 rules to a gymnasium door in Springfield Massachusetts. The game spread quickly, especially among college men (and women). University of Pennsylvania was an early adapter, and four Penn grads made their names in basketball.
 
Ellwood Rutschman was a decent player but found his niche as the first professional basketball referee. He set the standards for fairness and ethics in the sport.
 
"Kid" Keinath was the Quakers' second coach after serving as captain. He was followed by his good friend "Artie" Kiefaber, namesake of the MVP award.
 
Lon Jourdet won more games in the 20th century than any other Penn basketball coach and was an inventor of the zone defense. But the game passed him by, and his firing in 1943 left him an embittered man. 

Hugh Craig, Jr.: The Glue That Held It All Together

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, Part 5
 
Hugh Craig, Jr., was a successful businessman whose life became the Troop, where he served both as treasurer and as quartermaster. The men loved him, and they still hold a "Hughie's Breakfast" at the conclusion of every deployment. 

Joseph Lapsley Wilson: The Trooper as Horticulturalist

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, Part 4
 
Joseph Lapsley Wilson is better remembered today for his arboretum than his troop membership. It still exists today as the Barnes Arboretum at St. Joseph's University. He introduced several species of Asian trees to the United States. His portrait by Thomas Eakins hangs in the Armory Museum. 

A. Loudon Snowden: The Man Who Did Everything

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, part 3
 
Archibald Loudon Snowden was a polymath who served as Captain of the Troop, as well as postmaster for the city, supervisor of the Philadelphia mint, ambassador to Spain, along with numerous other roles. His portrait is in the armory dining room, and his descendants entertain millions of people. 

Fairman Rogers: Horseman Extraordinaire

All Bones Considered #080, Laurel Hill Stories, part 2
 
Fairman Rogers lived a life of elegant wealth, but made himself useful as an expert in many aspects of science, especially civil engineering. He was elected briefly as captain of the Troop. He also excelled was as a coachman, especially when he took his magnificent black and red four-in-hand through Fairmount Park. Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins captured Rogers in a painting that is the first to accurately demonstrate motion in animals. 

1st City Troop: The First 150 Years

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, part 1
 
The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, or "First City Troop", was organized in 1774 as the Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia, often referred to as the Philadelphia Light Horse, one of the first patriotic military organizations established in the American Revolution. Although part of the National Guard system, it is a free-standing unit with its own uniforms and armory. It has served in virtually every war and skirmish ever entered by the United States. After a quarter century of service, it still proudly serves the American populace and the people of Philadelphia. 

Happy 250th to the First City Troop

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080
November 1, 2025
First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, better known as First City Troop is in the midst of celebrating its semiquincentennial before the country does. Each segment will also be released separately.
 
Part 1 for November 2: a brief history of the First City Troop's First 150 years
 
Part 2 for November 3: Fairman Rogers was the finest coach driver in the land, especially the four-in-hand variety. His portrait by Thomas Eakins is a classic.
 
Part 3 for November 4: Archibald Loudon Snowden was a perfect example of a late-19th century polymath, becoming an expert in coin minting, the postal service, fire insurance, and Fairmount Park in addition to his years as a captain of the troop.
 
Part 4 for November 5: Joseph Lapsley Wilson quietly developed one of the finest arboretums in the country which continued under the care of Dr. Albert C. Barnes, who bought his property for a building in which to display his collection of artwork. It is now party of St. Joseph University. 
 
Part 5 for November 6: Hugh Craig, Jr., was the grease that kept the troop moving and the glue that kept it together for more than 30 years, yet he lay in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill East for more than a century. 

Hell Hath No Fury

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. 

The Viper and the Vampire

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. 

John Hobbs: Victim of an Obsession

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. 

Wives Who Kill, Edwardian Edition

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. 

Mariticide for Beginners

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. 

Raymond Pace Alexander & The Arsenic Murders

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. 

Victor "Babe" Andreoli: Kill and Be Killed

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.

Willie Lanzetta & His Infamous Brethren

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. 

"Little Petey" Bisciotti & The Flag Day Massacre

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. 

Evolution of Philadelphia Crime

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.

Thugs & Gangsters of Laurel Hill

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.
 

John Henry Fow: Foghorn for the Talk, Ducky for the Walk

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.

LTC Edgar Loftus: Facing Down a Nazi Ace

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. 

Jacques Louis Francine: I Bombed Japan

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. 

Holger "Hold Your Horses" Hoiriis: Barnstorming, Crossing the Atlantic, and Fighting Nazis in the Catskills

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. 

Philadelphia Fliers: Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, Hobey Baker, Benjamin Lee II

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. 

Lincoln's Air Force: Defying Gravity in the 19th Century

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. 

Look! Up in the Sky! Laurel Hill Pilots, part 1

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. 

Sara Oberholtzer and Philadelphia Thrift

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.
 
 

Antoinette Westphal: Drexel Forever!

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.

Joseph Wharton: The Law without Morals Is Useless

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.

Henry Biddle: Educating the Freedman

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. 

Charles Macalester: Inventing Glengarry & Torresdale

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.

Some College Namesakes, Part 1 (complete)

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. 

Robert A. Groff, MD: Cutting Brain

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.

BG Henry Naglee: Civil War Hero, Famed Vintner, Scoundrel

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. 

Louis Bossle: The Best Rat Catcher in the Land

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. 

Mabel Tinley, alias Lasca Vega, alias Mrs. John Van Ness Roberts

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.

MAJ Wakeman Griffin Gribbel: Unsuccessfully Dealing with the Aftermath of War

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.
 

Morton McMichael Hoyt: Third Time's Not a Charm, Either

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. 

A Handful of Eccentrics

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.

Milton C. Work: America's Bridge Master

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. 

Clarence Wiener: Laurel Hill's Baron Munchausen

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.

Princess Olga Demidoff Stoever: A Princess with Attitude

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. 

Marquis d'Esken de Frenoys & Baron Michael von Suttka

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. 

Countess Santa Eulalia, aka Libbie Shindler Stetson

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. 

The United States and Peerage Titles

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. 
 
 

Laurel Hill Nobility, Part 1

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. 
 

Jack Merriam & Dream Garden

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.

2LT Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill: Gassed!

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. 

MAJ Alfred Reginald Allen, MD: The Choices a Man Makes

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. 

CPT Alan Wood Lukens: Lost in the Fog of War

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

1LT Dillwyn Parrish Starr: From Groton to Gallipoli and The Somme

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. 
 

Philadelphia and the Great War

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."
 

The Killing Fields of France, Part 1: Dillwyn Parrish Starr; Alan Wood Lukens; Alfred Reginald Allen; Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill

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.

Timothee Adamowski: The Idol of the Boston Pops

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. 

ADM George W. Melville: The Doomed Jeannette Expedition

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. 

ADM Sylvanus Godon: Hanging "Lucky Nat" Gordon

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. 

COM David Conner: Amphibious Landing at Vera Cruz

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. 

COM Isaac Hull and Old Ironsides

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.