All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

ABC:LHS 070-4   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.

ABC:LHS 070-3   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.

ABC: LHS 070-2   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.

ABC:LHS 070-1   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!

BBB:LHWS #039   Henry Winter Syle...

...went deaf as a child and soon abandoned speech.  He used American Sign Language and the written word to share his faith with the deaf world, many of whom had been excluded from religious ceremonies for centuries because it was thought they could not enter heaven.  Now 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.

ABC:LHS #069-5 (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.  

Researched and presented by fellow guide and cemetery historian Lora Lewis

ABC:LHS #069-4   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:LHS #069-3 (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:LHS #069-2   Eleanor Elkins Widener... (by Lora Lewis)

...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.