All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 4

Archibald McCurdy was the least gregarious of the McCurdy brothers, he found his niche in the family's store as night watchman.  A botched robbery attempt took his life. 

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 3

Almost everyone thought that George Haas was an excellent boss, but one employee felt otherwise and shot him as he left work.

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 2

Historian and fellow volunteer tour guide Thomas Keels reads from his book Wicked Philadelphia about an honor killing of Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton by Singleton Mercer that author George Lippard turned into a best-selling novel.

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 1

George K. Smith was a mine supervisor at a time when secret societies were rampant.  His death at the hand of home invaders was blamed on the Molly Maguires, but the details aren't as specific. 

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 Thomas Keels will read you a chapter from his book Wicked Philadelphia that tells the amazing story of Singleton Mercer and Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton.

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• Mine supervisor George K. Smith who was purportedly killed by the Irish terrorist group the Molly Maguires

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. 

Biographical Bytes from Bala #026

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 g**d*** hospital in the Army” during the China Burma India (CBI) 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.  

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #056, Philadelphia and Oil, Part 2

Joseph Newton Pew grew up in a large, impoverished family in upstate Pennsylvania, but he was able to start a petroleum firm.  His sons J. Howard Pew and Joseph N. Pew Jr. eventually took over and grew Sun Oil into the international juggernaut it is today.  But the Pew family has always been involved in giving back and supporting the community.  

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #056, Philadelphia and Oil, Part 1

While we tend to think of "oil" and "Texas" as synonymous, it was Pennsylvania where the first big oil strikes were made, and major refineries greeted visitors as they came from the airport.  Only recently has the Point Breeze section of the city been reclaimed and is undergoing a total makeover.  

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.

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. 

Biographical Bytes from Bala #025

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.