All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

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.  

Biographical Bytes from Bala #020

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 tells Dudley’s story and explain why he is the right man to tell it.

ABC 050 - Part 2

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. 

ABC #050 - Part 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.  

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

Biographical Bytes from Bala #019

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.

ABC #049 - Part 3

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.

ABC #049 - Part 2

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 Thomas Keels tells you his story. 

ABC #049 - Part 1

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.

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 tells 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.