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.