Notable Burials at Philadelphia's West Laurel Hill Cemetery-- Part 1 Road Trippin'

From Wikipedia.

This is a continuation of my Road Trippin' Through History that I started in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog last week.  I wrote about a Sgt. Richard Binder, USMC, who had received a Medal of Honor for service at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865.

When I Road Trip Through History, I start with a story and see where it takes me.  One of the things I like to do is find out if there are any folks of interest buried where the person is interred.  Sgt. Binder is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.  The cemetery is by Philadelphia, but actually in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and is affiliated with the larger Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Earlier today, I, posted about four Union soldiers who received Medals of Honor during the Civil War in my Running the Blockade blog.

There are a number of early baseball players buried there, but I am not familiar with any of their names.

ALEXANDER MILNE CALDER  ((1845-1923) Sculptor.  Designed the George Meade statue in Philadelphia along with the Benjamin Franklin statue atop the Philadelphia City Hall.

WILLIAM E. CARTER  (1875-1940)  Millionaire and survivor of the Titanic.

More to Come.  --Cooter

This Month in the American Revolution: Proclamation of 1763, Stamp Act and First Continental Congress, Battle of Saratoga and Surrender at Yorktown

From the American Battlefield Trust.

OCTOBER 7, 1763

**   Proclamation of 1763.  King George III banned American colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

OCTOBER 7-23, 1765

**  Stamp Act Congress meets in Philadelphia to discuss  the crisis.

SEPTEMBER  5 -- OCTOBER 26, 1774

**  The First Continental Congress meets at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia.

OCTOBER 7, 1777

**  Battle of Saratoga, New York, concludes with a major American victory.

OCTOBER 19, 1781

**  British General Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia. 

--Cooter

This Month in the American Revolution: First Continental Congress, Eutaw Springs, Brandywine, Nathan Hale and Yorktown

From the American Battlefield Trust September 2022 calendar.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1774

**  The First Continental Congress opens at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia.

SEPTEMBER 8,1781

**  Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina

SEPTEMBER 11, 1777

**  Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania

SEPTEMBER 16, 1776

**  Battle of Harlem Heights, New York

SEPTEMBER 22, 1776

**  British execute Nathan Hale, a soldier in the Continental Army.

SEPTEMBER 28, 1781

**  Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, begins

--Cooter

Saving America's Battlefields: Battle of Brandywine

From the American Battlefield Trust September 2022 calendar.

BRANDYWINE, PENNSYLVANIA

187 acres saved.

Fought on September 11, 1777, the Battle of Brandywine pitted the Americans, led by George Washington and rising stars Nathaniel Greene and Marquis de Lafayette, against British forces under William Howe and Wilhem von Kynpausen.

A pivotal British victory, Brandywine cleared the way for the Redcoats to capture and occupy Philadelphia, forcing the Continental Congress to flee.

The Trust and its many partners have saved 187 acres of the Brandywine Battlefield, which is  located about 32 miles southwest of Philadelphia near Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania.

--Cooter

Charles Willson Peale-- Part 1: The Painter of the Revolution

Yes, his middle name is actually spelled Willson with two "Ls".

From Wikipedia.

Since I was writing about the portrait this man painted of George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, I figured I's find out some more about him.  I don't remember ever knowing anything about him.  Now, I do.

(April 15, 1741- February 22, 1827)

American painter, soldier,  scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist.  A real Renaissance Man.  He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution and establishing one of the first museums in the United States.

After forays into saddle making, clocks and metal working, he found his niche in painting.  After joining the Sons of Liberty, he became enamored with the new country that was being established on Philadelphia and moved there where he painted many of the famous people leading the effort, including, of course, George Washington.

--Cooter

Other Facts About the Battle of Princeton

From the Mt. Vernon Organization.

**  WEATHER:  21 degrees at 8 am  "Fair & Frosty."    Some reported "shin deep snow" on the Clarke Farm battlefield.

**  STRENGTHS:    American - 4,500 est. with 35 artillery pieces.  British - 1,200 est. with  6 to 9 artillery pieces.

**  CASUALTIES:  Exact numbers are not known and estimates vary.  Fischer reports 232 killed and wounded for the British with maybe another  200 to 300 captured.  American losses were likely 31-37 killed, upwards of  37 wounded and 1 captured.

**  At the time of the battle, Princeton University was known as the College of New Jersey.  The name was changed to Princeton in 1896.

**  The Continental Congress convened in Nassau Hall from June 30, 1783, to November 4, 1783.  Congress moved here from Philadelphia to avoid risk from mutinous Continental  Army officers in and near Philadelphia.

--Cooter

Ten Facts About Battle of Princeton-- Part 8: The George Washington at Princeton Painting

10.  THE GEORGE WASHINGTON AT PRINCETON  PAINTING WAS WILDLY POPULAR AFTER ITS DEBUT

The news of George Washington's victory at Princeton electrified the country and doing his painting became the desire of leading artists of the day.

George Willson Peale, Washington's most frequent portraitist and a Continental Army veteran who was at Princeton, finished his George Washington at Princeton painting in early 1779.  The painting had been commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania for its council chambers at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

After its debut, there was a great clamor for replicas.  It is estimated that Peale created 18 or more different replicas of the painting for clients such as the Spanish Court, the island of Cuba and King Louis XVI.  Today, replicas can be found at  Princeton University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg,  the Museum of Virginia Fine Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the U.S. Senate.

Each of these  copies employs different-sized  canvases, updated uniforms, varied backgrounds and other modifications.

--CootPeale

Ten Facts About the Battle of Princeton-- Part 5: Marines Fought Alongside Washington

Maybe I'll finish these ten facts sometime in the future.  Continued from February 17.

7.  MARINES FOUGHT ALONGSIDE  WASHINGTON AT THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON

Washington sent out a desperate plea for reinforcement.  One of the first groups to  respond to this request were  roughly  600 Marines from the Philadelphia area.  This force had been recruited to serve aboard Continental warships now anchored in Philadelphia and were generally considered to be excellent fighters.

Their officers had had duty against British ships and they had been occupied in daily drill and frequent skirmishes with the British forces operating in  the area.

Three companies of Marines accompanied Washington on his nighttime march to Princeton.  Moving with Cadwalader's Brigade into the fight, a few Marines under the command of  Major Samuel Nicholas, engaged Manhood's British troops  on the Clarke Farm.

(Major Samuel Nicholas was the first Marine Corps officer and, by tradition, considered the first commandant of the corps.)

During the fierce fighting, several Marines were killed, including Captain William Shippin.

These casualties were  some of the first to be  suffered by the Marine Corps on any battlefield.

--Cooter

USS Newport News (CA-148)-- Part 7: Decommissioning and Scrapping

Operations by Vietnam resumed October 21 October and continued until December 1972, when the ship was recalled to homeport at Norfolk.  During 1973 and 1974 the ship undertook training cruises and visited many ports around the world before being recalled for decommissioning.

While there was some interest in retaining her for her "big gun" capability in the fleet, a survey to determine further service indicated the ship was beyond economical refitting.

The Newport News was decommissioned on 27 June 1975 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 July  1978.  

She spent her later years as part of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Mothball Fleet and was sold for scrap in New Orleans, Louisiana, , on 25 February1993.

The museum ship USS Quincy, in Quincy, Massachusetts, contains her bell and other items.

In the Hampton Roads Naval Museum's The Ten-Thousand Day War at Sea: The US Navy in Vietnam, 1970-1975 section, a large model of the USS Newport News.

--Cooter

Woke and Cancel Culture Hit Chicago-- Part 5: About the Columbus Statues

 Black artist Hank Willis Thomas offered a giant Afro pick that tapered to a black power fist at the end of its handle.  Titles "All Power To All People," the 800 pound aluminum-and-steel sculpture was provocatively placed near a bronze statue of Frank Rizzo, a former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner who for many Philadelphians was a symbol of police brutality directed at Blacks and other people of color.

The discussion over history and monuments has continued into 2021, as San Francisco recently scrapped 44 school names.

The issue came to a head last July, when activists forcibly attempted to remove the prominent statue of Columbus in Grant Park, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters.  Nearly a week later, Mayor Lightfoot took down Columbus statues in Grant Park and Little Italy.  She later had a lesser-known Columbus statue in a South Chicago neighborhood removed.

Columbus has been condemned by activists around the country who point to the Italian explorer's treatment of Indians after he landed in the Americas in 1492.

Many Italians prize the statues of the explorer as an expression of their mainstream American identity.

--Cooter

Woke and Cancel Culture Hit Chicago-- Part 4

However, there is a statue of black prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks that was unveiled on the South Side in 2018.  And the Harold Washington Library Center contains multiple artistic tributes to Chicago's first black mayor.  The city also renamed the Congress Expressway for black journalist Ida B. Wells in 2018.

Also, Chicago named several public housing projects after notable Blacks.  The Robert Taylor Homes was named for black activist and first black  chairman of the Chicago Housing  Authority.  There was also an Ida B. Wells Homes.

Other cities across the U.S. have used temporary sculptures to explore the issue of expanding representation.

Before 2017, Philadelphia's roughly 1,500 pieces of public art and monuments did virtually nothing to recognize  to recognize people of color and real women (as opposed to mythological figures).  Then two arts organizations, Mural Arts Philadelphia and Monument Lab mounted a temporary citywide exhibition of 10 works by local and internationally known artists that shook things up.

--Cooter

How Americans Struggled to Bury the Dead in 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 5

Public funerals and wakes were banned  in cities including Philadelphia and Chicago.  Iowa prohibited public funerals and even the opening of caskets.   Exceptions were only made for  parents and wives identifying  soldiers before burial -- and even then, they could only open   the caskets if family members covered their mouths and noses with masks and refrained from touching the body.

"In many communities, processing  the loss of loved ones entails a series of rituals and rites and laying a person to rest in a respectful way,"  Bristow says.  "In many cities, the restrictions on public events meant that families  and communities had those rites interrupted, so grieving didn't take place in public but became an individual process, which had long-term consequences.  Without an opportunity to share it with those around them, that grief was carried for decades."

How Americans Struggled to Bury the Dead in 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 4: Like a Scene Out of the Middle Ages

Those buried in the mass graves were primarily poorer and immigrant residents so there was a class aspect to death and what happened to you.  The more affluent were more likely to secure the rites of passage into the hereafter than the poorer, more recent arrivals.

The scenes on the streets of Philadelphia appeared to be straight out of the plague-infested Middle Ages.  Throughout the day and night, horse-drawn carriages  kept a constant parade through the streets as priests joined the police   in collecting corpses draped in sackcloths and blood-stained  sheets that were left on porches and sidewalks.

The bodies were piled on top of each other in the wagons and limbs were protruding from underneath the sheets.  I couldn't help but think of that scene in the Monty Python movie.

The parents of one small boy who had succumbed to the flu begged the authorities to at least have him the dignity of being buried in a wooden box that had been used  to ship macaroni instead of wrapping him in a sheet and having him taken away in a patrol wagon.

How American Struggled to Bury Bodies During the 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 3: Boston and Philadelphia

Gravediggers at Boston's New Calvary Cemetery were spotted dumping corpses out of coffins could be used again.  The War Industries Board  ordered casket makers to manufacture only plain caskets and immediately cease production on "all fancy trimmed and couch and split panel varieties.  It limited caskets sizes for adults  to five feet, nine inches and six feet, 3 inches.

The worst horrors were seen in Philadelphia, where the number of deaths approached 1,000 a day at the pandemic's peak.  Entire neighborhoods were  draped in crepe that was mounted on front doors to mark deaths inside.

Civic leaders  recruited the J.G. Brill Company, a streetcar manufacturer, to construct thousands of  rudimentary boxes in which to bury the dead, while desperately needed coffins arrived in the city under armed guard.

Five hundred bodies crowded the city morgue, which had a capacity for only  36 corpses.    The city scrambled to open  six supplementary morgues and placed bodies in cold storage plants.  Some Philadelphia  residents were  unceremoniously tossed into mass graves  that had been hollowed out by steam shovels.

Influenza Epidemic of 1918 in Butler County, Pa.-- Part 1: In U.S. Started at Fort Riley in Kansas and Spread

From the Butler County Historical Society  "Influenza epidemic of 1918' by P. Schultz.

While thousands of men were being maimed and killed in Europe during WW I, even more so  were being killed world wide by an unseen foe.  The influenza epidemic of 1918.  It did not confine to Europe, but spread all over the world, infecting 20 to 40% of the earth's population and killing over 20 million.  Some 500,000 of those deaths took place in the United States.

The exact origin of it is not known, though first cases of it in the United States were reported from Fort Riley in Kansas in arch 1918.  It took six months to spread to Pennsylvania where it started in Philadelphia and spread from there to the rest of the state, reaching the western part of the state by September.

--Cooter

The Spanish Flu Hits Delaware in 1918-- Part 2: A Family's Tragedy

The order remained in effect for more than three weeks.  Yet, even with these precautions, it did not stop the virus.

As the situation in Delaware worsened,  the state became so overwhelmed that the Health Department tried to divert influenza patients to Philadelphia hospitals.  The flu, however, knew no state borders.  Philadelphia was unable to come to Delaware's rescue, as they too were completely overwhelmed by the disease.

Nearby, at Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, Mr. John Kingsman, 36, died on Monday afternoon.  Days earlier, his 17-year-old daughter died in the same spot, though he never knew it.    Those who were taking care of him couldn't bring  themselves to tell him that.  Making it worse, just a week after his mother and step-brother had died in Dover, his teen-aged daughter was also dead.

"When it comes to pandemics, there is no rational  basis to believe that the 21st century will be much different from the past.  If a pandemic strikes, it will come to Delaware."

Coronavirus cases and deaths in Delaware as of April 13, 2020: 1,761 cases and 41 deaths.

--Cooter

Fallen Mt. Vernon Tree Stood the Test of Time-- Part 1: George Washington's Tree

From the Nov. 24, 2019, Chicago Tribune by Michael E. Ruane, the Washington Post.

It was probably a sapling when George Washington returned triumphant to Mt. Vernon in1783 after the American Revolution.  It was probably there in 1787 when he left for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and it grew during his terms as the country's first president.

It was there when he came home for good and when he died in 1799.

Droughts came and went, along with two centuries of American history.  During the Civil War, soldiers carved insignia into its bark

Then,late one night, earlier this month the tired old white oak gave out and came crashing down across a road in the woods.

Caretakers at Mount Vernon heard it fall just before midnight November 4.

--Cooter

That's Not the Statue of Liberty's Original Torch Up There

From the November 16, 2018, Northwest Herald  "Statue of Liberty's original torch moved  to a museum site."

The Statue of Liberty's original torch has been housed in the base of the statue (whose pedestal, by the way, is an old fort) since a replica replaced the original in the 1980s. was moved on Thursday to its new home in a museum that will open in 2019.  The museum is 100 yards from the statue on Liberty Island.

The base and detached flame of the 3,600 pound torch was moved very carefully.  It had been removed in 1984 because it had been too damaged by the elements and pollution to restore.

The torch left France for the United States in 1876 where it was exhibited at the Centennial Celebration of the U.S. in Philadelphia and then was taken to New York City and then to Madison Square Park where it was used to raise funds to pay for the statue's pedestal.  These were the first of many moves the torch has made.

It went back to Paris in 1882 and then returned to New York City along with other crated pieces of the statue in 1885.

The torch was held high by Lady Liberty from 1886 to 1984, but modifications to the flame changed its original design over the years.

--CooterStatue

Then, There Was Roberto Pena of the Chicago Cubs

Mr. Hazle certainly made an impression with the Milwaukee Braves when he first came to the major leagues, but I remember a player named Roberto Pena from the Dominican Republic who made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs and made quite the impression in 1965.  I watched it all on the Cubs TV station, WGN, which has it last games being televised this season.

At the time I was just getting interested in baseball.  Had Roberto Pena continued his career hitting like that I might well have become a Cubs fan instead of White Sox.

In his first game with the Cubs, the season opener, Mr. Pena hit a home run off Bob Gibson and went 3 for 6 scoring two runs and three RBI.  In his second game, he hit 1 for 3 with another home run off Curt Simmons, scored two runs and one RBI and went 1 for 4 in the third with one RBI..

And that was his season highlight for the Cubs  as in 51 games and 170 at bats, he got 37 hits, batted .218 and hit no more home runs.  He was sent to the minors part way through the season.  In 1966, he played just six games for the Cubs and after that played one year each in Philadelphia, San Diego and Oakland and two years with Milwaukee.

His career stats:  587 games, 1907 At Bats, 174 hits, Batting Average .239 AL and .248 in NL, and 13 Home Runs.

Another Fast Start That Fizzled.  --Cooter

U.S. Navy Shorpy Photos from 1908-- Part 1

From the September 21, 2012, Shorpy "Heavy Metal: 1908."

Philadelphia, curca 1908.  "Ships at League Island Navy Yard.  Cruisers Minneapolis and Columbia and armored ram Katahdin.

One comment quoted the Annual Report of the Navy Department for Fiscal Year 1907 saying that the Katahdin was considered to be of no military value and requested that it be sold.  Its value will continue to decrease and it was last commissioned for service in 1898 for the Spanish-American War.  So far, $54,067.77 had spent on construction and repairs on it.

--Cooter