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GUIDE
TO
LAUREL HILL CEMETERY,
NEAR
PHILADELPHIA.
Volith a Fist of Fotholders.
"THEN SHALL THE DUST RETURN TO THE EARTH AS IT WAS ; AND THE SPIRIT SHALL RETURN UNTO GOD WHO GAVE IT."-ECCL. XII. 7.
PHILADELPHIA : FOR SALE AT THE CEMETERY, AND BY THE TREASURER.
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PHILADELPHIA : T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
VISITOR'S GUIDE TO LAUREL HILL.
" My hours are like the ears of the latter harvest, and your days are yet in the spring ; and yet you may be gath- ered into the garner of mortality before me, for the sickle of death cuts down the green as oft as the ripe, and there is a color in your cheek, that like the bud of the rose serv- eth oft to hide the worm of corruption. Wherefore, labor as one who knoweth not when his Master calleth. And if it be my lot to return to this village after ye are gane hame to your ain place, these auld withered hands will frame a stane of memorial, that your name may not perish from among the people."
SPEECH OF OLD MORTALITY-SEE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
DIRECTIONS TO VISITORS.
V ISITORS on foot will enter the Ce- metery by the South Lodge, ascending the steps from the turnpike road, a few feet south of the main car-
/-
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LAUREL HILL.
riage-way. On rising the first inside flight, im- mediately opposite the centre of the entrance, they will find Thom's statues of Old Mortality, his Pony, and of Sir Walter Scott, grouped un- der an ornamental temple: for a description of which, and a history of the religious itinerant, see a future page.
Old Mortality is looking up from his work, conversing with Sir Walter. The artist has most successfully embodied in stone, the follow- ing description of the group, which is found in Scott's "Old Mortality."
" An old man was seated upon the monument of the slaughtered Presbyterians, and busily em- ployed in deepening, with his chisel, the letters of the inscription, which, announcing in scrip- tural language the promised blessings of futurity to be the lot of the slain, anathematized the mur- derers with corresponding violence. A blue bonnet of unusual dimensions covered the gray hairs of the pious workman. His dress was a large old-fashioned coat of the coarse cloth called hoddin-gray, usually worn by the elder peasants, with waistcoat and breeches of the same; and the whole suit, though still in decent repair, had obviously seen a train of long service. Strong
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clouted shoes studded with hob-nails, and gram- oches or leggins, made of thick black cloth, com- pleted his equipment. Beside him fed among. the graves a pony, the companion of his journey, whose extreme whiteness, as well as its project- ing bones and hollow eyes, indicated its anti- quity. It was harnessed in the most simple manner, with a pair of branks or bridle, a hair tether or halter, and a sunk, or cushion of straw, instead of bridle and saddle. A canvas pouch hung round the neck of the animal, for the pur- pose, probably, of containing the rider's tools, and anything else he might have occasion to carry with him. Although I had never seen the old man before, yet, from the singularity of his employment, and the style of his equipage, I had no difficulty in recognizing a religious itine- rant whom I had often heard talked of, and who was known in various parts of Scotland by the title of Old Mortality."
After contemplating this effort of an unedu- cated sculptor, the visitor may turn to the right -view the Godfrey Monument, and the St. John's Lutheran Church ground, in the north- east corner of the Cemetery. From thence visit the Gothic Chapel, and its decorative window of 1*
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colored glass ; after this, passing in front of the cottage, and keeping it on his left hand, he will approach towards the River Schuylkill, visiting on his way the classical tomb of COMMODORE ISAAC HULL, after the model of that of the Scipios, surmounted by an American Eagle. This vicinity having been laid out uniformly in large lots, and tastefully planted, has become very attractive.
Descending a steep declivity, immediately be- side the north boundary, persons of taste can- not but be gratified with the rural character of the picturesque scene ; fine old trees of beach, oak, &c., cast a solemn shade, while the river meanders in peaceful quiet below.
Pursuing the walk southwardly, the visitor will pause at the Obelisk erected over the re- mains of the venerable CHARLES THOMSON, "long the confidential secretary of the Continental Con- gress."
TOMB OF DR., KANE.
All will be desirous of seeing the tomb which contains the remains of the adventurous Arctic explorer, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane.
It is one of the most remarkable in the ceme-
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tery, or, indeed, in any burial-place in this coun- try, having been excavated out of a solid rock. It is situated a little below the highest ground, near the monument to CHARLES THOMSON, and is in full view from the summer-house.
The external appearance is substantial, and yet plain, and was prepared for the purpose, many years before Dr. Kane's death, by his fa- ther, as a place of family sepulture. It now con- tains the body of Dr. Kane, and a younger bro- ther. The improvements will be admired for their simple beauty, and altogether this seems a fitting place for the remains of so distinguished a man. Two trees have grown on the top of the rock, striking their roots deep into its fissures, and form very picturesque additions to the scene.
After leaving this tomb, the visitor may ascend to the upland by the steps of the summer-house, or may pursue the paths of the terraces around the natural amphitheatre to the south, and then visit the various points of view and monuments, as inclination may dictate.
At a few feet from the front of the Mercer Monument, which is west of the chapel, by select- ing a proper position, the best double view of the
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LAUREL HILL.
Schuylkill, exhibiting forcibly its beautiful and characteristic scenery, will be obtained. On the southern side, at the distance of little more than a mile, is the viaduct of the Columbia Railroad ; on the northwest, is the bridge of the Reading Railroad, while the river itself, on the opposite bank, presents the canal-boat with its quiet and slow movement, or the rapid locomotive with its train.
The most admired monuments will be found successively embellishing the ever-changing land- scape, which varies almost with every step.
The Cemeteries of North and South Laurel Hill, where nature and art have done so much, possessing such a variety of picturesque beauty, so many fine trees, beautiful flowers, and freshest evergreens, present a smiling countenance, as well amidst the gloomy winter, as in the sunny days of blooming summer. By many, they are most admired in cloudy weather .* It was to be expected, and has so resulted, that they would be deemed favorite spots wherein to deposit the
* Morning is decidedly the most agreeable time of day to visit Laurel Hill, particularly to the bereaved mourner. It is then comparatively unfrequented.
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mortal remains of beloved relatives, and become likewise places of frequent visit by the sober- minded part of the public.
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MUMFORD,
-
HISTORY
OF
LAUREL HILL CEMETERY.
Chapter J.
"Ah ! sweetly they slumber, nor hope, love, nor fear; Peace, peace, is the watchword, the only one here." HERBERT KNOWLES.
ITHE mode of appropriating ground for inter- Lments originally adopted by the inhabitants
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LAUREL HILL.
of Philadelphia, conformed to the custom of the age. The town commenced on the margin of the Delaware, and long before it extended to the dis- tance of a single square the want of graveyards was felt. Some were established around churches and meeting-houses ; that of Christ Church, on Second Street, was soon found to be inadequate for the congregation, and provision was made by dedicating a quarter of a square out of town to this object; the location, now in the lower part of the city, was at the corner of Arch or Mul- berry Street and Fifth. This Cemetery is occu- pied by great numbers of the dead; among them rest the remains of Dr. Franklin and his wife, and many who were eminent in their generation.
The streets above Second were unpaved ; car- riages were extremely rare, and to have gone further than Fourth or Fifth Streets would have been almost impracticable in winter and early spring weather. We consequently find several religious societies established their cemeteries within those points, without due consideration for the natural increase of population, or proba- bly not anticipating that, in the course of a few years, the town would extend from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. The result so little anticipated
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LAUREL HILL.
has come upon us, and the narrow residences of the dead are too often found in an unwelcome and offensive contiguity to the dwellings of the living. As if this first error had not even yet been visible to the citizens, almost every subse- quent attempt to fix upon sites for burial has been attended with the same want of foresight; the borders of the city have been selected, and before the graveyards have been half filled, the surrounding squares have been built up with substantial tenements. They are frequently situated in the most crowded thoroughfares, and in many instances they have become so filled with bodies as to leave little or no unoccupied space for new claimants. In some cases where the ground thus appropriated was around or in the rear of the church, the advance of population westward has induced the removal of the build- ing to a distant point ; the repositories for the dead, once consecrated by the tears of the be- reaved, and for a while preserved in decent keep- ing by grateful affection, are thus left to neglect and forgetfulness, and with every prospect of being ultimately disturbed.
Mr. James Ronaldson established a public cemetery, in the year 1827, on a small scale, at 2
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LAUREL HILL.
his own expense, situated at the corner of Ninth and Shippen Streets. This was also, at the period of its foundation, out of town, but is now in the thickly inhabited portions of Moyamen- sing ; and the ground has been all, or nearly all, sold to individual lot-holders. Mr. Ronaldson undoubtedly prepared the public mind for the innovation on established usages, but the pro- prietors of LAUREL HILL were the first to en- counter the risk and expenditure incident to the · establishment of a Cemetery on a scale commen- surate with the wants of so large a population, and removed beyond the probable approach of active business, or private dwellings.
Many of our citizens, after visiting Père la Chaise near Paris, Mount Auburn near Boston, and other rural places devoted to a similar pur- pose, felt that something was required of the same kind for Philadelphia, whose small burial- grounds were entirely inadequate to the popu- lation, and the soil of whose locality is not well adapted to the object in view. No move- ment, however, was made in the premises, till November, 1835, when a meeting was called of a few gentlemen, who had conferred to- gether on the subject, by Mr. JOHN JAY
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LAUREL HILL.
SMITH, on the evening of the fourteenth of that month.
The meeting resulted in the formation of the present Cemetery Company ; the purchase of Laurel Hill grounds, in February, 1836; an Act of Incorporation from the Legislature of Penn- sylvania, during the session of 1836-37; and the appointment of the following gentlemen as Managers, viz :
NATHAN DUNN, * JOHN JAY SMITH,
BENJAMIN W. RICHARDS, FREDERICK BROWN.
The grounds were substantially enclosed, a handsome Gothic Chapel, a Roman Doric en- trance, with Lodges, were built, and a receiving vault, all constructed under the direction of Mr. JOHN NOTMAN, the Architect of the Company. The whole plot was mathematically surveyed into lots of various dimensions, from eighty square feet to one thousand. This survey has been engraved upon copper, forming a large map.
* Since the death of Mr. Dunn, his place has been filled by the appointment of Lloyd P. Smith ; and Mr. Richards has been succeeded by his son of the same name.
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LAUREL HILL.
The first interment took place on the 19th of October, 1836, less than a year from the incep- tion of the plan. The name of the individual first laid in this Cemetery, was MERCY CAR- LISLE, a Friend, aged sixty-seven, wife of ABRA- HAM CARLISLE. She had visited the grounds a few weeks previously, and then in feeble health, expressed her decided wish to be interred under the group of four large pine trees, now enclosed by granite and iron railing, near the centre of the plot.
North Laurel Hill is between the Ridge Road Turnpike and the Schuylkill River, north of Phi- ladelphia, from which it is distant nearly four miles. It was formerly the country-seat of Joseph Simms, Esq., who, fully appreciating its many and remarkable beauties, had left the river front to the care of nature; it was covered with a fine growth of forest trees, only here and there intersected by paths ; the rocks, which are piled in picturesque confusion on some portions near the Schuylkill, were undisturbed. The upland was planted by him with a few fine evergreens, ornamental shrubs, &c., and fruit trees ; the for- mer have been carefully fostered, while the latter have given way to a variety of indigenous and
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foreign trees, of the most rare and beautiful species .*
The plot called South Laurel Hill, nearer the City, has since been purchased by the same Company; it is considered by good judges to be equally beautiful as the original.
The project was soon approved, and ample evidence was afforded that the citizens felt the want of a Rural Cemetery, where family affec- tion could be gratified in the assurance that the remains of father and child, husband and wife, could repose side by side, undisturbed by the changing interests of man; where the smitten heart might pour out its grief over the grave of the cherished one, secure from the idle gaze of heartless passengers, and where the mourner could rear a flower, consecrated to memory and hope. +
* For a list of the more prominent, and of such as are deemed proper for cemetery planting, see a subsequent page. The Managers have paid especial attention to this department, and design to add other varieties as they can be procured.
+ Much has been uttered and written recently, both in Europe and America, on the subject of interment in large 2*
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All who viewed the premises thus consecrated to the repose of the dead, felt at once that one of the most suitable spots, in the vicinity of Phi- ladelphia, had been selected. Every mind capa- ble of appreciating the beautiful in nature must admire its gentle declivities, its expansive lawns, its hill beetling over the picturesque stream, its rugged ascents, its flowery dells, its rocky ra- vines, and its river-washed borders.
The descending ground on the west, affords numerous sites for vaults and tombs, of which but little advantage has yet been taken by pur- chasers.
Besides North and South Laurel Hill, the Corporation is possessed of twelve acres on the opposite side of the Ridge Turnpike, at present occupied by a florist and gardener, who supplies
cities ; the agitation of the question has resulted in a deci- ded public opinion against the practice. This topic has occupied the pens of medical men of great eminence ; evi- dence of injurious effects has accumulated on every hand, till doubt itself has been forced to yield: We shall not harrow the feelings of our readers by quoting any of the dis- tressing features of the discussion ; those who would become better informed are referred to Dr. Walker's work on grave- yards.
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lot-owners with shrubbery, &c., when so request- ed, and takes care of individual lots for a mode- rate annual compensation. His green-houses are extensive and well stored.
The advantages possessed by both North and South Laurel Hill for a Rural Cemetery, consist in the romantic beauty of their localities, in the peculiar adaptation of their dry soil and undulat- ing surfaces to the object to which they have been devoted, and to their proper distance from the city, whereby they are never liable to be overrun by pedestrians from her streets; this space too is traversed by a hard turnpike, good at all seasons of the year.
The distance is not found objectionable, and it is believed that but little more time is occu- pied in going and returning in the case of a funeral, than is commonly employed from one part of the town to another. An hour and a half, or two hours, is found sufficient. There are no more delays, and it is these which occupy much of the time on all such occasions, than at a funeral in the city.
The Managers, desirous of placing this beau- tiful Cemetery upon a permanent footing, de- clined from the beginning to dispose of lots,
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except to those who desired to possess them as places of sepulture for families, in perpetuity ; the design being to secure purchasers of lots this important privilege for their families and de- scendants ; there can consequently be no purchase of lots for the purpose of sale; there can be no re-sale of lots, either public or private, and no transfers from one to another, without the writ- ten consent of the Managers, obtained from them for reasons which they shall sanction.
Each lot-holder pays with the purchase-money a small sum towards a permanent fund to keep the Cemetery in perpetual repair; thus there is no further annual tax to be levied. This fund is already of considerable amount, and insures care and attention in keeping the place in per- fect order for the future.
Chapter JJ.
"When Spring with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck yon hallowed mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod, Than fancy's feet have ever trod."
COLLINS.
THE foregoing brief account of the Ceme- tery is interest- ing to the gene- ral reader, as it marks the suc- cessful attain- ment of an im- portant object, in the supply of a public want, in ministering to the public taste, and in eliciting and bringing
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into livelier exercise the most refined and devout feelings of the heart, separating them awhile from the world, and elevating them to those spiritual associations which should ever be con- nected with death.
The salutary effects of ornate and well-pre- served cemeteries, on the moral taste and general sentiments of all classes, are a most valuable result, and seem to have been appreciated in all ages, by all civilized nations. The Etrus- cans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and in more modern times the Turks, all illus- trated not only their skill in the arts, and their intellectual excellence, but also their social affec- tions and refinement, and all the gentler charac- teristics, by a studied attention to cemeteries for the dead. If the Christian seeks authority more commanding in its influence, he will find it with the patriarchs of Israel, who transmitted to their posterity, by example and precept, a spirit of reverence and solicitude for the burial-places of their dead, more enlightened, but not less active or pervading. Let us have the "field and the cave which is therein; and all the trees that are in the field," and "that are in the borders round about, to be made sure," for "a possession of a
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burying-place," (Gen. xxiii.) was the language of the patriarch. And there "Abraham buried Sarah his wife." This touching narrative of the earliest ground ornamented, as from nature's hand, and set apart securely to its sacred pur- pose, is fresh with interest and instruction. It suggests to the living the duty of securing a re- spectful attention to the disposal of the remains of their friends; it shows the careful solicitude with which the patriarch cherished the memory of one with whom he had been so intimately allied in life; and it gives us a model of taste and beauty in the selection of spots designed for per- manent burial-places, which may always be safely imitated. The cave, the rock, the ravine, the verdant field, "and all the trees that are in the field and in the borders round about," mark its wild and rural character, and designate its re- moteness from the busy pursuits of daily life. .
Such was the cemetery of Abraham, the father of the faithful. There did he bury Sarah, his wife, and there, in far remote days, might the venerable patriarch have been seen, bending in cheerful resignation and hope over some me- mento of his early affection, or occupied in adorning a ground consecrated to him, and to
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all his people, by the fondest recollections. In promoting taste and order, security and perma- nency and rural ornament in our graveyards, we do but follow the impulse transmitted from the wisest and most remote antiquity; an impulse improved and refined by its exercise, and reward- ed by its good influence on the public mind.
It is, therefore, to be regretted, that every city and town has not its consecrated spot, rural and ornate, secluded and inviting, as a place of resort for the citizen, oppressed with the sorrows, or wearied with the toil of life; and for the stranger sojourning by the way. Such places of resort serve reverently to honor the dead, per- petuate the memory of their virtues, and confirm a just estimate of their good deeds, whilst they reflect honor on the living, and bear testimony to the cultivation of the best feelings of our na- ture. The rural and ornate cemetery in the vicinity of the large city or town, is the common ground upon which all parties can meet in for- giveness and harmony; it is the lap of the com- mon mother which receives at last, in no unkind embrace, all her children, however widely sun- dered in their lives by the jarring controversies of their day. There, if ever on earth, must
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peace terminate the angry and embittered strifes of men, tranquillity calm the troubled and con- tending spirits, and there must the pervading influence of the place, as it raises the thoughts upwards and beyond, throw the veil of oblivion over acts and deeds of omission or commission, which may have chafed the temper, wounded the spirit, or rudely crushed the affections of the heart. Let no man tread with levity or profane- ness the mazes of the cemetery grounds; it is the Christian's commentary on the truths and the hopes he holds most sacred. To the culti- vated mind it is a volume of the book of nature and of human destiny, which is ever read with interest and profit; and to the mass, of whatever grade in life, it is the faithful and true record and memento of their common lot. Let these grounds be reverently encouraged and supported by all our people. To the matchless beauties of nature let us continue to add the skill of the sculptor, the graceful taste of the florist, the chastened design of the architect, and let the genius and talents of the land throw around the whole their most exalted strains of poetry and of religious feeling.
"Why," says Washington Irving, "should 3
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we seek to clothe death with unnecessary terrors, and to spread horrors around the tomb of those we love ? The grave should be surrounded by everything that might inspire tenderness and veneration for the dead, or that might win the living to virtue. It is the place, not of disgust or dismay, but of sorrow and meditation." "Nothing can make amends," says Coleridge, "for the want of the soothing influence of na- ture, and for the absence of those types of reno- vation and decay which the fields and woods offer to the notice of the serious and contemplative mind. To feel the full force of this sentiment, let a man only compare in imagination, the un- sightly manner in which our monuments are crowded together in the busy, noisy, 'unclean, and almost grassless churchyards of a large town, with the still seclusion of a cypress-crowned cemetery."
Chapter JUJ.
THE MONUMENTS.
"It were not well these hallowed scenes should lack Observance due of art's accustomed works, And virtue's claim to live for ages hence In blest remembrance 'neath the public eye."
MRS. HOFLAND.
GODFREY, THE INVENTOR OF THE QUADRANT.
ITHE Cemetery contains a great number of beautiful private tombs, monu- ments, and en- closures.
As the visi- tor enters the Cemetery, on the bank to the right, his eye will be struck by a modern obelisk, ornamented by a ship and
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a quadrant. At the foot is an old soap-stone " partly defaced. These memorials mark the grave of THOMAS GODFREY, the inventor of the Quad- rant, together with those of his father and mo- ther, whose remains were removed to Laurel Hill from the farm long owned by the family, near Germantown, a few miles from the spot where they now rest. This was done by JOHN F. WATSON, Esq., the Annalist of Philadelphia, in the year 1838. The monument was erected by the Mercantile Library Company, and others, on a suggestion to that effect made by Dr. G. EMERSON, while lecturing before the institution. Dr. E. also delivered the oration on the occasion of placing the monument, to a numerous and re- spectable audience.
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