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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 06493 8993
GC 974.802 P53LG
CENERAL VIEW OF .LAURELHILL CEMETERY.
GUIDE
TO
LAUREL HILL CEMETERY, 1
NEAR
PHILADELPHIA.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
"Then shall the Dust return to the earth as it was ; and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it."- EcoL. xii. 7.
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PHILADELPHIA : FOR SALE AT THE CEMETERY, AND BY THE TREASURER. 1847.
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C. SHERMAN, PRINTER, 19 St. James Street.
CONTENTS.
Preliminary Chapter, -
-
5
History of Laurel Hill Cemetery,
11
Reflections,
19
The Monuments, -
24
Remarks on Marble Monuments,
40
Remarks on Iron Railings, Chains, and Enclosures
generally,
41
Regulations of Laurel Hill Cemetery,
43
Act of Incorporation, -
52
Supplementary Act, passed March, 1847,
55
List of Lot-holders to July 1, 1847, -
58
The Trees and Shrubs,
115
List of the principal Trees and Shrubs,
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116
Remarks designed for the information of Lot-holders
on the subject of planting,
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126
iv
CONTENTS.
Statues of Old Mortality and his Pony, and of Sir -
- Walter Scott, D
. 131
The preliminary Chapter of Old Mortality, * 134
Appendix, containing selections from various publica- tions, respecting Laurel Hill, interment in cities,
&c. &C. D · 147 0
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
VISITER'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 gathered 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 colour in your cheek, that like the bud of the rose serveth oft to hide the worm of corruption. Where- fore, labour 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 VISITERS.
VISITERS on foot will enter the Cemetery by the North Lodge, ascending the steps from the turnpike road, a few feet north of the main carriage-way. On rising the first inside flight, immediately opposite the centre of the en- trance, they will find Thom's statues of Old Mortality, his Pony, and of Sir Walter Scott, grouped under an or- namental temple : for a description of which, and a his- tory of the religious itinerant, see a future page.
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LAUREL HILL.
Old Mortality is looking up from his work, conversing with Sir Walter. The artist has most successfully em- bodied in stone, the following 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 employed in deep- ening, with his chisel, the letters of the inscription, which, announcing, in scriptural language the promised blessings of futurity to be the lot of the slain, anathematized the murderers 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 ob- viously seen a train of long service. Strong clouted shoes studded with hob-nails, and gramoches or leggins, made of thick black cloth, completed 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 antiquity. 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 can- vass pouch hung round the neck of the animal, for the purpose, probably, of containing the rider's tools, and any- thing else he might have occasion to carry with him. Al- though I had never seen the old man before, yet, from the singularity of his employment, and the style of his equi-
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page, I had no difficulty in recognising 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 uneducated sculp- tor, the visiter may turn to the right-view the Godfrey Monument, and the St. John's Lutheran Church ground, in the northeast corner of the Cemetery. From thence visit the Gothic Chapel, and its decorative window of coloured 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 beside the north boundary fence, persons of taste cannot but be gratified with the rural character of the picturesque scene ; fine old trees of beech, oak, &c., cast a solemn shade, while the river meanders in peaceful quiet below.
Pursuing the walk southwardly, pass a tomb in the rock, and pause at the Obelisk erected over the remains of the venerable CHARLES THOMSON, "long the confidential secretary of the Continental Congress."
Skirting the rocks which will next be encountered, see a Stone Cross, partially covered with vines, on a point of rock. Here the upward view obtained by descending the
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LAUREL HILL.
left-hand path to the water's edge, will amply reward the spectator.
This Cross was erected by a devoted admirer of these scenes. It is made of the composition known as "arti- ficial Portland stone." The base contains the following inscription :
Stranger! whose steps have reach'd this solitude, Know that this lovely spot was dear to one Who here has heard delighted
The rustling of these woods, that now perchance Melodious to the gale of summer move ; * Till all around
Had fill'd his senses with tranquillity, And ever soothed in spirit he return'd
A happier, better man. Stranger ! perchance Therefore the stream more lovely to thine eye
Will glide along, and to the summer gale
The woods wave more melodious. Cleanse thou then
The weeds and mosses from this letter'd stone.
After leaving the Cross, the visiter may ascend to the upland by the steps of the summer-house, or may pursue the paths of the terraces around the natural amphitheatre south of the Cross, 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 selecting a proper position, the best double view of the 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
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LAUREL HILL.
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 loco- motive with its train.
In the succeeding pages are portrayed a few of the most admired monuments ; they will be found successively embellishing the ever-changing landscape, which varies almost with every step.
The Cemetery at Laurel Hill, where nature and art have done so much, possessing such a variety of pictu- resque beauty, so many fine trees, beautiful flowers, and freshest evergreens, presents a smiling countenance, as well amidst the gloomy winter, as in the sunny days of blooming summer. By many, it is most admired in cloudy weather .* It was to be expected, and has so re- sulted, that it would be deemed a favourite spot wherein to deposit the mortal remains of beloved relatives, and become likewise a place of frequent visit by the sober- minded part of the public.
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* 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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1
HISTORY 1
OF
LAUREL HILL CEMETERY.
CHAPTER I.
"Ah! sweetly they slumber, nor hope, love, nor fear; Peace, peace, is the watchword, the only one here." HERBERT KNOWLES.
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THE mode of appropriating ground for interments origi- nally adopted by the inhabitants of Philadelphia, con-
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formed to the custom of the age. The town commenced on the margin of the Delaware, and long before it ex- tended to the distance 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 Mulberry, Street and Fifth. This Cemetery is occupied by great numbers of the dead; among them rests the remains of Dr. Franklin and his wife, and many who were eminent in their generation.
The streets above Second were unpaved; carriages were extremely rare, and to have gone further than Fourth or Fifth Streets would have been almost impracticable in winter and carly spring weather. We consequently find several religious societies established their cemeteries within those points, without due consideration for the natural increase of population, or probably not antici- pating that in the course of a few years the town would extend from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. The result so little anticipated has come upon us, and the narrow residences of the dead are too often found in an unwel- come 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 subsequent attempt to fix upon sites for burial has been attended with the same want of foresight; the borders of the city have been '
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selected, and before the graveyards have been half filled, the surrounding squares have been built up with sub- stantial 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 west- ward has induced the removal of the building to a distant point ; the repositories for the dead, once consecrated by the tears of the bereaved, and for a while preserved in decent keeping 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 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 Moya- mensing ; 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 proprietors of LAUREL HILL were the first to encounter the risk and expenditure incident to the es- tablishment of a Cemetery on a scale commensurate with the wants of so large a population, and removed beyond the probable approach of active business, or private dwell- ings.
Many of our citizens, after visiting Père la Chaise near
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LAUREL HILL.
Paris, Mount Auburn near Boston, and other rural places devoted to a similar purpose, felt that something was re- quired of the same kind for Philadelphia, whose small burial-grounds were entirely inadequate to the population, and the soil of whose locality is not well adapted to the object in view. No movement, however, was made in the premises, till November, 1835, when a meeting was called of a few gentlemen, who had conferred together on the subject, by Mr. JOHN JAY 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 Pennsylvania, during the session of 1836- 37; and the appointment of the following gentlemen as Managers, viz. :
NATHAN DUNN,* BENJAMIN W. RICHARDS, FREDERICK BROWN.
JOHN JAY SMITH,
The grounds were substantially enclosed, a handsome Gothic Chapel, a Roman Doric entrance, 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 cop- per, forming a large map.
* Since the death of Mr Dunn, his place has been filled by the appointment of Lloyd P. Smith.
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LAUREL HILL.
The first interment took place on the 19th of October, 1836, less than a year from the inception of the plan. The name of the individual first laid in this Cemetery, was MERCY CARLISLE, a Friend, aged sixty-seven, wife of ABRAHAM 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.
Laurel Hill is between the Ridge Road turnpike and the Schuylkill River, north of Philadelphia, 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 up- land was planted by him with a few fine evergreens, or- namental shrubs, &c., and fruit trees ; the former have been carefully fostered, while the latter have given way to a variety of indigenous and foreign trees, of the most rarc and beautiful species .*
The project was soon approved, and ample evidence was afforded that the citizens felt the want of a Rural
* 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.
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LAUREL HILL.
Cemetery, where family affection 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 .*
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 Philadelphia, had been selected. Every mind capable 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 ravines, 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 purchasers.
Besides Laurel Hill proper, the Corporation is possessed
* Much has been uttered and written recently, both in Eu- rope and America, on the subject of interment in large cities ; the agitation of the question has resulted in a decided public opinion against the practice. This topic has occupied the pens of medical men of great eminence ; evidence 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 distressing features of the discussion ; those who would become better informed are referred to Dr. Walker's work on graveyards.
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LAUREL HILL.
of twelve acres on the opposite side of the Ridge Turn- pike, at present occupied by a florist and gardener; who supplies lot-owners with shrubbery, &c., when so re- quested, and takes care of individual lots for a moderate annual compensation. His green-houses are extensive and well stored.
The advantages possessed by Laurel Hill for a Rural Cemetery eonsist, in the romantie beauty of its locality, in the peculiar adaptation of its dry soil and undulating surface to the object to which it has been devoted, and to its proper distance from the eity, whereby it is 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 be- lieved that but little more time is occupied in going and returning in the case of a funeral, than is commonly em- ployed 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 plaeing this beautiful Cemetery upon a permanent footing, declined from the beginning to dispose of lots, execpt to those who desired to possess them as places of sepulture for families, in per- petuity ; the design being to secure purchasers of lots this important privilege for their families and deseendants ; there ean consequently be no purchase of lots for the pur- pose of sale ; there ean be no re-sale of lots, either public
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or private, and no transfers from one to another, without the written consent of the Managers, obtained from them for reasons which they shall sanction. .
Each lot-holder pays with the purchase-moncy a small sum towards a permanent fund to keep the Cemetery in perpetual repair; thus there is no further annual tax to 1 be levied. This fund is already of considerable amount, and insures care and attention in keeping the place in perfect order for the future.
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CHAPTER II.
" 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 ac- count of the' Cemetery at Laurel Hill, is interesting to the general reader, as it marks the suc- cessful attainment of an important ob- ject, in the supply of a public want, in ministering to the public taste, and in eliciting and bringing 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 connected with death.
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LAUREL HILL.
The salutary effects of ornate and well-preserved ceme- teries, on the moral taste and general sentiments of all classes, is a most valuable result, and seems to have been appreciated in all ages, by all civilized nations. The Etruscans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and in morc modern times the Turks, all illustrated not only their skill in the arts, and their intellectual excellence, but also their social affections and refinement, and all the gentler characteristics, by a studied attention to ceme- teries 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 solici- tude 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 thercin; and all the trecs that are in the field," and " that arc in the borders round about, to be made sure," for " a possession of a 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 na- turc's hand, and set apart securely to its sacred purpose, is fresh with interest and instruction. It suggests to the living the duty of securing a respectful attention to the disposal of the remains of their friends; it shows the careful solicitudc with which the patriarch cherished the memory of onc with whom he had been so intimately allied in life; and it gives us a model of taste and beauty 1 in the sclection of spots designed for permanent burial-
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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 memento of his early affection, or occupied in adorning a ground consecrated to him, and to all his people, by the fondest recollections. In promoting taste and order, security and permanency 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 rewarded 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, se- cluded 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 honour the dead, per- petuate the memory of their virtucs, and confirm a just estimate of their good deeds, whilst they reflect honour on the living, and bear testimony to the cultivation of the best feelings of our nature. 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 forgiveness
3*
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LAUREL HILL.
and harmony ; it is the lap of the common mother which receives at last, in no unkind embrace, all her children, however widely sundered in their lives by the jarring controversies of their day. There, if ever on earth, must pcace terminate the angry and embittered strifcs of men, tranquillity calm the troubled and contending 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 profaneness the mazes of the cemetery grounds ; it is the Christian's commentary on the truths and the hopes he holds most sacred. To the cultivated 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 gradc 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 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
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LAUREL HILL.
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 influences of nature, and for the absence of those types of renovation 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 unsightly 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."
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CHAPTER III.
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.
WE give plates of a few of the more conspicuous monuments, principally those of public men; the Ce- metery contains a great number of beautiful private tombs, monuments, and enclosures.
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