GREEN-WOOD
CEMETERY | INDEX OF NAMES
| INDEX
OF SUBJECTS | CHAPTERS | AUTHOR'S
NOTES
Chapter
Five
The Centennial and Beyond (1876-1889)
Fashion In Funerals
Isaac Hull Brown (1812-1880) wore many hats, and all of them were
fashionable.
John
Genin’s Pedestrian Bridge Across Broadway
Only a handful of people have ever heard of John Nicholas Genin (1819-1878),
and his monument at Green-Wood Cemetery gives no hint of his fascinating
life.
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The
Tweed Courthouse: Monument To Corruption
It has been estimated that during his reign of corruption, William
Marcy ("Boss") Tweed (1823-1878), the "Tiger of Tammany," and
his political cronies stole $200 million (the equivalent of
about $3.5 billion in today's money) from the citizens of New
York.
Boss
Tweed, who for years was the most powerful man in New York,
was a frequent subject of Thomas Nast’s cartoons. Tweed fully
understood the damage that Nast’s drawings did him, once remarking,
"I don’t care a straw for your newspaper articles; my constituents
don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned
pictures." When Tweed was finally processed to begin his prison
sentence, he was asked, for the record, to state his profession;
his reply was "Statesman."
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Guilty
As Sin
In 1847, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) became the
pastor of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights.
Henry
Beecher, Elizabeth Tilton, and Theodore Tilton, the principal
players in "The Great Scandal."
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Grandpa
And His Granddaughter
Peter Lawson, "Grandpa," died in 1887, at the age of eighty-four.
His granddaughter, Jensine Gomard, died the next year at the age of
twenty-two.
"The
Light Went From My Life For Ever"
In 1884, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) seemed to have it all.
Jailed, Dead And Buried, But Still Not Silenced
A native of Springfield, New York, De Robigne Mortimer Bennett (1818-1882)
attended school in Cooperstown, and at the age of fourteen joined
the Shaker community in New Lebanon, New York.
You Could Die Waiting
Even in the 1880’s you could die waiting for a Democrat to be elected
President, and Gordon Webster Burnham (1803-1885) did just that.
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The
Brooklyn Theatre Fire Monument
On Tuesday night, December 5, 1876, the Brooklyn Theatre, on
the southeast corner of Johnson and Washington Streets in downtown
Brooklyn, was packed with 1,000 patrons.
This
contemporary woodcut shows the unclaimed victims of the Brooklyn
Theatre Fire being placed in a common grave at Green-Wood Cemetery.
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Spirit
Rappers
John
Fox knew a bargain when he saw one.
"Mile-A-Minute" Murphy
When bicyclist Charles M. Murphy (1871-1950) bragged in the 1880’s
that "there is not a locomotive built which could get away from me,"
everyone laughed except Long Island Railroad publicist Hal Fullerton.
Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Victory
When he was invited, during the last days of the 1884 presidential
campaign, to give a speech at a reception for the Republican candidate
James G. Blaine, Samuel Dickinson Burchard (1812-1891) was the obscure
pastor at New York City’s Houston Street Presbyterian Church.
The Stewart Bronzes
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, if you wanted to hire
the best team of artists available to design a sculpture or funerary
monument, you hired Stanford White and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Inventing The Tuxedo
Pierre Lorillard (1833-1901), tobacco merchant, sportsman, and race
horse breeder, wanted to make the 1886 gala opening of the Tuxedo
Park Club, his members-only 6000-acre enclave for the rich, an affair
to remember.
Peter
Cooper And The Tom Thumb Locomotive
A man of many talents, Peter Cooper (1791-1883) made his fortune in
iron mills and glue factories.
A Leading Female Doctor
Homeopathic physician, women’s rights activist, and reformer, Clemence
Sophia Harned Lozier (1813-1888) did not have it easy.
Building The Brooklyn Bridge
William C. Kingsley (1833-1885) was always building. After settling
in Brooklyn in 1856, he worked as the contractor for the Brooklyn
water works.
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A
Brooklyn Bridge Engineer
George W. McNulty (1850-1924) graduated from the University
of Virginia, worked as a surveyor, then applied to work on the
great engineering project of his time, the East River (now Brooklyn)
Bridge.
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| In
this photograph of many of the men who played key roles in the
construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Henry Murphy, president of
the East River Bridge company, is in the group standing at left
with his arms crossed. George McNulty is in the right foreground,
wearing a top hap and leaning on his elbow against the eyebars
which would connect the cables to the anchorage. Orestes P. Quintard,
the secretary of the Bridge, standing second from the left, is
also buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. |
So
Close, And Yet So Far Away
Henry Cruse Murphy (1810-1882) led a distinguished life.
America's Printmakers: Mr. Currier And Mr. Ives
Currier and Ives, printmakers for the American people, are fondly
remembered today for their nineteenth century lithographs.
Violets
On The Grave Of A Matinee Idol
Though he had acted on stage and managed theaters in his native England,
Henry James Montague (1840-1878) came to America unheralded.
A Lovely Bud
Friedrich Rollwagen (1807-1873) came to America from Alsace, France,
prospered in his adopted country and became a substantial landowner
on the Lower East Side.
Morgan City, Louisiana
Leaving his Connecticut farm at the age of fourteen for New York City,
Charles Morgan (1795-1878) worked as a grocery clerk and later opened
a provision shop.
Charles
Calverley’s Green-Wood Cemetery Sculptures
Of the thousands of sculptures in Green-Wood Cemetery, surprisingly
few can be attributed to known artists.
