GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY | INDEX OF NAMES | INDEX OF SUBJECTS | CHAPTERS | AUTHOR'S NOTES

CHAPTER INTRODUCTIONS
Introduction
Chapter One: Welcome to Green-Wood Cemetery
Chapter Two: The Early Years (1838-1860)
Chapter Three: The Civil War Era (1861-1865)
Chapter Four: The Post-Civil War Period (1866-1875)

Chapter Seven
Into the Twentieth Century (1900-1935)

The General Slocum On Fire
Wednesday, June 15, 1904, was a warm spring day. Hundreds of German-immigrant mothers and their children from St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on the Lower East Side boarded the steamship General Slocum at its pier on East Third Street while a band lent a festive air to the day with a lively polka.

They’ll Always Need Toys
Frederick Augustus Otto Schwarz (1836-1911) left Germany for New York City, where he founded Schwarz’s Toy Bazaar.

"He Loved Nature"
A cemetery monument, to be noteworthy, need not be elaborate, nor need it be to someone famous or notorious.

Tilyou’s Steeplechase Park
George C. Tilyou (1862-1914) was Coney Island’s master promoter.

This is the famous Steeplechase ride, with its horses off and running, in a photograph from the 1930’s.


"He Laughed And The World Laughed With Him."
Peter F. Dailey (1861-1908) starred as a comedian on the New York stage.

A Wild And Crazy Ride
William F. Mangels (1866-1958), working in Coney Island, played a key role in the creation of the great American amusement parks at the turn of the century.

The Assassination Of Mayor Gaynor
In August, 1910, New York City’s Mayor William J. Gaynor (1848-1913) decided that he had earned a vacation.

The "Father of Baseball"
No man did more to popularize baseball than Henry Chadwick (1824-1908).

The Fort Hamilton Parkway "Bathtub"
Locals often ask about the "bathtub" monument that they see while driving along Fort Hamilton Parkway near the Eastern Entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery.

The Brooklyn Enigma: The Psychic Marvel Of The Nineteenth Century
Though her given name was Mary J. Fancher (1846-1916), she was to become famous as Mollie Fancher.

This description of Mollie Fancher’s life is carved on her monument.

Minerva And The Altar To Liberty
The Battle of Long Island, the "first battle of the nation," fought in August of 1776, was the first time after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that the Continental Army took to the field against British troops.

Minerva salutes her sister, the Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor. Charles Higgins’s mausoleum is at far right.

 

The Chapel
When Green-Wood Cemetery was first laid out, land was reserved for the construction of a chapel.

The Chapel, just a few years after its completion, is pictured on this post card.

Azrael, The Angel Of Death
In March, 1915, Charles Adolph Schieren (1842-1915), former mayor of Brooklyn and a national leader in the leather belting industry, and his wife, Mary Louise Schieren (1839-1915), died within a day of each other of pneumonia.

That Tiffany Touch
Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812-1902), founder of Tiffany & Company, was born in Killingly, Connecticut, where he received little formal education before going to work managing his father’s general store.

A Brilliant Career, Cut Short
The paintings of George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925) are quintessentially American: big, full of energy, and immediate.

The "Old Master" John La Farge
Described as "nineteenth century America’s most innovative and diversified artist," John La Farge (1835-1910) excelled as a mural, still life, and landscape painter, stained glass artist, designer, and writer.

The Law Is The Law
The only person who ever served as mayor of both of the then-separate cities of New York and Brooklyn is Seth Low (1850-1916).

Shaking The Family Tree
Born in New York City, the daughter of wealthy sugar refiner George Elder, Louisine Waldron Elder (Havemeyer) (1855-1929) was educated at a fashionable boarding school in Paris.

A Landmark Courthouse
James Brown Lord (1858-1902), the grandson of James Brown (founder of the private banking firm of Brown Brothers) on his mother’s side and lawyer Daniel Lord (senior partner and founder of the law firm of Lord, Day, and Lord) on his father’s side, was trained in architecture by prominent church architect William A. Potter of New York City.

An Early Screen Star
Born in Canada to a well-known French-Canadian family, Florence LaBadie (1894-1917) studied art, painting and sculpture there before coming to New York City with her family.

The Millionaire Daddy
Edward West Browning (1875-1934), a New York City real estate tycoon, had a fortune estimated at $6 or $7 million (the equivalent of $70 to $80 million today).

The Travelling Building Facade
Generations of visitors have come away from the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art impressed by a centerpiece of the collection: the facade of an early-nineteenth century building. But few are aware of the story behind it.

Lost On The Lusitania
The Arctic Monument in the Brown family plot is not the only memorial at Green-Wood Cemetery to individuals lost in a shipwreck.

The Angel Of Death
William Wetmore Story, the expatriate American sculptor whose father served as a Justice of United States Supreme Court, is buried with his wife in the Cimitero degli Inglesi (the English Cemetery) in Florence, Italy.

Murder On Lover’s Lane
On September 14, 1922, Edward Wheeler Hall (1881-1922) and Eleanor Mills were found dead under a crabapple tree on a lover’s lane in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Albert Parsons’s Pyramid
In 1798, Napoleon conquered Egypt. His massive Description de L’Egypte, published between 1809 and 1822, brought worldwide attention to the architecture, artifacts, plants, and animals of the Nile Valley.

New York’s First Black Female Doctor
Susan Smith McKinney-Steward (1846-1918) was born Susan Maria Smith in Weeksville, Brooklyn, and grew up on her father's pig farm at the corner of Fulton Street and Buffalo Avenue.

The Singing Evangelist
Attending the international convention of the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) in 1870, Ira David Sankey (1840-1908), the singing evangelist, met Dwight L. Moody, and joined him in his religious work in Chicago.

Popular (But Not Critical) Acclaim
Though largely forgotten today, Laura Jean Libbey (1862-1925) was one of the most popular writers of her time.

Painting Prospect Park
A native of Indiana, William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) studied painting in New York City, then went to St. Louis to work.

"The Father Of The Criminal Bar"
In 1861, William F. Howe (1821-1900) established his law firm in New York City.

Casey At The Bat
One night in 1888, DeWolfe Hopper (1858-1935), a popular actor, was performing at Wallack’s Theater on Broadway in New York City.

"The Great American Crank"
Few men have led as full, colorful, and bizarre a life as George Francis Train (1829-1904).

Turn On The Heat, The Party's Over
One of the most elaborate tombs anywhere is that of John William Mackay (1831-1902).

Is My Holland Tunnel Collapsing?
Civil engineer Ole Singstad (1882-1969) was the designer or consultant on an entire generation of motor vehicle tunnels, including the Holland, Lincoln, Queens Midtown, Brooklyn-Battery tunnels, and twin rapid transit tubes under the East River in New York City, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, the Hudson Tubes from New Jersey to Manhattan, the tube between Oakland and Alameda, California, the Callahan and Sumner tunnels in Boston, and the West Virginia Memorial Tunnel at Wheeling.

You're Safer Aboard Ship . . . Or Are You?
On September 8, 1934, as Captain Robert L. Willmott (1892-1934) of the Morro Castle began to partake of the farewell dinner traditionally held on incoming liners on their last night at sea, he must have been in a triumphant mood.