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 Eight
More Recent Additions (1936 to today)

Hitting The Ceiling
Though Alonzo B. See (1849-1941) was the moving force behind A.B. See Elevator Company, one of the giants of that industry, few people had ever heard of him before 1922. That year, however, he became "suddenly famous" when, in reply to a request from Adelphi College for funds to educate young women, he stated that "all women’s colleges should be burned.

Charles Ebbets And His Son
When Charley Ebbets’s son was born in 1878, everything seemed possible.

Beloved Ebbets Field, 1913-1960. Rest in peace.

Lift Every Voice And Sing
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), writer, diplomat, and civil rights activist, was born in Jacksonville, Florida.

A Cowboy Star
The Western, a book by George N. Fenin and William K. Everson, is dedicated to William S. Hart, "the finest Western star and director of them all, and the best friend the West ever had."

William Surrey Hart, center, in The Gun Fighter, 1916. Hart was facinated by the West; he owned Billy the Kid’s six shooters, and was a friend of legendary lawmen Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp.

We're Off To See The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
Born Francis Philip Wupperman in New York City, he took the stage name Frank Morgan (1890-1949), and starred in vaudeville, on stage, screen, and radio.

He Designed The American Flag
In 1955, Tom Manning, an employee at Green-Wood Cemetery, doing research on famous people buried there, discovered that Captain Samuel Chester Reid (1783-1861), war hero and designer of the American flag, was interred there in an unmarked grave.

Better Very Late Than Never
Starting in the 1820’s, George Catlin (1796-1872) was a man on a mission: to paint and record American Indians and their customs before what he was convinced was their imminent destruction.

Pioneering Radio And Television Reporter
Radio and television journalist Edward Roscoe Murrow (1908-1965) was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Never Relax
Johnny Torrio (1882-1957), Al Capone’s boss and the brains behind the Chicago Syndicate, retired as the ruler of Windy City organized crime in 1925.

Rumor has it that this is a mob bride who was gunned down on the church steps on her wedding day. However, there is no known support for this tale.

Only In New York Could They Steal A Building (Twice)
In 1848, James Bogardus (1800-1874) erected the world’s first cast iron building on the west side of Manhattan, at Washington and Murray streets.

A Very Very Long Career
Eubie Blake (1883-1983), born James Hubert Blake, first showed an interest in music at the age of six, when he discovered an organ in a department store and picked out tunes while his mother shopped.

Opening Japan To The West
Townsend Harris (1804-1878) rose to the presidency of the New York City Board of Education and almost single-handedly founded the Free Academy (later known as the College of the City of New York), the first tuition-free college in America, despite the vehement opposition of the local colleges that charged for schooling.

A Few Who Got Away . . .
When entertainer Mae West, a native of Brooklyn, died on November 22, 1980, word quickly spread that she would be buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.

. . . And One Who Stayed
Augustus Chapman Allen (1806-1864) and his brother, John Kirby Allen, left New York in the early 1830's to seek their fortune in the wilds of Texas.

The Maestro
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) resisted his father’s efforts to steer him into the family’s beauty-supply business, instead choosing a music career.

His Last Dance
Paul Jabara (1948-1992), songwriter, singer, and actor, was born in Brooklyn.

Do As I Say, Not As I Eat . . .
Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Stephen Berger (1953-1994) was a health-advice columnist for the New York Post from 1984 until 1994, and wrote several books in which he championed nutritional dieting to improve the body’s immune system.

The Art World's . . . James Dean
When he was found dead on August 12, 1988, in his East Village apartment, from what friends described as a heroin overdose, Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was only 27 years old.

Home Run To Heaven
In the last decade or so, Green-Wood Cemetery has removed some roads and paths, replacing them with concrete slabs as footings for the placement of low granite monuments.