March 22: Maggie Mitchell

March 22: Actress Maggie Mitchell, who had been rumored to be a girlfriend of Lincoln-assassin John Wilkes Booth, and whose photograph was found in Booth’s wallet as he lay dying, died on this day in 1919.

John McComb: Old New York Architect

This is a guest blog by Benjamin Feldman, a great Green-Wood and New York City enthusiast who is the author of “Butchery on Bond Street: Sexual Politics and the Burdell-Cunningham Murder Case in Ante-Bellum New York” and “Call Me Daddy: Babes and Bathos in Edward West Browning’s Jazz-Age New York.”  Ben blogs at The New … Read more

March 21: Richard Auchmuty

March 21: Civil War officer Richard Auchmuty, who was brevetted colonel for gallantry at Gettysburg and who partnered with James Renwick Jr. as an architect, buried his amputated leg at Green-Wood on this date in 1893; he joined his leg at Green-Wood on November 3 of that year.

March 17: William Hayes and the Ship “Rainbow”

March 17: On this date in 1848 the speedy clipper ship Rainbow set sail, captained by William Hayes on what he planned to be his last voyage before his retirement, bound for Valparaiso and China. The ship, captain, and crew were never seen or heard from again. Hayes’s cenotaph is at Green-Wood.

March 15: Caroline Weldon

March 15

On this date in 1921, Catherine Weldon, advocate for American Indian rights, who befriended Chief Sitting Bull and became his confidante and private secretary, died.

Bronzes On Display

The Green-Wood Historic Fund recently lent a magnificent bronze of Civil War Brigadier General Thomas Sweeny to the exhibition, “American Heroes in Bronze: The Artwork of James E. Kelly,” at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum in Morristown, New Jersey. You will find more on Sweeny’s fascinating story, from an earlier blog post, here. As the museum … Read more