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PODCAST

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Brief biographies of permanent residents of Laurel Hill East in Philadelphia and Laurel Hill West in Bala Cywnyd, Pennsylvania. Often educational, always entertaining.

history

All Episodes

37:46

John Jay Smith: A Founder's Non-Cemetery Life

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/12/03

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081, part 2 - released December 3, 2025. When Laurel Hill Cemetery co-founder John Jay Smith died in 1881 at age 83, he left behind a significant legacy in Philadelphia’s cultural and civic institutions. His obituary highlighted his diverse roles as librarian, editor, cemetery founder, and member of the Society of Friends, as well as his family lineage connected to other notable Philadelphia founders. Other accomplishments included introducing paper

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50:40

The First 20 Years of Laurel Hill

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/12/02

Part 1 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081: Laurel Hill - In the Beginning Inspired by the allegory of Old Mortality, Laurel Hill was founded in 1836 by John Jay Smith and other reform-minded citizens as a response to overcrowded urban graveyards and changing attitudes toward death and memorialization. Modeled after rural cemeteries like Paris’s Père Lachaise, Laurel Hill emphasized scenic landscaping, remembrance, and inclusivity for various religious and social groups, although

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183:00

Some Laurel Hill Founders: The First 20 Years

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/12/01

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #081 for December 1, 2025 Laurel Hill Cemetery was founded in 1835 and opened in 1836 by four men with strikingly different backgrounds, but with a common cause - to give the people of Philadelphia a final resting place worthy of the "Athens of America." John Jay Smith was a polymath librarian / horticulturalist who had a rather unpleasant experience in seeking the grave of a recently deceased daughter and vowed to change the way people commemorated their

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20:36

Lon Jourdet: The Face of Early Quaker Basket Ball

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/16

Lon Jourdet was an All-American footballer who also excelled at basketball. He spent 23 non-consecutive years as coach at Penn and captured more than 200 victories, but he left in 1943 with a bitter taste in his mouth for the University, which has come close to forgetting him. He ended his own life in 1959.

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89:12

Basket Ball and Laurel Hill

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/15

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #050The sport basket ball started on the day James Naismith nailed 13 rules to a gymnasium door in Springfield Massachusetts. The game spread quickly, especially among college men (and women). University of Pennsylvania was an early adapter, and four Penn grads made their names in basketball. Ellwood Rutschman was a decent player but found his niche as the first professional basketball referee. He set the standards for fairness and ethics in

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15:37

Hugh Craig, Jr.: The Glue That Held It All Together

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/06

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, Part 5Hugh Craig, Jr., was a successful businessman whose life became the Troop, where he served both as treasurer and as quartermaster. The men loved him, and they still hold a "Hughie's Breakfast" at the conclusion of every deployment.

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23:30

Joseph Lapsley Wilson: The Trooper as Horticulturalist

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/05

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, Part 4 Joseph Lapsley Wilson is better remembered today for his arboretum than his troop membership. It still exists today as the Barnes Arboretum at St. Joseph's University. He introduced several species of Asian trees to the United States. His portrait by Thomas Eakins hangs in the Armory Museum.

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16:47

A. Loudon Snowden: The Man Who Did Everything

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/04

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, part 3 Archibald Loudon Snowden was a polymath who served as Captain of the Troop, as well as postmaster for the city, supervisor of the Philadelphia mint, ambassador to Spain, along with numerous other roles. His portrait is in the armory dining room, and his descendants entertain millions of people.

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41:05

Fairman Rogers: Horseman Extraordinaire

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/03

All Bones Considered #080, Laurel Hill Stories, part 2 Fairman Rogers lived a life of elegant wealth, but made himself useful as an expert in many aspects of science, especially civil engineering. He was elected briefly as captain of the Troop. He also excelled was as a coachman, especially when he took his magnificent black and red four-in-hand through Fairmount Park. Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins captured Rogers in a painting that is the first to accurately demonstrate motion in

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43:56

1st City Troop: The First 150 Years

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/02

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080, part 1The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, or "First City Troop", was organized in 1774 as the Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia, often referred to as the Philadelphia Light Horse, one of the first patriotic military organizations established in the American Revolution. Although part of the National Guard system, it is a free-standing unit with its own uniforms and armory. It has served in virtually every war and skirmish ever entered by

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166:44

Happy 250th to the First City Troop

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/11/01

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #080 November 1, 2025 First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, better known as First City Troop is in the midst of celebrating its semiquincentennial before the country does. Each segment will also be released separately. Part 1 for November 2: a brief history of the First City Troop's First 150 years Part 2 for November 3: Fairman Rogers was the finest coach driver in the land, especially the four-in-hand variety. His portrait by Thomas Eakins is a

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13:42

Hell Hath No Fury

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/10

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 4Oscar Rosier had married the prettiest salesgirl in town, who soon bore him a child. But Oscar had a roving eye which was apparently set on his secretary, another beauty and purported friend of his wife. It did not end well for anyone.

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24:15

The Viper and the Vampire

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/10

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 3 Captain Clayton Erb decided to marry and produce an heir at age 50 and selected a young divorcee to serve as mistress of his Red Gables estate in Delaware County. When the woman's sister got involved, things went bad in a hurry. The court case revealed the mansion had been a house of horrors.

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21:13

John Hobbs: Victim of an Obsession

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/10

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 2 John Hobbs knew he was being stalked and told his brother that if he didn't leave town soon, he would be a dead man. He was proved right when the woman he was avoiding caught up with him at the train station.

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13:13

Wives Who Kill, Edwardian Edition

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/10

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #049, part 1 Intimate Partner Violence dates to pre-biblical times and violence against women was sanctioned by laws until only recently. Up to 40% of all homicides involve a domestic partner. Men tend not to report abuse when it happens, although attitudes are changing. The adage that “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them" is sometimes reversed. Here are three women who killed their intimate partner;

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77:50

Mariticide for Beginners

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/10

Biographical Bytes from Bala #049 John Hobbs was stalked and shot at a railway station in 1891 by a spurned lover. CPT Clayton Erb was shot and killed, either by his wife or his sister-in-law, during one of many knockdown drag-out battles that had occurred in the brief marriage at the Red Gables mansion in Delaware County. In 1922, businessman Oscar Rosier and his secretary Jerry were mortally wounded by Rosier’s wife, who was thought to be the prettiest salesgirl in Philadelphia. Oscar lived long

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43:50

Raymond Pace Alexander & The Arsenic Murders

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/06

ABC079, Part 5The tale of the arsenic widows of Philadelphia will never be told fully, and hundreds of men may have died at their hands. Two of the women who looked the guiltiest were saved from a life in prison by brilliant African American defense attorney Raymond Pace Alexander.

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12:45

Victor "Babe" Andreoli: Kill and Be Killed

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/05

ABC #079, part 5Victor "Babe" Andreoli was raised in East Falls in a large, hardworking family, but fell in with bad company and was sentenced to life in prison. It didn't go well.

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28:27

Willie Lanzetta & His Infamous Brethren

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/04

ABC-079, part 3 Willie was one of six brothers in the crime business. They never bothered to affiliate with the Mafia, but three of the six brothers were picked off during gang wars. Willie was one of the victims.

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11:59

"Little Petey" Bisciotti & The Flag Day Massacre

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2025/10/03

ABC079 - part 2 Potito "Little Petey" Bisciotti was on the lower rungs of the mob but wanted to move up in the numbers racket. A rendezvous with fellow gangsters led to his untimely death by sawed-off shotgun.

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