All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Latest Episodes:

BG Henry Naglee: Civil War Hero, Famed Vintner, Scoundrel Jul 06, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076-5 Henry Naglee...

...was a West Point graduate who fought in Mexico, the West, and the Civil War. He took a liking to the West Coast and built the first permanent commercial structure in San Francisco, installed vineyards that produced the finest brandy in the country, and is namesake for the Naglee Park section of San Jose. But he was a scoundrel with women, one of whom repaid him by publishing his love letters and his self-portrait of doing naked pushups on his bathtub. General Naglee is interred in the South segment of Laurel Hill East.

Louis Bossle: Best Rat Catcher in the Land Jul 05, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076-4 Rat Catcher Lou Bossle...

...was proud of his profession - it is even carved onto his Laurel Hill West tombstone. Twice in the 1890s, Philadelphia newspapers sent a reporter to keep him company in rat-infested basements while he was on the job.

I'll tell you about the long relationship between humans and rats, and share some of the methods used by ratcatchers of yore.

If you're a little squeamish, this one might make you squeam.

Mabel Tinley, alias Lasca Vega, alias Mrs. John Van Ness Roberts Jul 04, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076-3 Mabel Tinley... (by Thomas Keels)

...was a Philadelphia-born con woman with a hypnotizing gaze who worked her way into New York Society with boldness and beauty. Fellow cemetery historian Tom Keels tells her remarkable story and suggests an inscription for her stone - should she ever get one.

Here Lies

MABEL TINLEY

AKA

Mrs. Richard W. Roelofs, Fickle Wife and Inattentive Mother,

Lasca Vega, Vaudeville Vamp,

Louise Vermeule, Serial Shopper,

Mrs. John (Catherine Stuyvesant) Van Ness Roberts, Buddy of Big Apple Bluebloods,

And a host of other aliases, too numerous and transitory to mention.

R.I.P.

MAJ Wakeman Griffin Gribbel: Unsuccessfully Dealing with the Aftermath of War Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076-2 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder...

...evolved from nostalgia and soldier's heart to shell shock and battle fatigue and the thousand yard stare.

W. Griffin Gribbel was a wealthy Chestnut Hill businessman and Great War veteran whose wealth, career, and family could not save him from his post-war nightmares. His behavior often got so out of control that he had to be confined in an asylum. After a minor plane accident in 1929, he threatened everyone in his house with his collection of firearms. When a police officer came to the house to help take him away, Gribbel shot and killed the man, but was acquitted at his trial.

Morton McMichael Hoyt: 3rd Time's Not a Charm, Either Jul 02, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076-1 Morton McMichael Hoyt...

...was named for his great-grandfather the mayor. His sister, Elinor Wylie, was a famed poet and author. Before he had turned 21, he married Jeanine Bankhead, older sister of up-and-coming actress Tallulah. When the marriage failed, they tried again. And then a third time. And he was captured by the Nazis in 1942 and spent the war in a German concentration camp. His ashes were consigned to earth at Laurel Hill West.

A Handful of Eccentrics Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #076 Five people who really didn’t fit anywhere else.

Morton McMichael Hoyt married the same woman three times and once jumped off a steamship to impress a 17-year-old girl.
Major Wakeman Griffin Gribbel was gassed and wounded during the Great War; during one of several psychotic breaks, he mortally wounded a police officer, but a jury found him “not guilty.”
Fellow guide and cemetery historian Tom Keels tells the rollicking story of Mabel Tinsley, one of the great con artists of the Gilded Age.
Louis Bossle was the city’s best-known ratcatcher; when he died, his nickname “Ratcatcher Lou” was carved on his obelisk.
Tom Keels returns for a segment on one of our Civil War generals Richard Naglee, whose California vineyards made the finest brandy in the land, but whose amorous ventures got him in deep trouble more than once.

These five people come together under one podcast on July 1st, then each individual gets their own podcast on the 2nd through the 6th.

Milton C. Work: America's Bridge Master Jun 15, 2025

Show notes

BBB:LHWS #045 Milton C. Work...

...was a Philadelphia lawyer who took up cards - specifically whist and bridge. Bridge clubs formed all over town, but people soon realized the man in the know was Milton C. Work, a Philadelphia lawyer. A scoring system that Work popularized for contract bridge remains the one that most players use today.

Learn about the history of playing cards, the development of bid games, and a lot more on this month's episode.

Clarence Wiener: Laurel Hill's Baron Munchausen Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #075-5 Baron von Munchausen...

...was a German military man who traveled the country spreading his tales of wonder, which always featured himself in the role of a hero. Clarence Wiener came from a wealthy Philadelphia family. He started to burnish his reputation during his brief stay at Harvard. Eventually, truth and fiction blended together. His widowed mother married an American-born violin teacher who was also a Baron. When Clarence died, he ended with an unmarked grave in the family plot.

Princess Olga Demidoff Stoever: Princess with Attitude Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #075-4 Princess Olga Demidoff...

...was from one royal family and married into another, the house of Trubetskoy. She eventually married Philadelphia archeologist Edward Stoever, but supported herself as both an escort and as madame in a high-end New York brothel. Her name is on the tombstone, but she is located on an island off of Spain.

Marquis d'Esken de Frenoys & Baron Michael von Suttka Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

ABC:LHS #075-3 In Paris before the Great War...

...he was known as Roberto Carles Eskens, but acquired the title of “The Marquis D’Eskens de Frenoys.”

Baron James Ivan Michael von Suttka was born in Canton, Ohio, and claimed to be an Olympic caliber pistol shot.

Both men married rich American women. It is difficult to prove whether their titles were authentic - but I doubt it.