Tag: graves

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 532

By Erik Loomis

In General

On August 21, 2019

This is the grave of Frankie Frisch. Born in The Bronx in 1897, Frisch was a phenomenal athlete who played four sports at Fordham University: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Given the professional opportunities of the time, it’s not surprising that the Fordham Flash, as he became known, chose to play baseball after college. He […]

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 531

By Erik Loomis

On August 20, 2019

This is the grave of John McLoughlin. Born in Quebec in 1784, Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin grew up Catholic, despite a Scots-Irish father. His father married a Quebecois woman and so the boy was baptized

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 530

By Erik Loomis

On August 19, 2019

This is the grave of Horace Greeley. Born in 1811 on a farm outside of Amherst, New Hampshire. Evidently he barely survived, not really being able to breathe for the first twenty minutes of his life.

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 529

By Erik Loomis

In General

On August 18, 2019

This is the grave of Samuel Morse. Born in 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Morse grew up in a strong Federalist neo-Puritan family. His father was a minister and while much of the old Puritanism had grown into an increasingly tolerant Congregationalism and even Unitarianism, for Morse’s father, old-school Puritanism was a way of life and […]

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 528

By Erik Loomis

On August 17, 2019

This is the grave of Joel Poinsett. Born in 1779 to a rich doctor and his wife in Charleston, South Carolina, Poinsett was educated with the elites of his time. Some of his schooling was in Charleston

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 527

By Erik Loomis

On August 16, 2019

This is the grave of Al Capp. Born in 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, Al Caplin grew up in a Jewish family with immigrant parents. They were very poor, but his parents were happy to have escaped the a

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 526

By Erik Loomis

In General

On August 15, 2019

This is the grave of August Belmont. Born in 1816 (many sources say 1813, including Wikipedia fwiw) to a Jewish family in Prussia, Belmont grew up mostly in Frankfurt and became an apprentice in a Rothschild bank while he went to school. He started rising in that firm and was appointed as a confidential clerk, […]

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 525

By Erik Loomis

On August 14, 2019

In this vault are the graves of John O’Connor and Edward Egan, cardinals in the Catholic Church. O’Connor was born in Philadelphia to an Irish Catholic family in 1920. Egan was born in 193

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 524

By Erik Loomis

On August 10, 2019

This is the grave of Clark Clifford. Born in 1906 in Fort Scott, Kansas, Clifford grew up in Missouri and attended Washington University in St. Louis. He picked up a law degree and practiced steadily

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 523

By Erik Loomis

In General

On August 9, 2019

This is the grave of Pierre Salinger. Born in San Francisco in 1925 to a wealthy half-Catholic, half-Jewish family, Salinger grew up with stories of his family’s past. His grandfather led the defense of Dreyfuss in the French Assembly, for instance. The family moved to Canada, where Salinger became a child prodigy on the piano, […]

General

Erik Visits An American Grave, Part 522

By Erik Loomis

On August 8, 2019

This is the grave of John McCain, Jr. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1911 to a military family, McCain grew up traveling around the nation, following his father, who was a naval officer. Following th

General

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 521

By Erik Loomis

On August 6, 2019

This is the grave of Earl Scruggs. Born in Flint Hill, North Carolina, a small community in Cleveland County, in 1924, Scruggs became one of the most interesting and innovative musicians in the histor

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