Torrio Mausoleum
John “Papa Johnny” Torrio
February 1882 – April 16, 1957
Johnny Torrio had a relatively long life, especially considering his checkered provenance. Johnny Torrio was born in the village of Irsina, Italy then his family immigrated to America when he was two. He grew up in the Lower East Side, becoming involved in the Five Points Gang as a teenager. He quickly developed into a cold, calculating, cunning and crafty criminal. Hence his other Mob nickname “the Fox”. Torrio became, by all accounts wildly successful in his less-than-mainstream profession of running various Mob rackets. He moved to Chicago in 1918 taking his understudy, one Alphonse Capone along with him. Torrio and Capone worked together throughout the 1920’s presiding over the Chicago Outfit. They became multimillionaires running various operations including a bootlegging, gambling and prostitution.
Read More»Archbold Mausoleum
John Dustin Archbold
July 26, 1848-December 5, 1916
John Dustin Archbold was one of the titans of the Gilded Age. Archbold was born in Ohio, the son of Rev. Israel Archbold and his wife Frances. Israel Archbold died in 1859 and young John became the man of the family. The family moved to Salem, Pennsylvania, which was not far from the soon-to-be-developed oil fields of Pennsylvania. He saved a meager amount of money, and then in 1864 he moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania in the heart of the oilfields. By age nineteen his small investments were paying off; so much so that he was able to buy a home for his mother and send his sister to college.
Read More»Rinelli/Guarino Mausoleum
Angels in cemeteries tend to be either heroic or mournful or contemplative. This plus-sized archangel Michael seems to have fluttered on over to the Rinelli Guarino mausoleum and simply alit there, perhaps taking a break before heading to his next destination. Look closely and you’ll see that Michael holds his sword in his right hand at rest across his lap, symbolizing that the earthly struggles of the mausoleum’s inhabitants have ended. His left hand is also in a relaxed pose. The first permanent occupant of the mausoleum was Pietro Rinilli who died in 1913.
Read More»Daly Mausoleum
Marcus Daly
December 5, 1843-November 12, 1900
Margaret Price Daly
September 7, 1853-July 14, 1941
Marcus Daly worked for John Mackay in Virginia City, Nevada then ventured to Butte, Montana where, in 1881, with the backing of George Hearst (father of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst) he developed what was soon to be discovered to be one of the world’s greatest concentrations of copper. Daly purchased the Anaconda Copper Mine from one Michael Hickey. Hickey said he named the mine after reading an account by another Green-Wood resident Horace Greeley. Greeley had written that at the end of the Civil War Ulysses S. Grant’s forces had surrounded Robert E. Lee’s forces chocking them “like an anaconda.”
Marcus Daly’s life was the personification of the American Dream. He had arrived virtually penniless in a wave of Irish immigration at age 15 and within 20 years had become a multimillionaire lording over mines, banks, power plants and vast tracts of timberland. He was also a great lover of thoroughbred racing and often gave his employees days off to watch horseracing at a track near the Anaconda mine. Many of his employees were Irish. His mines worked 24 hours a day in three shifts, but in a show of respect to the miners and the Irish heritage of many of them he closed the mines on Miners’ Union Day and St. Patrick’s Day.
Reposing in the mausoleum are Marcus and Margaret Price Daly. Accounts of the day said that his body was originally going to be sent to Montana for burial, but those plans were obviously changed. Gracing the polished marble interior of the Daly mausoleum is a religious-themed Tiffany-style stained glass window crafted in opalescent glass.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Green-Wood Cemetery” street=”Willow Avenue” city=”Brooklyn” state=”New York” zip=”11218″]
Acea Mausoleum
The perfectly petite Acea mausoleum was constructed by Farrington, Gould and Hoagland, one of New York’s most prolific mausoleum builders. Although the firm was based in New York, they always used granite quarried in Barre, Vermont.
Read More»Mayer Tumulus
Louis Mayer
(?-October 19, 1909)
One of the most interesting tombs at Kensico (indeed, it is one of the most unique tombs in the United States) is the Mayer mausoleum. The mausoleum was featured in an iconic tomb tome Memorial Art: Ancient and Modern authored by Harry A Bliss in 1914.
Read More»Manville Mausoleum
Tommy Manville
April 9, 1894 – October 9, 1967
Tommy Manville (Thomas Franklyn Manville, Jr.) was the Paris Hilton of the mid 20th century: he was famous for being famous. Like Hilton, he inherited a lot of money. In his case he was an heir to the Johns-Manville asbestos fortune. Unlike Hilton, he had a predilection to marriage. From his first marriage to chorus girl Florence Huber in 1911 to his last, to 20 year old Christina Erdlen in 1960, he was married a total of 13 times to 11 different women. Marriage became a sort of a sport to him and he won whatever he was trying to win by securing a spot in the Guinness Book of Records. By all accounts the playboy reveled in his ability to lure young blond women into his lair, marry them then rapidly divorce them. He married Macie Marie Ainsworth in August 1943. They were together for 8 hours of connubial bliss before separating. They got a divorce two months later in October 1943.
Manville’s fortune was not guaranteed from birth. In fact his early marriage antics caused his father to cut him off and Tommy had to take a job at the Pittsburgh facility for $15.00 a week. But his father relented and when the elder Mansville died he left Tommy approximately 10 million dollars (about $125 million today) certainly enough for him to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. Too bad reality TV hadn’t been invented yet. Tommy Manville would certainly have been a star.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Kensico Cemetery” street=”Mount Pleasant” city=”Valhalla” state=”New York” zip=”10595″]
Bonwit Mausoleum
Paul Bonwit
September 29, 1862 – December 11, 1939
This simple gray granite mausoleum holds the remains of department store titan Paul Bonwit. Bonwit was born in Hanover, Germany. He moved to Paris at age sixteen than emigrated to the United States in 1883 at age 21. He briefly worked in a department store in Lincoln, Nebraska, then moved to New York City to accept a position with Rothchild and Company, eventually becoming a partner. In 1895 he opened up his own store, then two years later teamed up with Edmund Teller to open a store called Bonwit Teller. Bonwit Teller specialized in high-end women’s apparel and prospered throughout much of the twentieth century. Paul Bonwit controlled the company until 1934 when he sold the store and brand to the Atlas Corporation. In 1980 Donald Trump bought the flagship Fifth Avenue store and subsequently tore it down to make way for the Trump Tower.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Kensico Cemetery” street=”Mount Pleasant” city=”Valhalla” state=”New York” zip=”10595″]
Cornelius Smith Mausoleum
The Lyman Cornelius Smith (1850-1910) mausoleum is one of the grandest mausoleums in a cemetery full of grand mausoleums. It is designed in a classically elegant Beaux-Arts style complete with four delicately carved Corinthian columns projecting out from the facade and a number of squared off, engaged Corinthian columns, which ring the building. Inside the mausoleum is a well-secured Tiffany stained glass window sandwiched between two pieces of one-inch thick plate glass.
Lyman Cornelius Smith was an industrialist and capitalist who had a vast empire of business holdings including banks, steamship companies, ship building companies, steel mills and railroads. His later years were devoted to developing his most well known product, the typewriter. Along with his brothers, he manufactured the Smith-Premier Typewriter and the L.C. Smith and Brothers Typewriter.
Text and photo © Douglas Keister Visit Doug’s Author Page
[address cemetery=”Oakwood Cemetery” street=”940 Comstock Avenue” city=”Syracuse” state=”New York” zip=”13210″]