World's Greatest Cemeteries

- [Roberto] In this episode of World's Greatest Cemeteries.

- Dear Louisa, thank you so much for giving all of us little women all over the world such strong women to follow.

- "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

- Here lies the body of John Jack, a native of Africa.

- He was called in New York by all the critics in the forties and the early fifties, he was called The Boy Wonder of Television.

- The world's greatest cemeteries hold more than mortal remains.

They're monuments to landscape, design, horticulture, and history.

I've spent years investigating the lives of the dead, finding out all I can about extraordinary people who were outsiders in their own day, but still managed to make significant contributions to humankind.

Welcome to World's Greatest Cemeteries.

The indigenous Algonquian peoples called it "Musketaquid", the "area of grassy plains."

In 1635, English settlers named their new town "Concord".

On April 19th, 1775, the first incidents of what would come to be called The American Revolution were fought in towns like Concord and nearby Lexington, later mythologized as the battle at North Bridge and the shot heard 'round the world.

Welcome to historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

That's right, Concord, as in Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts.

We're gonna meet up with tour guide Amy Cole, who's gonna show us around to some of the greatest thinkers, philosophers and writers of the 19th century.

And I think you're gonna get a big kick outta this one.

Come with me.

In 1855, sleepy Hollow Cemetery was established as a public facility in Concord and it is still active today.

The design incorporated ideas about following the contours of the existing landscape favoring native plants over imported shrubs and building the cemetery outside of the town center.

(gentle music) So Amy, what is this stone all about?

- [Amy] Well, it signifies where all the famous Concord authors are buried and they're all buried together.

- So they were friends in real life- - Yes, they were friends and not only friends, but neighbors.

- Huh.

- And shared many of the same philosophies and would meet together on a regular basis.

In fact, they would meet together right here in the cemetery.

- That's fabulous.

- [Amy] Yeah.

- So whom do we have up here on Authors Ridge?

- So the next, this is our Thoreau, Thoreau plot.

- [Roberto] Henry David Thoreau.

- [Amy] Yes.

Although he was born David Henry.

- So what's the difference?

- Well, he changed his name.

(Roberto laughing) - Why?

- You know, I think he just wanted to start a new chapter in his life.

- Okay.

- After college he changed his name.

- Okay, sure.

- Yeah.

- That's when a lot of us are feeling our oats, right?

- Yes.

- And look at this.

Oh, what are all the pencils about?

- Well, this is pretty common, paying homage to the writers that are up here.

- Huh.

- But actually, it has another possible meaning too.

Although I don't think most people know this, but the Thoreau family had a pencil-making business.

- [Roberto] Pencil-making business.

- [Amy] Yes, yes.

- [Roberto] I guess pencils have to be made somewhere, right?

- They do.

And it was quite a successful venture.

And actually, Henry perfected the graphite in the pencils.

- Henry himself?

- Yes, yes.

He worked on a machine that ground the graphite better.

- [Roberto] Well, I can't get over how modest it is.

- [Amy] I know, I know.

- [Roberto] Such a famous person.

- Right.

I think it's how they viewed themselves and their philosophies in life.

The simplicities.

He was definitely about simplifying life.

(gentle music) - [Roberto] To get some perspective, I went to Walden Pond and the nearby replica of Thoreau's famous Cabin.

It's a simple, tiny house.

So tell me about some of Thoreau's social justice ideas.

That was a big deal.

It was a big deal up here in New England with the transcendentalist movement.

- Sure.

- And some of these great thinkers.

Let's just do, a Cliffs Notes version of all that, (Amy chuckling) but centered around this fellow here.

- [Amy] Sure.

So, one of the things that people may not know about Henry is that he was an ardent abolitionist.

And in fact- - I like that, that's good.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, that's good.

- He really was.

And a lot of people also think of him out in Walden Pond as this hermit, never to be seen again.

And that just wasn't the case.

So he was coming into town.

On one occasion, he was fixing a shoe with a cobbler and ran into the jailer, Sam Staples.

And he was asking Henry to pay his poll tax, which he refused because he refused to support a government that supported slavery.

And so he was making a stand, he was making a protest, and he was thrown in jail, and he was gladly thrown in jail.

- [Roberto] So it was kind of a civil disobedience of his time.

- He's the man, civil disobedience.

So that essay later became his published work, Civil Disobedience, which inspired other future activists, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

- Right.

- So it's all happened right here in Concord.

- That's amazing.

So where did this come from?

Where did his ideas about social justice?

- Well, his mother and sisters were activists.

They were part of The Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society that was founded in Concord in 1837.

So there was a lot of activism here in Concord.

The family took in fugitive slaves as well, so.

- [Roberto] That's fascinating.

- [Amy] Yeah.

- And taking in fugitive slaves was actually breaking federal law.

- It was, particularly when the 1850- - [Roberto] Fugitive Slave Act.

- [Amy] Fugitive Slave Act came into play.

So, he was very upset about that.

And he really wanted to make a stand.

Yes.

- That's really making a stand then, actually breaking the law.

- Yes.

- Right, exactly.

- Yes.

And we have other authors that did that as well, such as the Alcott family.

- [Roberto] Fantastic.

- [Amy] Yes.

- Okay.

So then Henry David Thoreau is here and his buddies include Ralph Waldo Emerson.

- [Amy] Yes.

- [Roberto] Would he have known Louisa May Alcott?

- Oh, yes.

He actually took Louisa and actually Emerson's children out on nature walks.

Yes.

(Roberto chuckling) And it was actually Ralph Waldo Emerson that encouraged Thoreau to keep a journal in his writing.

So he's really the mentor for him.

And that proved to be very fruitful with all his journaling and so forth that he did.

Yes.

(gentle music) (dramatic music) - So who do we have over here?

- This is the Hawthorne plot.

- As in Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famous author.

- That's correct.

- And what were some of Nathaniel Hawthorne's greatest hits?

- The Scarlet Letter and The House of The Seven Gables.

- [Roberto] Now, the House of the Seven Gables is an actual house that is in Salem, Massachusetts.

You can visit it.

And it's not too terribly far from here, right?

- [Amy] Well, not too terribly far, no.

- It's in this general area.

So why was he up in Salem and why is he buried here?

- [Amy] Well, he actually came to Concord as a renter.

He and his bride, Sophia Peabody, they were very close.

They had a wonderful marriage and a love affair.

- [Roberto] Oh, that's great.

- Yeah.

Rented the Old Manse, which- - [Roberto] The Old Manse is like a mansion or a- - [Amy] It's an historic house.

It was actually Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather's house built in 1770, right by the North Bridge.

- I love all these mythological names.

We've got Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the North Bridge.

This is like a treasure trove of American history.

- It really is.

- [Roberto] All within this one town.

- [Amy] Yes.

And they're all connected.

- [Roberto] So Nathaniel Hawthorne, did he live to a ripe old age?

- No, sadly he died at 59.

He had some kind of stomach cancer.

(gentle music) - [Roberto] Coming up later this episode.

- One of the trials of womankind is the fear of being an old maid.

(ethereal music) - [Roberto] There are many historical sites within walking distance of Concord's Monument Square.

Amy took me to a nearby burial ground to discuss Puritan funerary iconography.

So we've paused for a moment to look at these magnificent death's headstones.

And I just wanna ask Amy about this look, this look is entirely different from the later cemetery stones up on Sleepy Hollow.

This is the Old Hill Cemetery.

And just tell us about what year about these would've been put in and why these stones look so different.

- Sure.

So this is our oldest burial ground, established when the settlers were here in 1635.

- Wow.

- [Amy] These gravestone images are very unique for this time period because the Puritans were very scripture conscious and didn't wanna have any imagery on their gravestones that could be used as idolatry.

No religious symbols either because remember, they're Puritans.

So their whole point is breaking away from the then Church of England, which they thought was too close to Catholicism in practice.

So in order to do that, they kept to images that had to do or symbols that had to do with death and the brevity of life and the soul rising.

That's it.

- Got it.

- [Amy] So we start with the death skull, which is the most common to start us off in the Puritanical views.

- [Roberto] So this is a skull.

- [Amy] Right.

- [Roberto] And it's got wings on it, is that right?

- [Amy] That's right.

So that also was added, the wings, too.

And that is to show the soul rising.

So as we kind of soften our views a little bit, we soften the imagery.

So it's gonna be all based on that imagery of the death skull and it kind of morphs from there.

And in there, trying to be so careful about what imagery they use, they end up creating its own art form onto itself.

- Right.

- So you see, we have now this one over here that has a little bit more human form to it.

- [Roberto] Yes.

- [Amy] Not much.

Not much.

And these were referred to as soul effigies.

So not a human form, but the spirit form rising, the soul rising.

- Interesting.

So this is a uniquely New England art form.

- [Amy] Right.

- [Roberto] So then we're not gonna see these in Ohio or California, something like that.

We're just gonna see this sort of thing right here.

- That's right.

- Very special and unique.

(gentle music) This burial ground also holds a famous epitaph.

Joseph Zellner is a retired history teacher at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School.

I asked him about one of the city's colonial era African Americans.

- We are here in Concord at the Old Hill Burial Ground.

And buried here is one John Jack, a formerly enslaved man here in Concord, who will die in 1773.

He'll be one of the first black property owners here in Concord.

He's able to buy his freedom and use that money to buy some land.

Now, we've learned that the epitaph was not written by John Jack, was not something that he left behind to be put on his headstone.

But when The Revolution began, John Jack died shortly prior to The Revolution.

When The Revolution began and the anxiety of the colonist became more and more prominent, especially here in Concord, Daniel Bliss, a Loyalist, a Tory, as the colonist would call him, who was very much inquisitive and investigative of why it was that the colonist here in the New World were so adamantly demanding their freedom, when at the same time, they were enslaving others here in the New World.

That which they would have for themselves, they were not willing to grant to others.

So when Bliss writes this line, "Here lies the body of John Jack, a native of Africa, who died March 1773, aged about 60 years.

Though born in a land of slavery, he was born free.

Though he lived in a land of liberty, he lived a slave."

The irony and the contradiction that is put forth in those lines struck home.

- [Roberto] To find out more about Concord's African American history, I recommend you visit the Robins House, a historic house museum and learning center located opposite the old North Bridge.

Coming up later this episode.

- And you're talking about the late forties, it's highly unusual to have a woman behind the camera.

Highly unusual.

(gentle music) - So here we come to this beautiful carved and sculpted monument.

- [Amy] Yes.

- And what is this?

- This is called Mourning Victory or as the locals call it, the Melvin Memorial.

- Was there a Mr. Melvin or a Mrs. Melvin?

- Melvin Brothers.

So four brothers went off to the Civil War and three were killed.

- Ouch.

- Yes, and so the youngest brother, James, that survived, it was his goal and wish to make a memorial to honor his fallen brothers.

And he contacted his good friend, Daniel Chester French, the fame sculptor.

- [Roberto] Right.

- [Amy] Of course, probably better known for doing the Lincoln Memorial.

- [Roberto] Another small unknown memorial.

- Yes, yes.

(Roberto chuckling) So, this particular piece was erected in 1908.

- Daniel Chester French's monumental sculptures are all over the USA, including the famed Minute Man statue in Concord by the old North Bridge.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (bright music) Marc and Emily Daniels were television pioneers.

Marc directed on programs such as I love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes, and many more.

Emily Daniels was known for the Ford Television Theater, Nash Airflyte Theater, and I Love Lucy.

We interviewed their son, David Daniels, near his home in Los Angeles.

- So my parents' connection to Concord, Massachusetts is really through my mother.

And my mother was born Emily Francis Hosmer, so she's a Hosmer, which is a very popular name in the Concord and New England area.

And they are buried in my great-great-grandfather George Washington Hosmer's plot in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

- [Roberto] I asked David how his parents met.

(upbeat music) - So the story of how my parents met.

My parents, Marc and Emily Daniels met in New York in 1947 when my father was directing The Ford Theater, which was a live television program that actually broadcast full-length plays to an entire audience in the United States once a week.

And my father was the director.

He was also involved in producing it and writing some of the episodes.

And my mom was the script supervisor.

So it was through their connection in the industry that they really blossomed this relationship.

- [Roberto] In those days, Emily Daniels was one of the few women in her position.

- When you're talking about the set and where my parents met and you're talking about the late forties, it's highly unusual to have a woman behind the camera.

Highly unusual.

- [Roberto] The Daniels were instrumental in helping Desi Arnaz utilize the concept of filming "I Love Lucy" in front of a live audience with multiple cameras.

A technique still used today.

Marc Daniels honors include Directors Guild of America Awards, Hugo Awards, and three Emmy Award nominations.

- He was called in New York by all the critics in the forties and the early fifties, he was called The Boy Wonder of Television.

- [Roberto] There's an artistic connection between the legendary Concord authors and the Daniels.

- When they were doing The Ford Theater, they filmed and brought to the screen for one of the very first times, the story of Little Women.

So there's kind of an interesting connection here.

And at the end of their lives, they're buried, literally, 75 feet from Louisa May Alcott, the writer of that story.

(gentle music) - So where are we off to now?

- The Emerson plot.

- Emerson as in Ralph Waldo.

- As in Ralph Waldo Emerson, yes.

- [Roberto] Okay.

Now, again, nowadays he's a giant of letters and philosophical thinking.

- [Amy] Absolutely.

- So did he have a job?

- He was a lecturer.

That was his job.

- [Roberto] Okay.

- [Amy] Prior to that, he had been ordained as a minister.

- [Roberto] Oh.

- [Amy] And- - [Roberto] Some kind of Protestant minister, right?

(Amy chuckling) - [Amy] Unitarian.

- [Roberto] Unitarian.

- [Amy] Yes, Unitarian.

- [Roberto] Excellent.

- [Amy] And after his first wife died, Ellen Tucker, he really became sort of of dissatisfied with the philosophies of the church.

And he left the church.

He actually went to this lecturing about his philosophies and the transcendentalist movement and feeling that you could be connected with God in nature.

- [Roberto] Right.

- But also self-reliance, relying on your inner knowings, relying on yourself.

And certainly, in this movement, he's wanting for America their own voice as opposed to relying on the dogma of the past.

And so the transcendentalist movement really ties in, actually, with Sleepy Hollow as well.

- [Roberto] Important local transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Sarah Margaret Fuller.

(gentle music) (soft music) One of the most successful writers of all time in America.

And apparently, someone who's doing very well in Hollywood these days.

- Absolutely.

(Roberto laughing) (Amy laughing) - Who is this?

- [Amy] Louisa May Alcott.

- [Roberto] Little Women.

- [Amy] Little Women, that's what set her on the map.

- Wow.

- And in 1868, when Little Women was published, it's never gone out of print.

- [Roberto] That's amazing.

- [Amy] Yes.

- "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"Ah, so dreadful to be poor," sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

- Here we have all the pencils once again.

- Again, yes.

- These homages.

- [Amy] And then we have a note here too.

There's often little notes here.

- [Roberto] Yeah, let's read it.

- Let's see.

Louisa May with a heart.

PS, Orchard House is beautiful.

Dear Louisa, thank you so much for giving all of us little women all over the world such strong women to follow.

- [Roberto] Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House is a house museum in Concord, famous for being an Alcott family residence and the setting for the novel Little Women.

I spoke with Jan Turnquist, Executive Director, about the famous author.

- When Louisa May Alcott sent Little Women to her publisher, he said it was quite dull and she agreed.

She records all of this in her journal, of course.

But after he gives it to his niece, who pronounces as splendid, he decides to publish, it, of course, is a runaway success.

It sells out right away.

It makes for a wealthy woman.

Years later, she goes back to that same journal entry and writes in the margin "Good joke."

- [Roberto] Alcott's era had interesting ideas about women authors.

- In the days of Louise May Alcott, it was considered unladylike and unhealthy for a woman to write for publication.

Writing letters would be fine.

But brain works such as writing was considered dangerous for a woman's health.

- [Roberto] I wondered if Alcott was influenced by her writer neighbors.

- The fact that Louisa May Alcott was surrounded by literary Illuminati had a tremendous impact on her.

She adored Ralph Waldo Emerson.

He was really the age of her father.

And he loaned her books from his library.

Henry Thoreau took her berry picking and taught her about nature.

And he was 15 years older than Louisa, so he was like a much older brother.

All of these people were in and out of this house, Orchard House, where the Alcotts lived the longest.

And all of them were extremely important in Louisa's life.

- [Roberto] Alcott also wrote other novels, thrillers, and essays.

- One of the trials of womankind is the fear of being an old maid.

To escape this dreadful doom, young girls rush into matrimony with a recklessness which astonishes the beholder, never pausing to remember that the loss of liberty, happiness, and self-respect is poorly repaid by the barren honor of being called Mrs. instead of Miss.

- Why does Louisa May Alcott have a veteran's marker?

(Roberto chuckling) - Well, maybe most people don't know, but she served as a nurse during the Civil War.

She wanted to fight in the Civil War, actually.

(Roberto laughing) But being a woman, she couldn't.

So she did the next best thing and she became a nurse.

And she was also a suffragist.

(Roberto laughing) So, this is what's really remarkable about all of these authors is, they shared a common passion, for the most part, for rights for all people.

She came from a family of activism as well.

- [Roberto] Join us all season long as we travel to the world's greatest cemeteries, touring masterpieces of landscape, gardens, and culture while reliving dramatic stories about diverse historical figures.

- And when the war came in '61, it felt like it was the right thing to do.

- Marie Laveau was a native New Orleanian.

She was a free woman of color.

She was a Creole.

- She told me, "I don't approve of women's sculptors as a rule."

And then she said, "Every woman is better off at home taking care of husband and children."

- When Celia Cruz passed away, thousands of people lined the street as we followed the funeral possession.

- Let's start with you telling us a bit about Herman Melville.

- Well, what we know about Melville in Woodlawn is he started out as a young man writing about the South Pacific.

- Well, the Chinese were actually brought here as contract workers after the Civil War.

- [Roberto] We'll discover artistic designs, check out stunning vistas, and uncover surprising facts about the past.

- And at the bottom, we see a common epitaph on Jewish monuments that symbolizes "May their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life."

- All right, well, that was our tour of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in historic Concord, Massachusetts.

It's a gorgeous place.

When you come here, don't forget to check out the town center.

It's full of wonderful touristy places to eat, drink, make merry, and more tours.

All right, until next time.

You can find out more about this episode, just get in touch or tell us about your favorite cemetery or historical figure at www.worldsgreatestcemeteries.co.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (bright music) (soft music)