Five Generations at Laurel Hill

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Charles Brockden Brown was American’s first successful novelist. his influence on Edgar Allen Poe was immeasurable. He has a cenotaph in the South section of Laurel Hill East.

Charles' nephew Frederick Brown was a successful druggist because of his ginger root-based nostrums. He was also one of four co-founders of Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Frederick's son Henry Armitt Brown was considered the best orator of his generation and often compared to Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

Henry's daughter Anna Robeson Brown Burr was a highly successful author with more than two dozen books to her name, both fiction and nonfiction.

Anna's daughter Dorothy Burr Thompson got her PhD from Bryn Mawr and was one of the best-known archeologists in the country. Pamela Burr, younger by 5 years, wrote a play which featured her Bryn Mawr classmate Katharine Hepburn.

Frederick and Henry are buried at Laurel Hill East, while Anna, Dorothy, and Pamela are at Laurel Hill West.