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And that’s no coincidence. Titanic’s first-class passengers were among the richest and most influential people of the time. And since its founding in 1836, Laurel Hill was the final resting place of the cream of Philadelphia society.
"Laurel Hill is the who’s who of Philadelphia society," said Dr. J. Joseph Edgette, a professor of education and resident folklorist at Widener University in Chester. "If you were anyone, this is where you’d be."
Edgette, an expert on cemeteries and Titanic lore, will be leading the walking tour called "Titanic: 95 Years Later," which begins at 3 p.m. Saturdaywith a stroll to the graves of the fabled ship’s passengers. It continues with a PowerPoint presentation and culminates in a gourmet dinner catered by Thyme Catering of Upper Chichester in the cemetery’s glass-enclosed conservatory, complete with Titanic memorabilia and music from the era.
The event was the brainchild of Edgette, a Glenolden resident, who approached Laurel Hill Executive Director Ross L. Mitchell with the idea. Mitchell, a Glen Mills resident who is always looking for ways to raise the cemetery’s profile in the region, enthusiastically concurred. The first year, 10 to 15 people attended. By last year, it drew some 55 participants who braved the pouring rain to remember one of the most fabled catastrophes of the 20th Century.
A modern legend
The story of Titanic is well known. The largest and, arguably, most luxurious ship of its time was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With a length of 883 feet and a weight of 46,328 tons, it was the second in a trio of ocean liners that the White Star Line hoped would cement its reputation for unsurpassed service on the Atlantic crossing.
At a cost of $7.5 million ($160 million in 2006 dollars), no expense was spared to make Titanic a magnet for the super-rich. It featured lavish suites with private decks; restaurants that rivaled the best on the Continent; and personal service attuned to every need of its pampered class of passengers.
One thing it didn’t have was enough lifeboats. There were 16 wooden boats and four "collapsible" boats with canvas sides that had a total capacity of 1,176 people. The ship could carry 3,295 at full capacity; on its maiden voyage, 2,234 passengers and crew were aboard.
Titanic left Southampton, England, at noon on April 10, 1912. At 11:40 p.m. on its fourth night out, racing through ice-studded waters, the ship collided with an iceberg and quickly began taking on water. Two hours and 20 minutes later, she was gone, and a new legend was born.
The Widener connection
Edgette first became interested in the Titanic when, in the early 1990s, he was researching the history of Widener University and how the former Pennsylvania Military College acquired its present name in 1972. That led him to then-Widener President Robert Bruce, who introduced him to F. "Fitz" Eugene Dixon Jr., a generous patron and chairman of the university’s board of trustees, who had suggested the name change in honor of his grandmother’s side of the family -- the Wideners.
There Edgette learned of the Widener family’s intimate connections with Titanic. Peter A.B. Widener was born poor and was a butcher’s assistant before hard work and lucky alliances led him into 19th century Philadelphia politics and a fortune in the trolley car industry. One of his friends, the billionaire J. Pierpont Morgan, formed a shipping company called the International Mercantile Marine Company in 1893, eventually acquiring the White Star Line. Widener was one of the voting trustees of IMM, and thus one of the owners of Titanic.
Widener’s son, George Dutton Widener, was a first-class passenger on Titanic’s maiden voyage along with his wife, Eleanore Elkins Widener, and their son, 27-year-old bibliophile Harry Elkins Widener. While their two other children -- George D. Widener II and Eleanore Widener -- remained at home, the Widener family traveled to Europe in the spring of 1912. George was looking for a chef for his new Philadelphia hotel, the Ritz Carlton; Eleanore was assembling a trousseau for her daughter’s upcoming wedding; and Harry was looking for books for his extensive collection.
On the night of April 14, the Wideners hosted a dinner party in the ship’s a la carte restaurant in honor of Captain Edward J. Smith, who planned to retire after completing the crossing.
Also at their table that night was John B. Thayer, a Haverford resident and vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad,and his family; coal mine heir William E. Carter and his wife Lucile; and Major Archibald Butt, a top military aide to U.S. President William Howard Taft.
When disaster struck the Widener men saw Eleanore to Lifeboat No. 4, the last to leave the ship at 1:45 a.m. At the final moment, George Widener took two rings off his fingers and handed them to his wife for safekeeping. He and his son were lost with the ship. Eleanore Widener passed the rings along to her daughter, who gave them to her son, "Fitz" Eugene Dixon, when he turned 21. They were among his most prized possessions.
"Up to the time he died (in August 2006) ..he always wore them," Edgette recalled. "He was very proud of those rings and very proud of that family heritage as well."
George and Harry Widener’s bodies were never recovered.
Haunting memories
But the Widener men were memorialized in the family’s mausoleum on a hill along "Millionaire’s Row" in Laurel Hill Cemetery, and that will be a stop on the Titanic tour on Saturday afternoon.
The stunning building was designed by Horace Trumbauer, an architect noted for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Philadelphia Free Public Library, and many other buildings and mansions of note in the area.
Unlike many other mausoleums of the era, whose interiors are designed with granite and bronze accents, the Widener crypt is primarily of bronze with granite accents. While Eleanore is interred there, her husband and son’s lives are marked with two massive bronze centographs noting their dates of birth and death and the haunting notation, "Died At Sea, April 15th, 1912/When The SS. Titanic/Was Wrecked By An/Iceberg Off The Coast/Of Newfoundland."
Very few gravesites of Titanic’s victims or survivors mention the tragedy, Edgette said. That may be because the trauma of that night was so overwhelming that few wanted to remember it.
"There were so many passengers who never wanted to talk about this disaster," he said. "They never wanted to mention it again. It was so horrible."
But the words on the Widener men’s memorials give haunting clues as to how their family members remembered them.
George Widener’s centograph concludes: "Greater Love Hath No/Man Than This. That A/Man Lay Down His Life/For A Friend."
And his son’s ends with this:
"Out Of The Deep/Have I Called/Unto Thee."
