WHAT I'M READING

PALMER CEMETERY AND THE HISTORIC BURIAL GROUNDS OF KENSINGTON & FISHTOWN by Kenneth W. Milano (2011)

About the book:

I am not dead my spirit lives, and my body is sleeping here. -- epitaph of Francis Tees, Palmer Cemetary, d. 1871

 

At the heart of Fishtown is the final resting place of generations of Kensington and Fishtown residents. Founded prior to 1748, Palmer Cemetery is one of the oldest in Philadelphia. Interred here and in Hanover Street and West Street Burial Grounds are soldiers from every war fought by colonists and then Americans, from the French and Indian War until Desert Storm. The fishing and shipbuilding families who built the neighborhood, victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 and the ancestors of the Shibe family, the owners of the Philadelphia Athletics, are also buried in these plots. Kenneth W. Milano walks the cemetery paths and reveals the secrets the stones keep with Palmer Cemetery and the Historic Burial Grounds of Kensington & Fishtown.

My thoughts:

Although rather dry, I found this book interesting. It is more scholarly than most of the books I read, but well written. While reading through I learned of various families and events important to Philadelphia history and even found the name of one of my ancestors! Would I read it again? Probably not unless I was doing research. Am I glad I read it at all? A resounding yes.