Where Is The Body of James Foote?

Like math, you usually hate or love history. I’m a lover!  Yesterday I got to spend time learning about the history of the slate barons, the founding fathers, of my home town, Slatington.  It was fascinating and I would love to share it with you. But, I also don’t want to put you to sleep. I know many of my readers have never even been to Slatington! So I am going to avoid facts and figures (except this one…Slatington once had over a dozen millionaires) and focus on a few universal concepts that I learned.  Then I would like to quickly share two fascinating stories, of the barons, that could be made into movies!

The first universal concept is that people tend to stick with people that are like themselves.  The Slatington area was a farming community until slate was discovered. When the slate industry moved in, there was a division between the slate people and the farmers. The slate people were Presbyterians and were from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The farmers were Lutherans or other German denominations. There are two major cemeteries in town. Guess what! Fairview was for slate people and Union was for farmers!

The second universal concept is that money talks!  The slate industry had much more money than the farming community did. At one point, they wanted to build a quarry at the site of a small farming community cemetery. Guess who had to dig up and move their loved ones. Whatever the wealthy slate barons wanted, they got.

Here’s an interesting story. Two good friends decided to try their luck in slate. One bought a quarry. The other bought a factory to make roofing slate. The one with the factory made a lot more money than his friend the quarry owner. The quarry owner was jealous, though still wealthy himself. The quarry owner built a thirty room hotel next to the factory owner’s house, blocking the factory owner’s beautiful view and access to the river. The hotel stood vacant for its first thirty years. It was the ultimate spite fence!

Finally a mystery! James Foote was a marketing genius, the Don Draper of his time. He had Slatington slate respected and sold all over the world.  He was responsible for much of the growth of the town.  He was beloved in the community. When he died in 1914, he had what the Slatington News called “the largest funeral ever held in Lehigh County”. But here is the mystery. There is no record of where he is buried, though it almost had to be in the Fairview Cemetery. There is no tombstone to mark his grave.  His wife’s tombstone stands alone. Where is the body of James Foote?

I hope I didn’t bore you with the history stuff.  But you have to admit it is much more interesting than the Pythagorean Theorem. And who cares what x is! I want to know where James Foote is!

Enjoy your day!

Here are some slate barons: