Cremation Sesquicentennial: 150 Years of Cremation History

In 2026, we will mark the 150th anniversary of the first modern cremation in North America. Over the next year, it’s time to learn and reflect on 150 years of history and to plan for the next 150 years to come!

To get ready for 2026, we’ll first use this post go back a bit further to set the stage for the changes ahead.

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1873

With the increase in illness and concerns of cemetery overcrowding, many European physicians were seeking alternative ways to dispose of their dead. Prior to this time, if cremation was conducted, it was only by way of the open air funeral pyre – which had its own disagreeable experiences.

One example was Italian professor Ludovico Brunetti. In 1873 at the medical exhibition at the Vienna World's Fair, he displayed an exhibit demonstrating his experimentation with cremation. In the diorama model, an illustration of which is seen here, he displayed cremated remains in a glass chest. 

"Vermibus erepti, puro consumimur igni!"
was displayed with the remains
"Saved from the worm, purified by the consuming flame!"

1874

The cremation movement in America, like many of the movements in this country before it, began in Europe. In 1874, Sir Henry Thompson, member of Queen Victoria’s Royal College of Surgeons, learned of a modern method of cremation at the Vienna Medical Exposition in late 1873.

Upon his return from the exposition, Dr. Thompson put his medical knowledge to use and began a project that would put him to the forefront of what would become modern cremation. In January 1874, a lengthy dissertation detailing his support of the cremation of the dead, soon after spearheading the start of the Cremation Society of England.

This fantastic illustration was published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine in April 1874 and shows an artist’s interpretation of Dr. Thompson (left) witnessing a cremation in the apparatus of Dr. Ludovico Brunetti, the inventor of the apparatus with which Dr. Thompson began his interest in cremation.

1875

Following the publication of Henry Thompson’s “The Treatment of the Body After Death” in 1874, newspapers and civic groups took up the conversation and cremation societies were formed in several major cities – with the New York Cremation Society (NYCS) leading the charge and conversation.

Due to its encouragement as a health measure, many physicians and health professionals of the time adopted the mantel of cremation and many took a vocal stance, becoming akin to religious leaders in their zeal. One American physician who quickly became interested in cremation was Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne, an eccentric character in Washington, Pennsylvania, a small town that is now essentially a suburb of Pittsburgh. Like many other physicians, LeMoyne saw the cremation of the dead as a sanitary necessity and promoted it on those grounds.

Also recognizing cremation’s place as a function of the care of the dead, he approached the local cemetery with an offer to build the crematory on their grounds, which they declined. Instead, he built a small unadorned brick structure on his own property and had a local engineer build a cremator. Originally, the building contained only two rooms, a receiving room, where a small service could be held, and the retort room. Due to the cemetery’s rejection of the idea, LeMoyne planned its use exclusively for his own cremation and for any of his local friends and fellow health advocates.

While Dr. LeMoyne was working on building his cremation facility, several hundred miles away in New York, an attorney named Henry Steel Olcott was facing a cremation dilemma of his own. As a co-founder of the Theosophical Society with noted mystic Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the tenets of the society aligned perfectly with the cremation of the dead.

One of the followers of Theosophy was a man named Joseph Henry Louis de Palm – a purported member of the Bavarian nobility in Germany who had immigrated to America. Baron de Palm, as he would become known, was a character himself. He and Olcott became fast friends, especially with his estate being promised to the Theosophical Society upon his death. In exchange, he had one request of Olcott: de Palm wanted to be the first person cremated in the New York Cremation Society’s crematory.

1876

In New York, the NYCS was one of the strongest societies of its type in the US and its members and directors were, albeit slowly, working toward the establishment of a crematory in the metropolis. The 1876 death of de Palm and his request for cremation once again brought the cremation question strongly into the press as the cremation society had come to an agreement with its legal counsel (Olcott) and was prepared to honor de Palm’s request. However, as more light was being shed on the unconventional beliefs of the Theosophical Society, there was a bit of discomfort from the board about the association of the cremation society with the unusual religion and beliefs of de Palm.

De Palm’s elaborate funeral service at the Masonic Temple was covered by journalists in newspapers nationwide. Unfortunately, the spectacle that the funeral became associated the cremation process with “the occult,” and the more prominent board members of the New York Cremation Society began to waver and back out of their support for the movement. The cremation society did not waver from its agreement alone as Olcott became increasingly frustrated at the lack of energy on the part of NYCS, even going so far as to label them dilettante – all voice and no action. He did not seem to be too far off the mark as the cremation society had not constructed a crematory, nor was the building of such a facility even on the horizon.

Olcott, in his impetuousness, began seeking an alternative. The answer came in the form of that small crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. After finally coming to an agreement with Dr. LeMoyne, Olcott prepared more earnestly for the cremation to take place as soon as the facility was complete. The press again started to cover cremation-related stories and discussion of its merits was revived.

The success of a social reform depends upon a perfect storm of activity, and all the elements of the cremation movement were coming together to create just such a storm.

What happens next? Will cremation become an option? Will Baron de Palm be the first modern cremation in North America?

Come back next time for the final installment of our Cremation Sesquicentennial and find out!

(Spoiler alert: yes.)

Jason Ryan Engler is a licensed funeral director and is considered a thought leader in cremation products and merchandising. Known to many as the Cremation Historian, he is the historian for the Cremation Association of North America and is the cremation historian for the National Museum of Funeral History. He is the regional sales manager for the Wilbert Group in Kansas / Northwest Missouri and lives in Kansas City with his miniature dachshund, Otto.

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