For more than a century, the mummified remains of an unidentified man lay within a Reading funeral home.
The body, that of a man who died in the Berks County jail in 1895, took on a life of its own.
Dubbed Stoneman Willie, the ossified body was displayed for generations, drawing the attention of curiosity seekers, terrifying children and, more recently, gaining international media coverage.
Though anonymous in death, Willie was buried Saturday under a tombstone bearing his real name: James Murphy.
Kyle Blankenbiller, Auman’s location manager and funeral director, said his staff was able to identify Murphy using documentation collected by the funeral home’s founder, Theodore C. Auman.
Although Murphy had used the alias James Penn, Auman believed he knew the man’s identity, Blankenbiller said, and supplemental research helped prove he was correct.
“Till the day Auman died, he referred to this gentleman by this name,” Blankenbiller said, minutes before the big reveal.
About 150 people gathered in the morning rain around the gravesite at Forest Hills Memorial Park to pay their respects and learn the true identity of the local legend.
Some, including local historians George M. Meiser IX and Charles J. Adams III, joined in the procession from the funeral home, 247 Penn St., to the cemetery in Exeter Township.
“Stoneman Willie was not made of stone and his name was not Willie,” Adams said. “But what is absolutely certain is that he was a man.”
When Murphy, then known as Penn, died in the old county jail in Reading’s City Park, he had no friends or relatives to give him a proper burial, Adams said. The man’s body might have been placed in a crude pine box and buried in an unmarked grave in a pauper’s field, he noted.
Unclaimed bodies were often donated to medical colleges, Meiser added, but instead, Murphy’s body was turned over to Auman, who was experimenting with the relatively new practice of embalming.
“Auman was quick to realize that embalming had a distinct advantage over the ice chest preservation then used in the hopes of keeping deceased loved ones presentable until burial,” Meiser said.
Through accident or experimentation, he said, Murphy’s body was mummified.
Auman kept his charge above ground initially with the hope a relative would come forward to claim the body, but as time went on, he became more interested in monitoring the long-term outcome of the embalming process.
When asked about Willie’s condition, Meiser said, Auman would reply “The vigil continues.”
“The time has come to lay Willie to rest in a respectable manner and at an appropriate location,” Meiser said. “Mr. Auman, wherever you are, be apprised that on this day, the vigil concludes.”
Meiser thanked local historian Alexa Freyman, who contributed to the research and helped confirm Murphy’s identity.
To learn more about the circumstances of Murphy’s life and death, afterlife as Stoneman Willie and how his identity was discovered, Meiser recommended visiting Freyman’s website, Berks Nostalgia and searching for Stoneman Willie.
Freyman, who attended the burial ceremony, said her interest in the subject was piqued in May when Auman’s announced Willie would be buried.
“I was just fascinated by it,” she said. “I am into local lore and history, and I just dug in deep and loved every second of it.”
Auman had discovered Penn confessed his real name and some details of his life to his cellmate, Freyman said.
“Auman felt sure the body was that of James Murphy,” she said.
Meiser also thanked Blankenbiller and Auman’s for making the long-delayed burial possible.
The funeral home’s Reading and Exeter locations are owned by Dignity Memorial, which also owns Forest Hills.
Bonnie Lee Auman Lewis and Melanie Abeln of Cumru Township stood Saturday beneath umbrellas at the grave site in the memorial park.
Lewis, who is distantly related to the funeral home’s founder, said she respects her collateral ancestor’s early experimentation with embalming.
“I am very proud of being an Auman,” she said, “and of what Theodore Auman did to advance the embalming process.”
Lewis said she saw Stoneman Willie several years ago, before the funeral home discontinued public viewings. But unlike many others, Lewis did not view the corpse as a child.
Abeln is one of those who was quite young when she first gazed at Stoneman Willie. She and other friends from her Reading elementary school frequently stopped by Auman’s for a peek at the curiosity.
“Let’s go see Stoneman Willie,” a classmate would cry when classes ended for the day.
“We’d all run down the street, a whole bunch of us,” Abeln said. “We’d knock on the door and they’d take us in and show us.”
Although the kids visited every few months, she said, the funeral home never turned them away.
Meiser, too, recalled visiting Auman’s and viewing the mummy with his elementary school classmates.
As a result of his body’s mummification, Stoneman Willie became what some saw as a quaint and quirky curiosity, Adams said.
“Willie has been called a mummy by some and has been referred to as an historical relic,” Adams said. “I contend that he is neither.”
While the circumstances of his life and death are forever shrouded in mystery, Adams said, Murphy was a man who met with misadventures and misfortunes before he died.
“The remains of that man came to this place after being cloaked in handsome raiment, celebrated by thousands and heralded by a brass band in a gala parade,” he said.
The week-long memorial leading up to the internment began with the city’s 275th anniversary parade Oct. 1.
Led by a New Orleans style jazz band, a motorcycle-drawn hearse containing the legendary remains paraded up Penn Street.
The body lay at rest in an elaborate wooden casket at the funeral home for an additional five days as hundreds paid their respects.
The events were criticized on social media by some, who found the display distasteful, disrespectful and inappropriate.
“I would invite them to allow their want of imaginations to appreciate, and yes, celebrate, the shadowy balance between this man’s life and legend,” Adams said of the critics.
Following Adam’s and Meiser’s remarks, the Rev. Robert Whitmyer, pastor of Salem United Church of Christ, Oley, read from the Bible and offered prayers.
“Friends, we are gathered here today to lay to rest one who went by the name of James Penn and who we have known as Stoneman Willie, who at one time may have been a beloved friend and family member,” Whitmyer said.
Although he may have struggled with addictions and made mistakes during his life, the pastor said, Murphy became something of a celebrity after death due to Auman’s experiment.
“But in God’s eyes, he is a man, one of His children and we’ve come to lay him to rest today,” Whitmyer said.
Source: Berkshire mont