The scathing obituary of J.A. Van Scheetz

Lebanon County Almshouse

A rather interesting obituary from the Lebanon Daily News, January 9, 1903, describes the unfortunate fate of Johann Adolph Van Scheetz-- a once-promising artist and musician who was reduced to a "piece of human wreckage" by alcoholism and died penniless and friendless at the county almshouse. Van Scheetz, whose father had once been the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the administration of President Buchanan, was one of the first graduates of Albright College.