Son of the founder of Mount Moriah Cemetery, George Connell, and his wife Elizabeth Pennock, Horatio's first name comes from the first name of his mother's father. He married Elizabeth Laycock.

Horatio Connell served many years as a sheriff in Philadelphia county and as a member of the state's House of Representatives. He also was very active in promoting lot sales at Mount Moriah Cemetery. He was, in fact, so occupied in the city's far reaches where the cemetery was located, that in January 1903 a trial was held in which he was to be a witness, and the judge pronounced his appearance impossible because he was dead. When he actually showed up, old friends and co-workers were stunned, having not seen him for many years. He would live for quite a few more.

His talent at commerce did not go unnoticed. The May 15, 1891 Philadelphia Inquirer posed the following riddle:

Q: How is it possible for a Sheriff to go into office on a moderate salary and retire independently rich?

A: Ask Horatio Connell.

It's known that he is interred at Mount Moriah, and he is considered to be one of their famous burials. Having spent many years actively promoting Mount Moriah and it still being a beauty spot when he passed away, it is suitable he would be there.

One might wonder, in light of the cemetery's later maintenance issues, if he bought one of the perpetual care lots he marketed.

Many thanks to fellow contributor Robert Hobdell for the probable plot location.

Note on his birth location: I received a suggestion to make it Allegheny County Pennsylvania which made me research that further because the family was in the metropolitan Philadelphia area so long, the birth location across the state seemed most unlikely. Still, I was able to find just one source stating it, a passport application. Even there it feels hinky because it said "Philadelphia" which was crossed out and "Allegheny" substituted. Nevertheless, there are more than a few genealogies online stating that his father George was born in Greene County, which today is considered part of the Pittsburgh demographic area... and Pittsburgh is in Allegheny County, so I can thus accept Allegheny County as Horatio's birthplace.