Sarah A. "Whatser name"

[SSlater]

The mystery created by Sarah A. Slater in April 1865, hasn't been solved yet. We want to know Who? What? When? Where? Why? of all that occurred. (Do you think we will ever know?
I couldn't get it all done here, but I can address her activities - after the war, between, 1867 and 1900. The rest may come at another time.
Sarah left Canada in the early summer of 1865 - at the request of Brig. Gen. E. G. Lee. and returned to New York. Sarah tells us, in her divorce proceedings, that she met Rowan there and they lived together through the rest of the summer of 1865. Later, in the year Rowan is said to have become promiscuous and Sarah "dumped him". Unfortunately, Rowan wasn't there to defend his good name.
I doubt the veracity of the whole proceedings. My thinking leans toward a "contrived plan", instigated by a Mr. Jacob M. Long - an Alderman, living in New York City. Mr. long was single at the time, but that is a minor but convenient factor in the scheme. Rowan and Sarah had split almost a year earlier, but now Sarah wants a divorce -Why? So she can "marry" Mr. Long - and change her name.
For the past several months, the Federal Government had been issuing "Amnesty Proclamations" periodically. Each issue was a little more lenient than the previous issues. However - there was a clause that appeared in each issue that excluded "those who raided from Canada". That got Sarah's attention. She could not risk ignoring that phrase and be hauled into court and stand a trial for MURDER. There was no Statute of Limitations Clause - for Murder. She worried.
So, Jacob M. Long and "Nellie G. Slater" married. Is that a valid Marriage? "Nellie Slater never existed. The error stems from the carelessness of the Clerk that filled out the License Application - he missed crossing the T's, with a careless high "crossing". It's there on the application - but he missed, and she was no longer "Nettie".
Did they ever cohabitate? My guess is NO, or was Jacob to embarrassed to show is name associated with hers? HE NEVER SHOWED HIS NAME ALONGSIDE HERS. Not in the 1870 or 1880 Federal Census. - not in the New York State Census. His entire family appeared in HIS Obituary - his children, their wives, and that was extensive, - but not Nellie, not Nettie, not Sarah, or any other wife.
The final Amnesty Proclamation was issued at Christmas 1869 and it absolved the remainder of the participants in the Confederate activities.
Another item that we needs our attention. Sarah, or whatever she is called at this point, was not Jacob M. Long's second wife. He had married Catherine Fisher, in Pennsylvania, First, sadly she died. He then married "Anna E". and had more children. She died. He finally married "Nellie".
Sarah did not relax. About 1900 she moved to Canada to live with her sister - Josephine. There was a problem with her husband's name.
He spelled it LOFTON and she spelled it LOFTIN.
Sarah's and her sister's name appears in the City Directory as "Man and Wife".
Sarah appears in the first issue available as Sarah Long but in succeeding issues as Sarah Slater. This remains true until she married her Brother-in-Law. William W. Spencer . He had been married to Laura Louise (Gilbert) Spencer until her death. Another explanation is necessary. Was she in love with him secretly? I'll say no, but she "cared". His Death Certificate shows that he had been under intensive care for the previous 2 years and the need continued. Sarah married him so that they could cohabitate, while she performed her duties as his NURSE. They lived about 2 years together before he died.
In closing, you may be interested to know that Sarah, Josephine and their Mother, are all buried in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Sarah, of course is "Sarah Spencer", and her birth date on the marker is wrong.
Want more?

[Susan Higginbotham]

Sarah and Long's names do appear on one document--Laura Gilbert's marriage license, which shows Antoinette Long and Jacob M. Long as witnesses. The latter's name is very faint, but it looks like "Jacob M. Long" to me.

[RJNorton]

In another thread I asked if there was a (remote) possibility the lady with Booth in Newport could have been Sarah Slater. I think it's at least possible the lady was not Lucy Hale (although a lot of books surmise this). But my question for the forum is this: Sarah Slater, in her role as a Confederate courier, often traveled with a male escort (John Surratt, for example). How did she spend her nights - did she stay in a hotel room with the escort and sign in as "lady?" Or did she get her own room and the male escort stayed in another? Or did the pair often stay in "safe houses" during their travels? I know John Surratt used a series of false names in hotels during his time as a courier; he was "Harry Sherman" when staying in Richmond with Sarah Slater.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Hall has her registering at the St. Lawrence Hall in Montreal as "Mrs. N. Slater, New York" on 3:00 a.m. February 15, 1865. He notes that a "William Polley" from New York registered at the same time, although he notes there's no proof that he was connected with her.

[SSlater]

Susan. Thanks for posting the Document. It is difficult to understand what we see. Is "Antoinette" written OVER a signature and ABOVE a signature? Is some of that writing on the back? Help! please. I have seen Sarah's signature in the Ledger, and they do look similar _ small, not continuous. I have assumed that she was dead tired when she signed the Register.

[Susan Higginbotham]

(02-17-2017 04:23 PM)SSlater Wrote:  Susan. Thanks for posting the Document. It is difficult to understand what we see. Is "Antoinette" written OVER a signature and ABOVE a signature? Is some of that writing on the back? Help! please. I have seen Sarah's signature in the Ledger, and they do look similar _ small, not continuous. I have assumed that she was dead tired when she signed the Register.

What I posted here is a photograph of a microfilm, using an old-fashioned microfilm reader, so there's a lot of "noise" in the photograph, unfortunately.

[JMadonna]

Paging through John W.Headley's Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, he describes:

Mrs. ,* a widow only 24 years old, employed by the Confederate Government for secret service in the Northern States, had come to Montreal and called on the prisoners at the jail. She volunteered for the journey to Richmond. After leaving the railroad in Maryland she walked much of the way through the country occupied by the enemy in Virginia. She departed from Richmond with the necessary certified papers, well concealed, one day before Rev. Mr. Cameron arrived there. These two messengers, traveling by different routes,reached Montreal on the same day. She declined to accept from Col. Jacob Thompson any compensation whatever for her services or expenses. This devotee of the South was a Kentucky lady. About
1867 she visited Frankfort when the legislature was in session. During a recess of fifteen minutes taken in her honor she was the recipient of an ovation, being presented by Hon. Thomas T. Coger, of Jessamine County, the home of Lieut. Bennett H. Young. *The prisoners never met this lady before or after her visits to the jail at Montreal. One of the survivors secured her photograph at the jail, but after forty years her name is forgotten. In memory of her heroic interest when the lives of the Confederate prisoners were hanging by a thread all the tribute that can be paid on their behalf is cheerfully recorded. — Author.

If he is describing Sarah Slater he also posted a picture of the mysterious woman.

[Gene C]

I've always had my doubts about that story of the photograph.
And I have doubts about at least half of what Hedley writes. He likes to exaggerate his own importance and significance in the events he claimed to be involved in.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I don't believe it's Sarah either. Aside from her not being a widow or a Kentucky lady, with John Surratt in the news in 1867, it would be foolish for her to call attention to her activities on behalf of the Confederacy in such a public manner.

[SSlater]

Years ago, I wondered if the Kentucky Legislature did Honor a "Kentucky Widow", as Headley claimed in his book. So. I wrote to the Kentucky Government, and asked for details. They replied that the "ceremony" was held during a Legislative Recess and the details cannot be made public. (That mean that a Kentucky Widow WAS honored.) They would not give me a name. I don't know if that was Sarah, but the description used to hide the lady suggests that "It was A Lady from Canada, whose "cover" was the attire of a Widow, and who traveled to Richmond, to protect the Kentucky Military then in prison at that time., for no compensation", as a true Kentucky Widow would have done. It would not have been sensible to honor the widow at the cost of her life. The Federals were looking for her, or so they say. Also, she may not have been using the name "SLATER", so Kentucky does not have records for a SLATER.
Olivia Floyd tried to sneak into the act, by claiming that Lt. Bennett invited her to Kentucky -to be honored for her part in getting the papers for the St. Albans Raiders. I believe she made that claim to draw the heat off Sarah. That's another story in itself, not worth discussing.
Where was Sarah, at about the time of the "Kentucky Trip"? She was living in New York with her Mother and had her brothers nearby, and working on a divorce. The divorce was advertised in the paper, under the name Sarah Slater - why the federals couldn't find her, I'll never know. Kentucky found her.

[JMadonna]

Sounds like the legend of "the dread pirate Roberts".