Who is this person?

[Susan Higginbotham]

Harry Houdini?

[L Verge]

(03-10-2019 09:47 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Harry Houdini?

Absolutely correct! Mr. Houdini (although born nearly ten years after Lincoln's death) was a Lincoln fanatic and collected everything he could on the President. I would love to know what happened to that collection.

As for his eagle, its name was Josephus Daniel Abraham Lincoln - "Abe Lincoln" for short. Abe would appear at the end of Houdini's magic Whirlwind of Color trick with a flash of various scarves and fabrics being pulled from a small box.

Thank you to Jerry Madonna for telling us about the article on Lincoln's magician, Harry Cooke, in the current issue of Military History Quarterly. Houdini and Cooke were friends in later years - Harry Houdini was fascinated with Harry Cooke's escape from ropes that he performed for Mr. Lincoln.

I did look up more on Cooke (can't afford a subscription to that magazine), and there is an interesting piece of history about him being a Federal Scout for Lincoln and being caught, along with some other men, by Mosby's Rangers. The Union men were to be hanged the next morning, so they were each tied to a tree for the night. Cooke pulled his rope trick, escaped his tree, and then quietly rescued the others.

They divided into two groups - one attempting to escape through the woods and the other by crossing the Potomac. Cooke chose the river with several others and managed to get back to federal lines. Another party was sent out to search for the men who chose the land side. They were found hanging, but their bodies were also riddled with bullets.

Cooke had two Lincoln items which he treasured and kept with him all the time: a note signed by Lincoln appointing him as a scout and a two dollar bill given in appreciation of his rope trick. Mosby's men stole them both. When able, Cooke went to D.C. to visit Mr. Lincoln, hoping to get substitutes for his loss. The story is that he went to the White House after 8 pm on Friday, April 14, 1865, but the Presidential party had already left for the theater. Cooke went to the theater, bought a ticket, and shortly after being seated, heard the pistol shot...

And there is your abbreviated history lesson for this Sunday afternoon.

[Steve]

Here's a photo of Houdini and Abraham Lincoln:

[L Verge]

You are remarkable, Steve! Thanks for showing us Houdini and Abe Lincoln.

In digging further on Cooke, I discovered a wonderful article on Houdini and his Lincoln collection. For a change, there was contact information on the author, so I reached out for permission to reprint his work in a future issue of the Surratt Courier - and got a quick response and permission. I also found out that the author, Al Hunter, is now working on Osborn Oldroyd. Here is his response to me:

Laurie-
Thank you for your kind words. Of course you are welcome to use anything you wish. I have been to the museum a few times in the past. Last time was on the day of the 150th anniversary of the assassination. I am currently working on a book about Osborn Oldroyd, the famed Lincoln collector with museums in the Lincoln Springfield homestead and then later in the House where Lincoln died. Many of the relics he displayed were related to the assassination. Does the museum have anything related to Oldroyd in it's collection? Or maybe in the Surratt Society archives? My wife and I are coming back out to DC in late April to finish up researching the files at the HWLD (I was there and at the Park Service facility in Maryland last September) and at the Library of Congress. Since I travel from Indiana, I always try and cram as much in to each visit as I can. I would be honored to look through or speak with anyone at the Surratt House about Oldroyd if there is any interest. What you folks do (and have done) is amazing and much appreciated by all, I assure you. I would be happy to share anything of interest with you all as well. Again, thanks for asking.

Al Hunter
Weekly View

I told him that I would post this here in hopes that others can help locate material for him. If you do, send it to me at Surratt House and I will pass it on.

Steve - one more "assignment" if you have the time. I passed on Jerry's information about Harry Cooke (real name Horatio Green Cooke) to David Goetz, who leads the Mosby's Confederacy Tours through the Shenandoah Valley, has authored several books on Mosby, and will be a speaker at our upcoming conference. He had not heard of Cooke and his run-in with the Rangers. He's checking with others, but so far no one knows anything.

According to Jerry's information and what I found on the internet, Cooke was assigned by Lincoln and Stanton to be a Federal Scout, and that's how he came to infiltrate Confederate territory and run up against the Grey Ghost. He was in the Union Army before receiving the assignment and seems to have been mainly doing orders requiring beautiful penmanship. My question: Is there a way to find his military records and perhaps prove his service as a scout?

Addendum: Just found this hint, but can't get into the papers on Fold3 Iowa Infantry Regiment 28 Company B Cooke, Horatio G.

[Eva Elisabeth]

That was all fascinating, Laurie! I wonder whom Josephus Daniel referred to (assuming it did to so.), and where (locally) the name Houdini comes from.

[Steve]

(03-10-2019 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Steve - one more "assignment" if you have the time. I passed on Jerry's information about Harry Cooke (real name Horatio Green Cooke) to David Goetz, who leads the Mosby's Confederacy Tours through the Shenandoah Valley, has authored several books on Mosby, and will be a speaker at our upcoming conference. He had not heard of Cooke and his run-in with the Rangers. He's checking with others, but so far no one knows anything.

According to Jerry's information and what I found on the internet, Cooke was assigned by Lincoln and Stanton to be a Federal Scout, and that's how he came to infiltrate Confederate territory and run up against the Grey Ghost. He was in the Union Army before receiving the assignment and seems to have been mainly doing orders requiring beautiful penmanship. My question: Is there a way to find his military records and perhaps prove his service as a scout?

Addendum: Just found this hint, but can't get into the papers on Fold3 Iowa Infantry Regiment 28 Company B Cooke, Horatio G.

The civil war service records of Iowa soldiers haven't been digitized and put up on Fold3 yet. But looking at other documents we can tell that Cooke:

Enlisted in Company B, Iowa 28th Infantry Regiment as a private on 20 Aug 1862. Mustered out on 26 Jun 1865 at Washington, DC. and this was the only unit he was officially in, although he could've been attached elsewhere

   

   

His regiment mustered out in Georgia in July 1865, so he appears to be attached to another unit when discharged

http://civilwarintheeast.com/us-regiment...28th-iowa/

His rank at discharge was also private:

   

This blog has some information on Cooke and his claims:

http://www.themagicdetective.com/2017/04...ncoln.html

I'm skeptical that Cooke's demonstration of 01 May 1864 to Pres. Lincoln and other dignitaries actually happened. As far as I can tell, Robert Ingersoll couldn't have been at a meeting in Washington that day, because he was campaigning in or near Peoria, Illinois for his brother Ebon Clarke Ingersoll's special election to fill a vacant congressional seat to be.

Since Cooke was discharged in Washington DC and not in Georgia like the rest of his unit, he could very well have been attached to another unit.

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(03-11-2019 01:51 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  That was all fascinating, Laurie! I wonder whom Josephus Daniel referred to (assuming it did to so.), and where (locally) the name Houdini comes from.

Houdini adopted the stage name to honor French magician and clockmaker Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. The French magician was born Jean-Eugène Robert and added his wife's maiden name, Houdin, to his surname when they married:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Eugène_Robert-Houdin

[RJNorton]

Regarding Oldroyd, Dr. Wayne Temple writes about him in his book entitled By Square and Compass: Saga of the Lincoln Home. Possibly there are some observations in there that are unavailable in any other source.

[L Verge]

Thank you, Steve, for the information, and I am passing it along to the Mosby researchers. So far, none of them are aware of Harry Cooke (or his legal name of Horatio Green Cooke).

While I happen to be a fan of Mosby and his Rangers, I suspect that (if Cooke's story is true) it is not something that Mosby's biographers over the years would want to include in their writings. That gap in his records, however, is quite suspicious, and I wonder if Lincoln's Federal Scouts remained anonymous, much like the Confederate Underground.

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(03-11-2019 03:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Regarding Oldroyd, Dr. Wayne Temple writes about him in his book entitled By Square and Compass: Saga of the Lincoln Home. Possibly there are some observations in there that are unavailable in any other source.

Thanks, Roger, I just passed this on to Al Hunter.

[Steve]

Since Mr. Hunter's letter says he's from Indiana he may already be aware of this, but I just wanted to point out besides the Ford's Theatre collection some of Oldroyd's papers can be found a the University of Chicago:

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/find...CL.OLDROYD

and the Indiana University, Bloomington:

http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/m...?p=oldroyd

[L Verge]

(03-11-2019 11:43 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Thank you, Steve, for the information, and I am passing it along to the Mosby researchers. So far, none of them are aware of Harry Cooke (or his legal name of Horatio Green Cooke).

While I happen to be a fan of Mosby and his Rangers, I suspect that (if Cooke's story is true) it is not something that Mosby's biographers over the years would want to include in their writings. That gap in his records, however, is quite suspicious, and I wonder if Lincoln's Federal Scouts remained anonymous, much like the Confederate Underground.

---

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(03-11-2019 03:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Regarding Oldroyd, Dr. Wayne Temple writes about him in his book entitled By Square and Compass: Saga of the Lincoln Home. Possibly there are some observations in there that are unavailable in any other source.

Thanks, Roger, I just passed this on to Al Hunter.

Here's a reply from the Mosby scholars:

Hello, Laurie..........

Neither of my Mosby buddies, Don Hakenson nor Eric Buckland, have or found anything on Cooke. From what I know about Colonel Mosby and/or his Ranger biographers would not have shied away from writing about an incident involving Cooke, especially if they found a document on him signed by Pres. Lincoln. That would have been a story worth telling, and I can assure you that they recorded incidents far worse and more graphic than a run-in with a spy.

My guess is that either this didn't happen or that it happened but the men who captured him told him they were Mosby's Rangers and left the clear impression that he and his buddies were in deep trouble. That he and his buddies escaped is also significant, but I'm guessing the Rangers would have had someone up at night to watch them, esp. if they had a dedicated spy in their midst. None of us was able to run this down, so the options I just mentioned are most likely the primary possibilities of what happened. The mists of time may have obscured the truth.

All good things..........


Dave

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Steve. Houdin does sound French, but Houdini neither French nor Italian...Here's another interesting site on him:
https://www-history-com.cdn.ampproject.o...ry-houdini

[RJNorton]

What is this man's name, and what is his connection to Abraham Lincoln?

[RJNorton]

Hint #1: The connection occurred in the years before Lincoln's presidency.

[Steve]

One of John Roll's sons, who played with the Lincoln boys?

[AussieMick]

I'll say Noah Gordon (owner of the grist mill where young Abraham Lincoln was killed ... ).