Renewing Old Acquaintances

[L Verge]

Miss Maude was definitely the last of the great ladies of the South. Her grandfather was described as the "handsomest man in the Confederacy" by Gen. Lee. I saw a large portrait of him at her house (a Civil War museum practically), and I agreed with Lee. Miss Maude had been a student of Lucinda Holloway in later years.

If I remember the story of the sliver of the crutch that she owned, it came from Booth's crutch, which was retrieved by one of the men from the area after the excitement at Garretts'. This gentleman supposedly would carve off little chunks of it to give to ladies that he wanted to impress. Somehow, Miss Maude obtained it from one of those ladies. She had a small, silver plaque attached to it declaring what it was. When Miss Maude died, a snobby nephew inherited most of her things - including the piece of crutch. Rich and Jim may know if he still has it. He sure wasn't interested in loaning or donating it to Surratt House. In fact, he sent a rather nasty reply to Mr. Brennan's letter suggesting those options.

Miss Maude also remembered that the bloody porch boards from the Garrett home were ripped up and stored in an outbuilding. When she was a child, the boys of the neighborhood would retrieve them and chase the girls with them. Wouldn't you love to have one of those boards now? Can anyone say DNA?????