An Interesting Tidbit

[L Verge]

I sure hope that John Elliott and/or Barry Cauchon are paying attention (and I will email them to make sure). As most of you know, they have been working on seeking out every little detail regarding the conspirators' life at the Penitentiary, the execution, etc. They recently used their photo enlargement magic and other information to prove that the Kansas Historical Society has a portion of the 1865 scaffolding.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of my long-time volunteers at Surratt House. Her husband is an expert on military accoutrements of the WWII era, specifically, but is also well-versed in and connected with a wide variety of military historians. One such comrade had just told them about a book that he had read entitled From Then Til Now. It was written in 1934 as an autobiography by James Barnes - and do look him up online; a very interesting man who traveled with the best in a variety of fields during the first quarter of the 20th century.

Back to the matter at hand: Mr. Barnes writes in this book that he had talked with a gentleman who had done construction work (I think) at the old penitentiary building (now Grant Hall on Ft. McNair) in 1917. In the basement, he found the 1865 scaffolding from the execution of the four conspirators as well as a chair with a broken leg that was noted as being Mrs. Surratt's chair (whether from the prisoners' docket or the scaffolding, I know not).

Now to find that book to determine how many pieces the scaffolding was in. Surely it was not removed intact from the grounds to the basement. And how did that crossbeam make it to Kansas? And what happened to Mrs. Surratt's chair?