The Tale of George Atzerodt

[Dave Taylor]

(07-08-2014 03:54 PM)SSlater Wrote:  This posting is off the current theme - but very related. I want to draw your attention to Atzerodt's little girl - Edith.
1870 Census; Port Tobacco, MD, Edith Wheeler, age 6. Mo. Elizabeth Wheeler 45 Dressmaker (Widow of Charles Wheeler). Her maiden name was Elizabeth Adams Boswell.
1880 Census: Edith Wheeler 16 Baltimore, born 1864
1900 Edith S, Cox. Baltimore. Born 1864, m Edward A. Cox in 1892
1910 Edward A. Cox 49 Baltimore
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There is a family tree for George Atzerodt and Elizabeth Wheeler and Edith , In Family Tree Maker. The rest of the above is in the Census.
That poor child - an unwed mother and a conspirator father.

John,

Unfortunately, the Edith Wheeler you found from the 1880 census onward is not Atzerodt's daughter, but a different Edith Wheeler entirely.

In the 1870 census, you can find two Edith Wheelers. One is Atzerodt's daughter living with her mother Elizabeth in Port Tobacco:


Also 1870, there is a unrelated Edith Wheeler living in Baltimore with her mother Susan:


Strangely both of these Ediths are about the same age and their mothers are both dressmakers.

The 16 year-old Edith Wheeler you found in the 1880 census living in Baltimore with her mother Susan is not "our" Edith, but the second unrelated girl. Everything after that (her marriage to Cox and residence in Baltimore) follows the life of this other Edith.

Though it's been awhile, I have not been able to find any trace of Mrs. Wheeler or Edith after the 1870 census. I traced some of Mrs. Wheeler's other children (daughters by her first two husbands) but never found mention of what happened to Mrs. Wheeler. I also have hit a dead end in locating the graves of Mrs. Wheeler's first two husbands, Charles Wheeler and Henry Rose. I feel like she would be buried next to one of them, but I don't know where they are.

The fates of Mrs. Wheeler and little Edith are still a mystery.