Lincoln Financial Foundation file on Mrs. Surratt

[L Verge]

I am going to give Nathan a tiny little piece of belief - purely out of speculating on some fact. Most of us have read about Aunt Rachel Hawkins, who had been rented to the Surratts in 1859, and remained loyal to her mistress until death (a newspaper article about an interview with the elderly lady is included in that file that Susan has generously shared). Aunt Rachel was married to a slave on a nearby plantation owned by Walter Griffin. Mr. Griffin is mentioned as one of the acquaintances with Herold.

From what we can piece together, Rachel did not have a good relationship with her husband, Tom Semmes, but she did have several children. One may have been a boy, and that boy may have been Nathan. Rachel did not make the move to D.C. with Mary and Anna, preferring to stay near her children. A daughter, however, did go to the city to work for another family, and Rachel was in D.C. over the Easter holiday to visit that daughter.

What I'm getting at is that PERHAPS (and I cannot prove it), Nathan Simmes was Nathan Semmes and happened to be at the tavern that night. From that point on, he could have confused, concocted, or elaborated on what really went on. There is no evidence, however, that Booth ever got off his horse in Surrattsville - and he craved more than water when he reached here. Nathan is just another puzzling piece in the puzzling history of the Lincoln assassination.