Louis Weichmann

[L Verge]

"Laurie, I located Erich Ewald and have contacted him. Hopefully I'll get a response soon. Would you be able to post a file of the original Joseph Abel article that Ewald left with the Society? The title is "A History Of The Trial Of Mrs. Surratt As Told To Me By A Lewis Wiechman At The Time Of President Lincoln's Assassination." Also, I'm not familiar with the apple note that you mentioned, but in his book, p18, Weichmann wrote, "In those days of 1863 (Louis was a teacher at St Matthew's Institute at that time and Surratt visited him frequently) he was accustomed to bring fruits and vegetables from his home in the country to the Washington market to sell. On one of these occasions, in the spring, a short time before Easter, he invited me to accompany him on his return home. I gladly and willingly accepted the invitation." That was when Weichmann first met Mary, Anna and Davy Herold, who was with a portion of the Marine Band of Washington, who came to serenade some newly elected county officials.

'Another point you mentioned, the issue of Weichmann's gap at continuing is religious education, he explains it all in his book and I can give you the details if you want."

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Please give my regards to Erich. It has been about twenty years since we had contact. The last I heard, he was fairly well up in city government in Anderson, Indiana, and I know that he has written extensively on other aspects of Indiana history over the years as his historical interests moved on.

As for the Joseph Abel piece, give me a few days to locate it. I have not been in those files per se since they were moved to our James O. Hall Research Center a dozen years ago. Our new librarian has only been on the job a few weeks and needs to familiarize herself with the lay of the land. Museum-wise, it has been a very busy year for us in terms of visitation and programming with tourism averaging nearly 2000 patrons per month since March - about double our usual numbers. Mount Vernon might snicker, but our minimal staff and volunteers have been kept quite busy giving tours.

I do apologize for not posting after your first entries on Weichmann. I didn't realize that you had done your own research on Weichmann, over and above his memoirs and what others in the field had done. I read True History... in the late-70s or early-80s, and it has been about thirty years since Erich Ewald (who is from Anderson, IN) had supplied his research to the Surratt Society, Hall, and Brennan, with whom I was in daily contact (Betty and Blaine Houmes can tell you what a wonderful experience that was!). I did not know that anyone else had tackled the subject of Louis. Of course, I don't even know your last name, so I likely would never have made the connection. Sorry.

P.S. His book is about one foot from my desk at work, so I'll refresh my memory on his reasons for not returning to college or to his home and instead heading south in 1862. I do remember wondering if it had anything to do with the imposing of the draft. If they can't find you, they can't draft you? It seemed to have worked for both Surratt and Booth...