assassination

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(12-16-2015 05:20 AM)Jim Woodall Wrote:  

(12-15-2015 10:03 AM)BettyO Wrote:  I found this interesting site online - re: Boiseau and the Surratt Family -


https://deathandlifeofhistoricanacostia....e-rambler/

Actually, John Muller in the first article on Lost Tribe is referring to an email I had sent him at the time. I also sent him some more information on James Boiseau a bit after that.

I do need to correct something from that. The Jenkins' Tavern did not go into the brother's Thomas Jenkins (he who housed Mary Surratt and the kids) hands but in 1852 went to the nephew, Joseph Thomas Jenkins, son of the brother, Basil Jenkins. I believe Joseph Thomas Jenkins' will returned it to Ida Boiseau who later sold it to the Schelihorns and eventually transferred to some Vermillions. Interestingly, a sister of Joseph, Sarah Ann, did marry a Lawson Vermillion but they died in the early 1860s leaving a son, Albert, who died shortly afterwards having been struck by lightning beneath a tree in front of the tavern. In 1860, Sarah Ann Vermillion was living with her brother, Joseph Thomas Jenkins, and their mother, Eliza Jenkins.

Basil Jenkins' house where his widow, Eliza, lived was taken during the Civil War by General Sickles for officer quarters for Fort Baker.

Interestingly, Ida Boiseau also ended up with land that had been part of Fort Wagner (down the hill and across Good Hope Road from Fort Baker with my 3rd great grandfather, Thomas Anderson, sandwiched between the forts). I am not fully sure yet how she obtained the Fort Wagner land but likely was land originally owned by her father, James Boiseau, near to the Boiseau house where some say the Surratts were married.

If anyone has a copy of the Henri J Wiesel (grandson of James Boiseau) letter stating the Surratts were married in the Boiseau house, I would love to get my hands on a copy or transcript of said letter.

Betty Trindal covers some of the Jenkins and Boiseau relationships on page 20 of her book, An American Tragedy. Her citations come from the research of James O. Hall, which Surratt House owns. I will have our librarian check for the Henri Wiesel letter.

As an aside, two forts guarded Good Hope Road during the Civil War, Fort Baker and Fort Stanton. Booth and then Herold rode right past both as they escaped through Anacostia (then known as Uniontown). Today, there is a proposal to change the name of Good Hope Road to honor the late Mayor of D.C., the "colorful" and somewhat infamous Marion Barry