Where was John Surratt on April 14, 1865 ?

[L Verge]

We have a John Surratt handkerchief on display here at Surratt House, embroidered with "Surratt." It came with good provenance from a family who knew Surratt when he was teaching in Montgomery County, Maryland.

There was often a practical reason for having your name on a variety of clothing items. Many families sent their clothes out to a washer woman nearby. This was the way of identifying whose clothes belonged where. The nightshirt on display here had John Surratt's name written in the neckband (before great-grandma ripped it out years later when it became frayed). That name was in indelible ink, according to my grandmother who saw the neckband dropped into the kitchen stove to burn sometime in the early-1880s.