Identification of Booth's body

[Steve Whitlock]

[quote='RJNorton' pid='79674' dateline='1576845898']
Thanks to Steve for sending these images. Steve writes:

"I was looking at the Neff related documents that Steve Whitlock posted to the forum. One of the newspaper articles was one that I was going to post in my upcoming Neff investigation post. The article is from page 1 of the 27 Dec. 1976 edition of the Brookville American (PA). The article mentions Ray Neff travelling to Brookville, Pennsylvania to research the life of local historian, newspaper editor, and Civil War nurse, Kate M. Scott and giving a talk at the local historical society. Earlier this year I read Carole Briggs' 2014 biography of Scott and sent scans of the pages debunking the "Booth baby" story to Laurie which has more local historical details checked about Scott's life and the local Jefferson county scene than normally could be fact-checked while looking over all of the errors of the Neff papers as a whole. Basically hyper-focused fact checking on the Kate Scott documents of the Neff papers. As expected, a lot of inaccuracies and people who don't exist like "Rob Rover" who can't be located in any local Jefferson county records or cemeteries:


https://library.indstate.edu/about/units...rover.html


So, another nonexistent person like the Potters.


But this is getting beside the point of this email/posting. Briggs' book mentions Kate's brother-in-law Francis A. Weaver. Floating around the internet is a forged marriage record between Martha Izola Mills and John Wilkes Booth in 1859. If you notice at the bottom of the document is a photocopy of the envelope that contained the record and its addressed to Francis Weaver who was supposedly a younger brother of the Rev. Peleg Weaver (he wasn't). I checked the 1899 Washington DC directory and the address matches the Francis A. Weaver, who was Kate Scott's brother-in-law 1899 address. So, the envelope image seems like it may have come from an actual envelope to Weaver which was combined in the forgery. Although I don't think it's mentioned in Dark Union, the marriage record is in the catalog of the Neff papers:


https://library.indstate.edu/about/units...IDnum=2463


Neff was specifically researching Kate and her brother-in-law and the Jefferson County Pa area, so it seems like he would be the person who had the opportunity to forge the marriage record and if he forged that, then he probably forged the other "Potter papers".


Just as a little side note I took a look at some of the Martha Izola Mills written correspondence in the Izola Forrester papers and Martha actually claimed that she and Booth were married in New York state, not Connecticut in 1859. The Connecticut marriage comes from Izola Forrester's 1937 This One Mad Act book. Not that it really matters about where a fake made-up marriage supposedly took place, I just thought it was an interesting difference.



Steve,

Thank you for the added information!

Andrew G. Potter also allegedly wrote an 1896 letter at the same address to Francis "Fritz" Weaver, brother-in-law of Kate M. Scott. It's a pdf file from the Potter papers, and I can't attach it here.

As we see at different points at one time Neff has Kate's dtr, Sarah Katherine Scott, married to Sam Baysinger, and then the story changed and she was raised by Sam and his supposed wife, Sarah, the midwife who delivered Sarah Katherine Scott 8 Dec 1865 in Indianapolis, IN. As an aside Samuel Baysinger was discharged from his Civil War service in Indianapolis in 1865. I have a record of that, and it is the same Samuel Baysinger that I mentioned previously. Kate supposedly used the money she received from the John Byron Wilkes will to set up a trust fund for Samuel Baysinger and his wife. By that time Sarah Katherine Scott, had she existed, would have been an adult.

As for the fake marriage of Martha L. (Mills) Bellows and John Wilkes Booth, I would also add that a real marriage occurred in 1869 for Martha L. Booth and John H. Stevenson, followed by an 1872 marriage of Martha L. Bellows and John H. Stevenson in 1872. I have those records. Why two marriages?

The 1872 marriage was important because when Seaman Charles S. Bellows Sr died in 1869 he left everything he had to his brother, with no mention of his wife and children. Martha later challenged the will and got a share of that estate, and a Navy pension for her children, whether we dispute they were his or not. The birth certificates say he was the father and Martha received a settlement for each case. I can't post them here because each case is over 30 images. The only marriage records mentioned by Martha, or the court, was her marriage to Charles S. Bellows and the 1872 marriage to John H. Stevenson, as Martha steadfastly claimed fidelity to her first marriage until his death.

I believe the marriage as Martha Booth to John H. Stevenson was for Rosalie Booth's benefit, to show that Martha was indeed Rosalie's sister-in-law, can you spare some money for his poor children by the way? Between that record and the bogus 1859 marriage record Martha managed to convince a grieving Rosalie.

If Dna testing is ever done for a descendant of Harry Jerome Dresbach Stevenson, Martha's supposed son with JWB, it should be a match to John H. Stevenson, not any Booth. Harry was born in 1871, 2 years after the 1869 marriage to John H. Stevenson. Perhaps the 1st marriage got by the court because she married as Booth, instead of Bellows, the first time.

Steve W.