Transport to White House

[Anita]

Laurie, could this be the same hearse? This article claims that the hearse that took Lincoln from the Petersen house on April 15 and to the train station on April 17, 1865 are one and the same.

"Jerry Sibert found the hearse on a Chambersburg, Pa., area farm in 1990 and bought it for $2,700. One of his first tasks was to clean thick bird droppings off the roof.

Allebaugh contacted Sibert and discouraged him from doing anything with the hearse until it was researched, Sibert said.

In his findings, Allebaugh wrote that on April 15, 1865, the hearse - termed Compound Unit No. 1 - carried Lincoln from the Peterson House to the White House. The coffin was wrapped in a flag and escorted by military personnel, he wrote.

The coffin was loaded back onto the hearse April 17 and taken to the train station, according to Allebaugh's writings. The train took Lincoln to be buried in Springfield, Ill.

A Washington, D.C., mortuary bought the hearse in the late 1860s, Allebaugh reported. He said the hearse, reportedly made by William J. Tickner & Sons Carriage Co. of Baltimore, changed ownership several times in Pennsylvania."

See complete article http://articles.herald-mail.com/2007-01-...al-library