Who are the plumbers?

[RJNorton]

(02-09-2015 09:02 PM)GARY POPOLO Wrote:  It seems that a young man by the name of Fleedwood Herndon Lindley was the last surviving person to look upon the face of Lincoln at his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery on 09/26/1901 Lindley was fourteen at the time.

(02-10-2015 07:36 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  I know the story of Fleedwood Lindley and I do believe he was indeed the last LIVING person who saw Lincoln.

I think the confusion may have come from George Cashman himself. According to Wikipedia: "Another man, George Cashman, claimed to be the last living person to have viewed the remains of Abraham Lincoln. In the last years of his life, George Cashman was the curator of the National Landmark in Springfield called "Lincoln's Tomb." He particularly enjoyed relating his story to the more than one million visitors to the site each year."

So was it Fleetwood Lindley or George Cashman?

Cashman's wife, Dorothy Moline Cashman, wrote a pamphlet entitled The Lincoln Tomb. It's small - only 25 pages - but packed with information. I have a copy. Dorothy's husband, George Cashman, was (at the time of her writing) curator of the tomb. Mrs. Cashman dedicated her pamphlet to her husband. On page 14 of The Lincoln Tomb Mrs. Cashman wrote, "At the time of his death in 1963 Fleetwood Lindley was the last living person to have looked upon Mr. Lincoln's face."

So George Cashman's wife admitted her husband was "embellishing" (or worse). So I do believe Fleetwood Lindley was indeed the last living person to see Abraham Lincoln.