Oddities of the Lincoln assassination

[RJNorton]

Roger,

The penknife is mentioned here. https://books.google.com/books?id=jgY46w...ox&f=false

Joe

Hi Joe. Many thanks!

[JB Banning]

Roger, Not to beat a dead horse but on page 258 in American Brutus, Kauffman says that Clara returned to the box with her father, Justice Abram Olin, Jim Ferguson, and Chief Justice Cartter of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. On entering the box Clara suddenly remembered a white handled penknife she had seen lying open on the balustrade that Friday night.
At the time she had been distracted by the play and had forgotten all about it. The knife had since disappeared.
Joe

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Joe. Apparently the information I used concerning what Clara Harris said about the penknife was actually contained within James Ferguson's statement. I had started to wonder if it had come from that statement Clara Harris gave about Booth coming to the State Box about an hour before the assassination to survey the situation in the box. As far as I know no one else reported this alleged first visit of Booth other than Clara Harris. We discussed this in another thread last year. This is from the May 5, 1865, edition of The Public Ledger:

[Gene C]

H Clay Ford - "In decorating the box I used my penknife to cut the strings to tie up the flags, and left it there in the box".

From "Backstage With Booth" page 291, by Michael Hurwitz, who attributes the quote to the trial testimony as recorded by Ben Pitman.

[Thomas Kearney]

Guess Jim forgot to mention that Lucy Hale (Booth's fiancé) was studying Spanish with Robert Lincoln at the White House at the time the assassination occurred.

[RJNorton]

Guess Jim forgot to mention that Lucy Hale (Booth's fiancé) was studying Spanish with Robert Lincoln at the White House at the time the assassination occurred.

Thomas, I have asked about this "study group" before as I have never seen a legitimate source for it. I have searched in vain for a legitimate source.

In Wikipedia it says, "On the afternoon of April 14, Hale allegedly spent the afternoon studying Spanish with Robert Lincoln, and another former admirer, John Hay, President Lincoln's assistant private secretary."

But no footnote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Lambert_Hale

[L Verge]

Roger - You beat me to it! I know that others have tried to cite a legitimate source for this story that Lucy, Robert, and John Hay studied together in the afternoon of April 14 - and failed to find one. There is a Chicago newspaper article from years later in which Robert refuted ever having a relationship with Lucy.

[Jim Garrett]

Gene Smith had JWB having dinner with Lucy and her mother that evening. If IO remember, there was no source cited for that.

[Thomas Kearney]

Roger - You beat me to it! I know that others have tried to cite a legitimate source for this story that Lucy, Robert, and John Hay studied together in the afternoon of April 14 - and failed to find one. There is a Chicago newspaper article from years later in which Robert refuted ever having a relationship with Lucy.

I guess that is one of many secrets those three took to their graves.

[L Verge]

Roger - You beat me to it! I know that others have tried to cite a legitimate source for this story that Lucy, Robert, and John Hay studied together in the afternoon of April 14 - and failed to find one. There is a Chicago newspaper article from years later in which Robert refuted ever having a relationship with Lucy.

I guess that is one of many secrets those three took to their graves.

Or that someone, somewhere, and sometime made up? That's a good research project for you Thomas. See if you can find a primary source to support that story...

[Houmes]

Roger - You beat me to it! I know that others have tried to cite a legitimate source for this story that Lucy, Robert, and John Hay studied together in the afternoon of April 14 - and failed to find one. There is a Chicago newspaper article from years later in which Robert refuted ever having a relationship with Lucy.

I guess that is one of many secrets those three took to their graves.

Actually, that was a secret Robert "attempted" to take to his grave. He certainly had some kind of relationship with Lucy Hale because he gave her flowers from the White House garden and a book he signed, inscribed to her as a gift. When the Chicago Inter-Ocean article first appeared June 18, 1878, claiming they had a relationship, he was interviewed the following day and denied ever having met her, let alone having a relationship. But he was also quoted as saying her name was Lucy, not Bessie as stated in that article--remarkable knowledge for someone not knowing the woman. Then the following day, in another interview (this time in a different newspaper), he disavowed the interview he had given the day before, claiming he was misquoted. Lucy had several admirers, but the others weren't a son of an assassinated president, let alone in 1878 a successful Chicago attorney and prominent social figure, married with a family.

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Blaine.

Regarding April 14, 1865, Jason Emerson, in his Robert bio, writes, "How Robert spent his day is unknown. After two weeks with practically no rest, he probably took a bath, put on clean clothing, and had his uniform washed. He almost certainly spent time with his mother and little brother, recounting to them the events of the final campaign. he may even have called upon Mary Harlan, his date for the inaugural ball, whom he had not seen since that night's celebration more than one month before."

[Eva Elisabeth]

Yayyy!! Eva E. please let me know what you think after you have completed it!

(...referring to "The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family" by Charles Lachman.)

Fascinating and depressing - what a decline! And how sad that the apparently only A. L.-like Lincoln descendant, Jack, died at such young age. Also the book didn't help any bit to finally endear RTL or Mary Harlan to me, right the opposite.

[RJNorton]

And how sad that the apparently only A. L.-like Lincoln descendant, Jack, died at such young age.

You are so right, Eva. Incredibly sad! Quoting from The Lincoln Family Album, Jack was "an excellent student" and "was being groomed to follow his father into Exeter, Harvard, and the law."

Here is a photo of Jack when he was ill. He died 10 weeks later.

[LincolnToddFan]

Eva and Roger, I so agree with you. Tragedy is the perfect word!

How awful were RTL's grandchildren? Completely spoiled, self-indulgent, eccentric brats. It makes me wonder again how different things would have been if Willie or Tad had lived long enough to father children and to have descendants.