Genetic Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

The current matriarch of the family told the Park Service recently that ownership of the chair was weighing on her.

"All her friends told her she is crazy, that she should sell it on eBay," Swift said. "But she said that giving it to us felt like the right thing to do."

How very generous of the family, and especially the matriarch of the family!



The crown jewel of that tableau, however, remains out of reach for Swift.

"We'd love to have the rocker that President Lincoln was sitting in," she said, sighing.

It remains in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

The chairs should be together once again.

---

(08-30-2018 09:56 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  On this subject, I think that Abraham Lincoln himself said it best:

"I don't know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know who his
grandson will be." A. Lincoln

I now disagree with myself. I think now that Lincoln would have liked to have known.

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-06-2020 04:13 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, here is the information I have on the chair.

*******************************************************

Va. Family Donates Relic to Ford's Theatre

Chair Was Removed From Lincoln's Box After Assassination

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 12, 2005; Page B03

Inside the box at Ford's Theatre where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, most of the furnishings are carefully chosen replicas: the heavy gold drapes and tassels, the red, gold and white floral carpet, the presidential rocker.

But last week, the National Park Service got hold of the real thing. A carved-back, cane-seat parlor chair that was in the presidential box the night Lincoln was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth -- perhaps the one Mary Todd Lincoln was sitting in -- was donated to the government by a Virginia family that had kept the artifact for 140 years.

The carved-back, cane-seat parlor chair was taken when the theater was converted to an office building. (Gloria Swift)

"This is a fabulous thing we've been given. We're very excited about it," said Gloria Swift, the Park Service's curator for Ford's Theatre.

After the assassination darkened the theater in 1865, the government bought the structure on 10th Street NW and turned it into a three-story office building. One of the workers dismantling the theater claimed that his boss had told him to take anything he wanted out of the presidential box. He removed the parlor chair and gave it to the Virginia family, where it was handed down for generations, Swift said.

The family, which Swift said has asked to remain anonymous, tried to sell the chair to the Park Service in the 1950s, when the theater box was being reconditioned as a historic site. But the agency didn't have the cash to buy it and made a replica instead, Swift said.

The current matriarch of the family told the Park Service recently that ownership of the chair was weighing on her.

"All her friends told her she is crazy, that she should sell it on eBay," Swift said. "But she said that giving it to us felt like the right thing to do."

Historians checked the chair for authenticity; the age, markings, style, material and documentation all checked out. And it perfectly matches the chair that Mary Lincoln is sitting on, as well as one empty chair, in a sketch of the assassination in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, the period's paper of record.

The chair was put back in the box last week and can be viewed from behind plexiglass on tours of the theater or during performances. It was reunited with two other authentic pieces from that night -- a tufted settee and a portrait of George Washington.

The crown jewel of that tableau, however, remains out of reach for Swift.

"We'd love to have the rocker that President Lincoln was sitting in," she said, sighing. That chair, seized as evidence by the U.S. War Department for the conspirators' trials, was returned in 1921 to the family who owned the theater, then sold in an auction to Henry Ford (who is no relation to the theater Fords).

It remains in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

"Our replica is pretty good, though," Swift said.

Roger,

Suzanne Hallstrom asked me to advise you that your photo of Mary Todd Lincoln's chair at the Ford Theatre has been added to Genetic Lincoln, crediting you, and includes a link to the Symposium. She also asks that I convey her "Thank you!" to you.

Suzanne, who used to run an antiques business also cleared up my question about Mary's chair for me, which is the item in the upper right corner of the first attachment. It appears that the chair has been misidentified, according to Suzanne, who writes "Here is A closeup of an example of a chair with rush seating. I should have recognized Phil’s fragments as pieces of rush from his photos but I was so caught up in his curtain swatch that I didn’t think. I sold quite a few rush seated chairs when I had my antique business."

And in a following email, "Ford’s Theatre is incorrectly identifying the chair as cane-seated which would be a flatter, more open weave material. Rushing material was made from a variety of different natural reeds and straws. Today’s replacement rush is usually a manmade paper product. But I always loved the real deal."

I included a photo of a rush-seated chair and have a better, closeup photo of one, but can't add it due to size. Suffice it to say that the material matches the sample shown for the first attachment. When I magnify the photo for Mary's chair I can see the cord-like distinction in the seat, as the image blurs. Suzanne is trying to get the curator at Ford's Theatre to provide a magnified image of the seat for Mary's chair.

Meanwhile, the relic has further historical significance in that there is a question as to who provided the relic, Lt. William Bower, who was in charge of a guard detail around the theatre after the assassination, or his cousins, the Gatch brothers, who were in attendance.

There is a historical society document re: the Gatch Bros. at Lincoln's assassination, but the size is too big to add it. The several other news articles will have to suffice.

I've read other accounts that didn't include Dr. C. D. Gatch, and gave Dr. Charles Augustus Leale the responsibility for the mortal wound call, so I can't say with any certainty that the news articles supporting Dr. Gatch's assessment of Mr. Lincoln's wound are wholly accurate. However, there is mention that the Gatch brothers returned to the theatre after Lincoln died. Could that be when they got the relic? They might have supposed it was the president's blood on Mary chair. If it was the Gatch brothers who acquired the relics, I would suppose it also lends some credence to the story that Dr. Gatch did participate in trying to assist president Lincoln, and that they were in fact present.

[RJNorton]

(05-07-2020 08:44 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  I've read other accounts that didn't include Dr. C. D. Gatch, and gave Dr. Charles Augustus Leale the responsibility for the mortal wound call, so I can't say with any certainty that the news articles supporting Dr. Gatch's assessment of Mr. Lincoln's wound are wholly accurate.

IMO, these other accounts are most likely the accurate ones. Overwhelmingly, historians feel it was Dr. Leale who said, "His wound is mortal; it is impossible for him to recover." Leale does not even mention Dr. Gatch being in the box; he only mentions Dr. King and Dr. Taft as the other physicians who were present. In his book on eyewitness accounts Tim Good writes of Gatch's reminiscence: "This is one of the more inaccurate of the eyewitness accounts."

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-08-2020 04:14 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(05-07-2020 08:44 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  I've read other accounts that didn't include Dr. C. D. Gatch, and gave Dr. Charles Augustus Leale the responsibility for the mortal wound call, so I can't say with any certainty that the news articles supporting Dr. Gatch's assessment of Mr. Lincoln's wound are wholly accurate.

IMO, these other accounts are most likely the accurate ones. Overwhelmingly, historians feel it was Dr. Leale who said, "His wound is mortal; it is impossible for him to recover." Leale does not even mention Dr. Gatch being in the box; he only mentions Dr. King and Dr. Taft as the other physicians who were present. In his book on eyewitness accounts Tim Good writes of Gatch's reminiscence: "This is one of the more inaccurate of the eyewitness accounts."

Roger,

I've struggled with the Gatch account of events as well; however, his memorial makes a good point:

Dr Charles Davenport Gatch

Birth: 1841
Clermont County
Ohio, USA
Death: Oct. 27, 1870
Milford
Clermont County
Ohio, USA

Doctor for Clermont County, Ohio. The son of Lewis and Maria (Newton) Gatch, he was interested in medicine and became a doctor. In March 1865, he was home on furlough from the regiment, when his brother, Captain Oliver Cross Gatch, returned home after being a prisoner of the Confederates for 17 months. His brother had been ordered to Washington DC for further assignment following his furlough, so Charles decided to accompany his brother to Washington DC. [a family account says they went to Washington to collect 2 years back-pay] The two men arrived on the morning of April 14, 1865, and decided to attend a theater play that evening. They were in Ford's Theater and observed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln that evening. With the end of the war, Charles Gatch was released from future military service, and he returned to his home in Ohio, where he became the principal physician of Milford, Ohio. A member of the Clermont County Medical Association, he was appointed to the Clermont County Board of Health on June 10, 1867. He resided in Clermont County until his death three years later.
[bio by Kit and Morgan Benson]

Elected to membership in the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine in 1858. Served in the Civil War. Attended the same play as Lincoln, possibly attended to him after he was shot (jury is still out on that one), but was definitely at his death-bed according to the Washington Evening Star published 15 Apr 1865.

Family links:
Parents:
Lewis Gatch (1784 - 1868)
Maria H. Newton Gatch (____ - 1849)

Siblings:
John Newton Gatch (1813 - 1891)*
Nicholas Gatch (1816 - 1875)*
Benjamin Franklin Gatch (1821 - 1869)*
Harriet E. Gatch Lindsay (1826 - 1894)*
Henry Clay Gatch (1829 - 1868)*
James D Gatch (1831 - 1907)*
Oliver Cross Gatch (1836 - 1914)*
Charles Davenport Gatch (1841 - 1870)

*Calculated relationship

Burial:
Milford Cemetery
Milford
Clermont County
Ohio, USA

Maintained by: 5chandlers
Originally Created by: Kit and Morgan Benson
Record added: Oct 21, 2007
Find A Grave Memorial# 22344618

- Old Coot
Added: Apr. 14, 2014
Thank you for your service to our country during the Civil War. Rest in peace, doctor; you are not forgotten.
- Kit and Morgan Benson
Added: Oct. 21, 2007
*********************
"Elected to membership in the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine in 1858. Served in the Civil War. Attended the same play as Lincoln, possibly attended to him after he was shot (jury is still out on that one), but was definitely at his death-bed according to the Washington Evening Star published 15 Apr 1865."

That Washington Evening Star article is one of the ones I posted, and it has no mention of Drs Leale, King or Taft in attendance. I can't imagine a military doctor, such as Dr. C. D. Gatch, in attendance and not responding to a call for doctors, especially when he knew it was the president.

Perhaps Dr. Leale, fresh out of medical school, age 23, got to Mr. Lincoln quicker, but at some point surely Dr. Gatch participated. Why else would he be present at the time of Abe's death, according to the Washington Evening Star. With Mr. Lincoln shot on the 14th, dying on the 15th, and the Star account on the 15th the news should have been pretty fresh.

Perhaps Dr. Leale was relieved by more experienced doctors, and left after doing what he could. That list of people seems to suggest random folks weren't just wandering in off the street. Dr. Gatch must have been involved. I can't just dismiss his account as it does establish he was present at the time of Lincoln's death. That's independent corroboration.

[RJNorton]

Kees, who did a tremendous amount of research, listed Dr. Gatch under this category:

B: : PHYSICIANS PRESENT AT FORD’S THEATRE
(but doubtful if they were in the State Box)

Please see Kees' research here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...ight=Gatch

For you to say "Perhaps Dr. Leale was relieved by more experienced doctors, and left after doing what he could" goes against everything I have read over the past 50+ years. For more information on Dr. Leale please go here:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-08-2020 12:47 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kees, who did a tremendous amount of research, listed Dr. Gatch under this category:

B: : PHYSICIANS PRESENT AT FORD’S THEATRE
(but doubtful if they were in the State Box)

Please see Kees' research here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...ight=Gatch

For you to say "Perhaps Dr. Leale was relieved by more experienced doctors, and left after doing what he could" goes against everything I have read over the past 50+ years. For more information on Dr. Leale please go here:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext

Roger,

The links are very much appreciated, and the one for "Dr. Charles A. Leale’s Report on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" answers a couple of questions I had, especially that Dr. Leale, not Dr. Gatch, was called as a witness. Also, Dr. Leale makes clear he was not relieved of responsibility until he requested Dr. Stone, Lincoln's personal physician, take charge after Mr. Lincoln was transported to the Peterson house. So much for my incorrect speculation.

Meanwhile, it seems clear that the Gatch brothers were in attendance, and involved beyond that in some capacity, despite Kees' comment "The Gatch brothers’ story (if true) ended when Lincoln was removed from Ford's Theatre". Dr. Gatch's presence on a couple of lists shows he was at the president's bedside when he died.

I don't know who the 2 gentlemen were that Dr. Leale mentions, who arrived before Dr. Taft and Dr. King.

"When I reached the President he was in a state of general paralysis,[29] his eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous.[30] I placed my finger on his right radial pulse but could perceive no movement of the artery. As two gentlemen now arrived, I requested them to assist me to place him in a recumbent position, and as I held his head and shoulders, while doing this my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his left shoulder."

His account for the arrival of Dr King and Dr Taft comes later in the narrative.

Be all that as it may, my interest in the brothers is relative to the relic from Mary Todd Lincoln's chair at Ford's Theatre. Once again I believe they'll fall a bit short, and the family legend is likely more true, that Lt. William H. Bower provided the relics.

There is a firsthand account of the relics being in a frame that hung on the wall for many years in the home of Ethel Ida Bower (Goodwin) Swinney. Her mother was Ida Kirk (Bower) Goodwin, a sister of Lt. William H. Bower.

Wm H Bower

in the New York, State Census, 1875

Name: Wm H Bower
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Birth Year: abt 1840
Residence Date: 1 Jun 1875
Residence Place: Rochester Ward 10, Monroe, New York, USA
Election District: Ward 10
Household number: 507
Relation to Head: Son
Father's name: John
Mother's name: Mary Bower
Line Number: 10
Sheet Number: 53
Household Members:
Name Age
John Bower 62
Mary Bower 50
Wm H Bower 35
Ida K Bower 21 [Ida Kirk Bower m: Philip Swing Goodwin]
Julia T McCormick 39
*******************
Wm H S Bower
in the New York, State Census, 1865

Name: Wm H S Bower
Gender: Male
Relation to Head: Son
Birth Year: abt 1838
Age: 27
Residence: Rochester, Monroe, New York, USA
District: South
Ward: 5
Line Number: 12
Page Number: 11
Household Members:
Name Age
Mary J Bower 46
Wm H S Bower 27 [Shown as a soldier]
Ida Bower 14 [Ida Kirk Bower]
Julia Tillelcomick 27
*******************
That's a pretty short path for provenance. For the Gatch brothers to have provided the relics they would have had to give them to a 2nd cousin a couple of steps higher in the Goodwin lineage. The family legend is most likely correct re: Lt William H. Bower.

[Steve Whitlock]

I should have included more information for Lt. Bower, who I showed in the 1875 census; however, he died in Aug 1875 and I have attached his obit. His sister, Ida, may have acquired the relics at that time, unless he already gave them to her prior to his death. The obit mentions that he lost his right arm during action. He was originally in an artillery battery, but later was in the 24th Reg, Co. G Veteran Reserve Corp. The Veteran Reserve Corp was established to free more fit men to serve in battle while those with serious injuries, but who still wanted to support the war effort were assigned to the Veteran Reserve Corp. I have a document that lists Lt. William H. Bower assigned there, but it's 3.8 MB, and I can't attach it myself. From my notes:

5. William H. Bower, U.S. Civil War soldier, 1861-1865 Veteran Reserve Index. Second Lieutenant (Union) in the Veteran Reserve Corps 24the Regiment in Washington, DC, Company G. Note: See also, 22 V.R.C. (Note: Philip said this Corps was made up of wounded soldiers. William Bower lost an arm in Virginia.)

6. Another soldier, Private Milo Alfred Jones, wounded in Battle of Gettysburg July2, 1863 was transferred to 24th Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps and while serving was stationed in DC. He was one of the soldiers ordered to guard Ford's Theatre. Evidently there is a letter he wrote to his sister telling her of guarding the Ford Theatre.

The 2nd attachment shows a couple of soldiers guarding Ford's Theatre.

[Steve]

(05-08-2020 03:59 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  I don't know who the 2 gentlemen were that Dr. Leale mentions, who arrived before Dr. Taft and Dr. King.

"When I reached the President he was in a state of general paralysis,[29] his eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous.[30] I placed my finger on his right radial pulse but could perceive no movement of the artery. As two gentlemen now arrived, I requested them to assist me to place him in a recumbent position, and as I held his head and shoulders, while doing this my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his left shoulder."

His account for the arrival of Dr King and Dr Taft comes later in the narrative.

Steve,

One of the two people who assisted Dr. Leale moving Lincoln off the rocking chair was Capt. Edwin Bedee of the 12th New Hampshire Inf. who was the second person to climb up into the box. From the way Leale described it, it seems like the unknown man who preceeded Bedee climbing up into the box was the other man who assisted. I haven't found any first-hand accounts by Bedee but I've found this account written three decades later by Asa Bartlett based on Bartlett's interview of Bedee:

https://books.google.com/books?id=TXAhAA...&q&f=false

Bedee says the man who climbed into the box before him claimed to be a doctor. (Note that Bartlett's description of Bedee's account seems to confuse this physician with Leale once describing how another doctor (Leale) broke through the box door.)

Clara Harris's 18 April 1865 affidavit describes this unknown man as dressed in the uniform of a naval surgeon:

   
(ref: New York Times - 23 April 1865 pg. 3)

At first I thought this person was Dr. Taft and that Clara Harris was mistaken about the uniform. (She had been with Bedee; he was a returned POW not a member of the VRC). But Taft's description of the night didn't match and he describes hearing Leale's calls for water. Also, one of the spectators said Taft climbed after the others climbed into the box:

https://books.google.com/books?id=hbesCQ...ed&f=false

(By this time Clara Harris was with Mrs Lincoln according to Leale's account and likely wouldn't have been there to help Taft into the box like the others as described in her affidavit.)

This "naval surgeon" doesn't seemed to have crossed over with the President to Peterson House, so I can understand why Dr. Leale wouldn't know his name. But once Leale starts examining the body he seems to disappear completely from the accounts. Bedee and Harris both claim the man was a doctor. Why didn't he make more of an impression on the others? I haven't been able to find any later newspaper accounts of this man coming forward and giving his story.

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-12-2020 04:37 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(05-08-2020 03:59 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  I don't know who the 2 gentlemen were that Dr. Leale mentions, who arrived before Dr. Taft and Dr. King.

"When I reached the President he was in a state of general paralysis,[29] his eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous.[30] I placed my finger on his right radial pulse but could perceive no movement of the artery. As two gentlemen now arrived, I requested them to assist me to place him in a recumbent position, and as I held his head and shoulders, while doing this my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his left shoulder."

His account for the arrival of Dr King and Dr Taft comes later in the narrative.

Steve,

One of the two people who assisted Dr. Leale moving Lincoln off the rocking chair was Capt. Edwin Bedee of the 12th New Hampshire Inf. who was the second person to climb up into the box. From the way Leale described it, it seems like the unknown man who preceeded Bedee climbing up into the box was the other man who assisted. I haven't found any first-hand accounts by Bedee but I've found this account written three decades later by Asa Bartlett based on Bartlett's interview of Bedee:

https://books.google.com/books?id=TXAhAA...&q&f=false

Bedee says the man who climbed into the box before him claimed to be a doctor. (Note that Bartlett's description of Bedee's account seems to confuse this physician with Leale once describing how another doctor (Leale) broke through the box door.)

Clara Harris's 18 April 1865 affidavit describes this unknown man as dressed in the uniform of a naval surgeon:


(ref: New York Times - 23 April 1865 pg. 3)

At first I thought this person was Dr. Taft and that Clara Harris was mistaken about the uniform. (She had been with Bedee; he was a returned POW not a member of the VRC). But Taft's description of the night didn't match and he describes hearing Leale's calls for water. Also, one of the spectators said Taft climbed after the others climbed into the box:

https://books.google.com/books?id=hbesCQ...ed&f=false

(By this time Clara Harris was with Mrs Lincoln according to Leale's account and likely wouldn't have been there to help Taft into the box like the others as described in her affidavit.)

This "naval surgeon" doesn't seemed to have crossed over with the President to Peterson House, so I can understand why Dr. Leale wouldn't know his name. But once Leale starts examining the body he seems to disappear completely from the accounts. Bedee and Harris both claim the man was a doctor. Why didn't he make more of an impression on the others? I haven't been able to find any later newspaper accounts of this man coming forward and giving his story.

Steve Williams,

Thank you for the information. To add to the Clara Harris deposition here is the deposition of Henry Reed Rathbone. Note that even tho Oliver Gatch claims the brothers interfaced with Maj. Rathbone, he makes no mention of them, or any doctors by name. Also, no mention of a Naval Surgeon, and C. D. Gatch was an Army Surgeon.

"Henry Reed Rathbone, Deposition on the events of April 14, 1865, Ford's Theater, Washington D.C.
Henry Reed Rathbone, circa 1865, detail
Major Henry Rathbone, together with his betrothed, Clara Harris, had been with President and Mrs. Lincoln in the presidential box at Ford's Theater when John Wilkes Booth entered and fatally shot the chief executive. Rathbone grappled with Booth and received a deep cut on his arm in the struggle as Booth broke away and escaped. Three days later, Major Rathbone was deposed at the office of Justice Abram B. Olin in preparation for a possible future trial of the fugitive. Rathbone gave a clear and succinct description of the crime from his point of view, up to the time when the mortally wounded Lincoln had been removed to the Peterson House. Henry Rathbone struggled the rest of life with the psychological impact of that evening and slipped into mental illness. Tragically, while the family were on diplomatic service in Germany in 1883, he murdered Clara, now his wife and mother of his three children, with a small pistol and stabbed himself several times with a dagger, the same weapons Booth used that night in April 1865. He survived but ended his days in a German asylum for the criminally insane. (By John Osborne) See also: "Major Rathbone and Miss Harris: Guests of the Lincolns in the Ford's Theatre Box," Lincoln Lore: Bulletin of the National Lincoln Life Foundation (Fort Wayne, Indiana) No 162, August, 1971, pps. 1-3.

Source citation:
Reprinted in Clara E. Laughlin, The Death of Lincoln: The Story of Booth's Plot, His Deed and the Penalty (New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1909), 289-292.
Author:
Rathbone, Henry Reed
Recipient:
Olin, Abram Baldwin
Type:
Judicial record
Date Certainty:
Exact
Transcriber:
John Osborne, Dickinson College
Transcription date:
04/06/2015
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
MAJOR RATHBONE'S STATEMENT

Before Judge A. B. Olin, Justice Supreme Court, District of Columbia, on the 17th of April, Major Henry R. Rathbone subscribed and swore to the following statement:

That on April 14th, 1865, at about twenty minutes past eight o'clock in the evening, he, with Miss Clara H. Harris, left his residence, at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets, and joined the President and Mrs. Lincoln, and went with them in their carriage to Ford's Theatre, in Tenth Street. The box assigned to the President is in the second tier, on the right-hand side of the audience, and was occupied by the President and Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and the deponent — and by no other person. The box is entered by passing from the front of the building, in the rear of the dress circle, to a small entry or passage-way, about eight feet in length and four feet in width.
This passage-way is entered by a door, which opens on the inner side. The door is so placed as to make an acute angle between it and the wall behind it on the inner side. At the inner end of this passage-way is another door, standing squarely across, and opening into the box. On the left-hand side of the passage-way, and very near the inner end, is a third door, which also opens into the box. This latter door was closed. The party entered the box through the door at the end of the passage-way. The box is so constructed that it may be divided into two by a movable partition, one of the doors described opening into each. The front of the box is about ten or twelve feet in length, and in the centre of the railing is a small pillar overhung with a curtain. The depth of the box from front to rear is about nine feet. The elevation of the box above the stage, including the railing, is about ten or twelve feet.
When the party entered the box, a cushioned arm-chair [Rocking chair] was standing at the end of the box farthest from the stage and nearest the audience. This was also the nearest point to the door by which the box is entered. The President seated himself in this chair — and, except that he once left the chair for the purpose of putting on his overcoat, remained so seated until he was shot. Mrs. Lincoln was seated in a chair between the President and the pillar in' the centre above described. At the opposite end of the box — that nearest the end of the stage — were two chairs. In one of these, standing in the corner, Miss Harris was seated. At her left hand, and along the wall running from that end of the box to the rear, stood a small sofa. At the end of this sofa, next to Miss Harris, this deponent was seated. The distance between this deponent and the President, as they were sitting, was about seven or eight feet; and the distance between this deponent and the door was about the same. The distance between the President, as he sat, and the door, was about four or five feet. The door, according to the recollection of this deponent, was not closed during the evening. When the second scene of the third act was being performed, and while this deponent was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage, with his back toward the door, he heard the discharge of a pistol behind him, and looking around, saw, through the smoke, a man between the door and the President. At the same time deponent heard him shout some word, which deponent thinks was "Freedom!" This deponent instantly sprang toward him and seized him; he wrested himself from the grasp, and made a violent thrust at the breast of deponent with a large knife. Deponent parried the blow by striking it up, and received a wound several inches deep in his left arm, between the elbow and the shoulder. The orifice of thewound is about an inch and a half in length, and extends upward toward the shoulder several inches. The man rushed to the front of the box, and deponent endeavoured to seize him again, but only caught his clothes as he was leaping over the railing of the box. The clothes, as deponent believes, were torn in this attempt to seize him.
As he went over upon the stage deponent cried out, with a loud voice: "Stop that man!" Deponent then turned to the President; his position was not changed; his head was slightly bent forward, and his eyes were closed. Deponent saw that he was unconscious, and supposing him mortally wounded, rushed to the door for the purpose of calling medical aid. On reaching the outer door of the passage-way, as above described, deponent found it barred by a heavy piece of plank, one end of which was secured in the wall, and the other resting against the door. It had been so securely fastened that it required considerable force to remove it. This wedge, or bar, was about four feet from the floor. Persons upon the outside were beating against the door for the purpose of entering. Deponent removed the bar, and the door was opened.
Several persons, who represented themselves to be surgeons, were allowed to enter. Deponent saw there Colonel Crawford, and requested him to prevent other persons from entering the box. Deponent then returned to the box, and found the surgeons examining the President's person. They had not yet discovered the wound. As soon as it was discovered it was determined to remove him from the theatre. He was carried out, and this deponent then proceeded to assist Mrs. Lincoln, who was intensely excited, to leave the theatre. On reaching the head of the stairs, deponent requested Major Potter to aid him in assisting Mrs. Lincoln across the street, to the house to which the President was being conveyed. The wound which the deponent had received had been bleeding very profusely, and on reaching the house, feeling very faint from the loss of blood, he seated himself in the hall, and soon after fainted away, and was laid upon the floor. Upon the return of consciousness deponent was taken in a carriage to his residence.
In the review of the transaction it is the confident belief of this deponent that the time which elapsed between the discharge of the pistol and the time when the assassin leaped from the box did not exceed thirty seconds. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Miss Harris had left their seats.

John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln during the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford’s Theatre
Lincoln's Assassination
Rathbone, Clara Hamilton Harris
Clara Hamilton Harris Rathbone, circa 1865, detail
Lincoln, Abraham
Abraham Lincoln, November 8, 1863, detail
Lincoln, Mary Todd
Mary Todd Lincoln, circa 1846, detail
Ford's Theatre, Washington, DC
How to Cite This Page: "Henry Reed Rathbone, Deposition on the events of April 14, 1865, Ford's Theater, Washington D.C.," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/43879."
******************************************

Among those who mention C.D. Gatch as present by Lincoln's deathbed is Lafayette Baker in his book "The Secret Service in the Civil War".
********************
Presidential Physician: Charles A. Gatch
Presidents

Abraham Lincoln

· Assassination: Consultant Physician
Notes

Gatch was the third or fourth physician to reach Lincoln' s box in Ford's Theater.
He had ``served through the war with the armies of General Rosecrans.'' [Kunhardt p45]
Roos names him as C.D. Gatch

References

Roos CA. Physicians to the Presidents, and their patients: a bibliography. Bull Med Library Assoc. 1961; 49(3): 291-360.
Kunhardt DM, Kunhardt PB Jr. Twenty Days: A Narrative in Text and Pictures of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Twenty Days and Nights That Followed. New York: Castle Books, 1965.
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"The Secret Service in the Civil War" (Expanded, Annotated)
By Lafayette C. Baker, names C. D. Gatch as one of those surrounding the deathbed of Abraham Lincoln
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"The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth"
By George Alfred Townsend, names Dr. C. D. Gatch as one in attendance at Lincoln’s time of death.

[RJNorton]

(05-13-2020 07:15 AM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  That on April 14th, 1865, at about twenty minutes past eight o'clock in the evening, he, with Miss Clara H. Harris, left his residence, at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets, and joined the President and Mrs. Lincoln, and went with them in their carriage to Ford's Theatre, in Tenth Street.

Did the President and Mrs. Lincoln pick up Clara and Henry at the Harris' residence? Or were Clara and Henry already at the White House when the Presidential party departed for Ford's Theatre? John Fazio has some interesting research on this topic. Please see his article entitled "How Did the Presidential Party Get to the Theater?" on this page.

[Anita]

(05-07-2020 08:44 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(05-06-2020 04:13 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, here is the information I have on the chair.

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Va. Family Donates Relic to Ford's Theatre

Chair Was Removed From Lincoln's Box After Assassination

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 12, 2005; Page B03

Inside the box at Ford's Theatre where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, most of the furnishings are carefully chosen replicas: the heavy gold drapes and tassels, the red, gold and white floral carpet, the presidential rocker.

But last week, the National Park Service got hold of the real thing. A carved-back, cane-seat parlor chair that was in the presidential box the night Lincoln was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth -- perhaps the one Mary Todd Lincoln was sitting in -- was donated to the government by a Virginia family that had kept the artifact for 140 years.

The carved-back, cane-seat parlor chair was taken when the theater was converted to an office building. (Gloria Swift)

"This is a fabulous thing we've been given. We're very excited about it," said Gloria Swift, the Park Service's curator for Ford's Theatre.

After the assassination darkened the theater in 1865, the government bought the structure on 10th Street NW and turned it into a three-story office building. One of the workers dismantling the theater claimed that his boss had told him to take anything he wanted out of the presidential box. He removed the parlor chair and gave it to the Virginia family, where it was handed down for generations, Swift said.

The family, which Swift said has asked to remain anonymous, tried to sell the chair to the Park Service in the 1950s, when the theater box was being reconditioned as a historic site. But the agency didn't have the cash to buy it and made a replica instead, Swift said.

The current matriarch of the family told the Park Service recently that ownership of the chair was weighing on her.

"All her friends told her she is crazy, that she should sell it on eBay," Swift said. "But she said that giving it to us felt like the right thing to do."

Historians checked the chair for authenticity; the age, markings, style, material and documentation all checked out. And it perfectly matches the chair that Mary Lincoln is sitting on, as well as one empty chair, in a sketch of the assassination in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, the period's paper of record.

The chair was put back in the box last week and can be viewed from behind plexiglass on tours of the theater or during performances. It was reunited with two other authentic pieces from that night -- a tufted settee and a portrait of George Washington.

The crown jewel of that tableau, however, remains out of reach for Swift.

"We'd love to have the rocker that President Lincoln was sitting in," she said, sighing. That chair, seized as evidence by the U.S. War Department for the conspirators' trials, was returned in 1921 to the family who owned the theater, then sold in an auction to Henry Ford (who is no relation to the theater Fords).

It remains in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

"Our replica is pretty good, though," Swift said.

Roger,

Suzanne Hallstrom asked me to advise you that your photo of Mary Todd Lincoln's chair at the Ford Theatre has been added to Genetic Lincoln, crediting you, and includes a link to the Symposium. She also asks that I convey her "Thank you!" to you.

Steve,

I went on Genetic Lincoln and found the photo of the chair but no credit to Roger or link to the Symposium. Did I miss it?

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-13-2020 11:49 AM)Anita Wrote:  

(05-07-2020 08:44 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

Roger,

Suzanne Hallstrom asked me to advise you that your photo of Mary Todd Lincoln's chair at the Ford Theatre has been added to Genetic Lincoln, crediting you, and includes a link to the Symposium. She also asks that I convey her "Thank you!" to you.

Steve,

I went on Genetic Lincoln and found the photo of the chair but no credit to Roger or link to the Symposium. Did I miss it?
[/quote]

Anita,

I just went to Genetic Lincoln and on the Relics tab, under the photo of Lt. William H. Bower is:

"May 7, 2020 update: Ancient mitochondrial DNA has been successfully sequenced from one of the wood pieces accompanying the swatch of cloth assassination relic (see photo above). Although it was not a match to Lincoln’s X1c mtDNA profile, it was an identical match to Major Henry Reed Rathbone’s D4i2 mtDNA profile. Below is a photo of the chair where Mary Todd Lincoln was probably seated in the presidential box the night Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. It is hoped that an analysis comparison will confirm this chair to be the source of the “wood pieces” pictured above with the curtain swatch. The wood pieces appear to be pieces of rush seating material. The chair’s seat also appears to be woven rush material. We are grateful to Roger J. Norton of the Lincoln Discussion Symposium for bringing this chair to our attention. The chair is part of the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln collection."

The next to last sentence says "We are grateful to Roger J. Norton of the Lincoln Discussion Symposium for bringing this chair to our attention." The Lincoln Discussion Symposium part is hi-lited, and can be clicked on to go to the Symposium. I guess you missed it.

[Anita]

Yes, I missed it. Thanks.!