Louis Weichmann

[Pamela]

I tried to post a picture of Annie Weichmann but apparently I've used up my KB allotment.

[RJNorton]

Pam, please send me the picture, and I can post it for you.

[BettyO]

Yes, please Do post! This is fascinating stuff!

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Pam for sending these images and information.

Pam writes, "This is Annie Johnson Weichmann at age 82. She is seated on the left and her sister Emma on the right surrounded by family. The picture was taken in West Branch, Iowa where her niece Carrie lived. Carrie was one of the little girls at Annie’s house in the census report. The second is a chart that contains a lot of Johnson family history and if you look closely you can see mention of Louis and his part in history. There is also information that provides clues as to the dynamics that may have contributed to the failure of their marriage. There is also a very famous relative who was also important in American history."

[Pamela]

thanks Roger! I can't enlarge the images though and there is a lot of interesting info on the chart that's hard to read otherwise.

[RJNorton]

I downsized them for use on the forum, but please see if this and this are better.

[BettyO]

Not to be flippant, but the lady standing in the rear on the right somewhat resembles friend and Surratt House colleague, Joan Chaconas!

[Gene C]

Many thanks to Pam for sending these images and information.

The second is a chart that contains a lot of Johnson family history and if you look closely you can see mention of Louis and his part in history. There is also information that provides clues as to the dynamics that may have contributed to the failure of their marriage.

I'm clueless. Are your refering to the shyster lawyer or the civil war doctor, or something else?

It's amazing to me how you all find these documents and photo's.

[Pamela]

Thanks again, Roger. Betty, should Joan check her family tree??

First, I think I have nailed down some info on Chris Ritter, the Anderson butcher from Bavaria with the Booth neck carbuncle who dogged Weichmann in his last years. He lived with his wife Mary and some young kids in Philadelphia when Lou lived there. His occupation was baker. His age listed as 26. In 1880 he lived in Aurora with his family and was a butcher, his age listed as 34. I didn't find 1890, but in the 1900 census there was an inmate in Wayne Indiana, Christopher Ritter, the name if the facility not on the census form. The birth date is 1842 (same as Weichmann's), birthplace Germany, same for his parents. This Chris Ritter died in Wayne at age 58 one year later, presumably while still incarcerated. Is it likely that there was another Chris Ritter, born in Germany, parents born in Germany, living in Indiana around his age? If it was the same CR he might have had time at last to work on his book, depending on how long he was incarcerated before his death.

Ewald left that out of his article, just an oversight I'm sure. Did he ever answer the tabloidesque question he posed about Chris's possible connection to the Surratts/John Surratt?

[RJNorton]

Long ago I asked this question, and my aging brain does not recall a specific reply (not sure if there was one). For some reason I think I may have read somewhere (years ago) that Weichmann said that on two occasions bullets whizzed past his head at night in the years after the assassination. He felt someone was trying to kill him. Am I imagining this?

[Pamela]

It just occurred to me--was Chris Ritter executed?

Weichmann's sister said that a man with a gun followed him home from work one night and Lou was saved by a woman who gestured for him to come into her house. She was the one who saw a man with a gun. Also, a man dressed as a woman came to his door and Lou's father refused to call Lou down as requested by the stranger. Lou's father followed the man/woman down the street and saw him get into a carriage with some other men. The family believed he would have tried to kill Lou. I can't remember if Lou mentioned other incidences in his book, but he did say that he believed if he was not in prison just before and during the trial, someone would have killed him.

---

I didn't see his name on a list of condemned and executed in Indiana since 1900. Maybe his Booth neck carbuncle came back with a vengeance.

[Pamela]

I came across a marriage announcement for Lou and Annie in the Hoosier State Chronicles online, of course. Terre Haute daily gazette, Volume 1, Number 131, 31 October 1870:

Weichmann, whose connection with the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and the Surratt trial will be remembered, was recently married, at Philadelphia to Miss Annie Johnson, a young lady who has been quite prominent in the temperance cause, and has served as S.W. Vice Templar of Pennsylvannia. After the execution of Mrs. Surratt, Weichmann was appointed to a position in the Custom House at Philadelphia, but having been removed shortly afterward, he was re-appointed on the ascension of President Grant, and still retains his post.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I came across a marriage announcement for Lou and Annie in the Hoosier State Chronicles online, of course. Terre Haute daily gazette, Volume 1, Number 131, 31 October 1870:

Weichmann, whose connection with the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and the Surratt trial will be remembered, was recently married, at Philadelphia to Miss Annie Johnson, a young lady who has been quite prominent in the temperance cause, and has served as S.W. Vice Templar of Pennsylvannia. After the execution of Mrs. Surratt, Weichmann was appointed to a position in the Custom House at Philadelphia, but having been removed shortly afterward, he was re-appointed on the ascension of President Grant, and still retains his post.

I had a look on another site. The story seems to have been picked up by papers across the country.

I wonder what drove the couple to separate. Perhaps Annie's activism in the temperance cause took up too much of her time for Weichmann's taste.

[Pamela]

Maybe. Also, there must have been a lot of turmoil when the family had their fortune stolen by the shyster lawyer and I was told by a Johnson descendant that her father was a curmudgeon. Since they had no children she might have felt obligated to go back home and keep house for him and he and Louis might not have gotten along. It seems strange that the first two years after their marriage he lived with his family, according to the city directory. I assume she lived there, too. I wonder why they didn't wait to marry until he could afford to live independently with her but maybe that was common then. She travelled extensively during their marriage, to London, etc, and I assume he paid the bill, but didn't get to go along because of his job.

The point is, that there are factors that could have contributed to the failure of their marriage other that that Weichmann was a heel.

[Gene C]

I wonder what drove the couple to separate. Perhaps Annie's activism in the temperance cause took up too much of her time for Weichmann's taste.

Perhaps she was an intemperate woman.
(did they actually divorce, or have a permanent seperation or even annulment?)