Lucas Cabin

[Laurie Verge]

I believe that Mike's information on the cabin came from what James O. Hall had found out years before. When we did the first Booth escape route tours in 1977, he would point out the general location that old-timers had described to him. We can thank JOH for defining the landmarks along the escape route while most of us were still teenagers.

John Stanton - when we first started doing the tours, I can also remember seeing portions of the old roadbed running parallel to the current road leading to King George. Are they still visible?

[John Stanton]

(02-15-2013 09:58 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  I believe that Mike's information on the cabin came from what James O. Hall had found out years before. When we did the first Booth escape route tours in 1977, he would point out the general location that old-timers had described to him. We can thank JOH for defining the landmarks along the escape route while most of us were still teenagers.

John Stanton - when we first started doing the tours, I can also remember seeing portions of the old roadbed running parallel to the current road leading to King George. Are they still visible?

Yes Laurie, parts of the road can be seen, in the woods on the side away from Cleydael. But not for long. The land was sold. New Drive ways, huge houses on large acre sites. The development reaches from Cleydael back to St. Pauls, and down 218 past Caledon Park. (That's better than another Landfill).

[Jim Garrett]

Mike was on an early tour with Bert Sheldon, spring 1975. Bert pointed the remains of where the Jett cabin was. It was nothing more than a pile of timber, but it was a point of reference for where the Lucas cabin was. On Mike's next visit it, the pile of timber was gone. Mike said that the cabin was probably gone by the time Oldroyd came through. Thanks to Mike Kauffman for the quick response.

[L Verge]

Jim,

The time frame that I was referring to Mr. Hall having tracked down these various sites was back in the 1960s and early-70s. I knew Bert Sheldon, and he and Mr. Hall as well as John C. Brennan and others did the trek in cars for many years before we decided that the Surratt Society could do it for more people on a bus.

I'm sure that Mike will tell you that he met many of us while we were all tagging along with Hall and Co. to a wide variety of places related to the assassination and the escape route. I have often told people on the Booth tours, when Mike was still doing the narration, that he was a skinny teenager when we first met. My first thought was, "What does this young kid know about the assassination?" I was an elderly 30 at the time -- and I quickly learned that Mike knew quite a lot about the assassination! Just as I had, he developed his interest at an early age thanks to a grandparent. I remember us all taking notes when we traveled with Mr. Hall and others.

All you have to do is look at the extensive papers that Mr. Hall donated to Surratt House to learn that he was on top of this subject before most of us were out of diapers. He first developed his interest during WWII when part of his training in military investigations assigned him the Conspiracy Trial. He told me that he realized there were big holes in what he was reading. After the war, he went to work for the Labor Department in Texas investigating claims. That brought him higher positions in the Department here in D.C. and afforded him the wonderful resources of the Archives, Library of Congress, etc. From there, it's history... He left big footprints for us to walk in. His own book never got published, and I think that one of the reasons was that he was so busy helping others with their projects that he never finished his.

[RJNorton]

Here's a picture of Mr. James O. Hall and Mike Kauffman taken in 1979.

[Jim Garrett]

Which one is Mr. Hall????

---

The Lincoln Assassination research and wonk community owes so much to Mr. Hall. I am a frequent visitor to the research center and am astounded by his commitment to finding out the minor details as well as the major ones. I feel very priviledged to have the opportunity to follow his trails and particularly enjoy his humor in his side notes.

His legacy is huge and everyone today is either directly or indirectly (more of us directly) beholden from his dogged research.

[RJNorton]

Jim, you said that so well. Here's another photo - one of my favorites:

[L Verge]

That's one of my favorites also. It was taken by Kieran McAuliffe of Canada when Kieran interviewed JOH for an article in North & South Magazine. We have it framed and hanging in the James O. Hall Research Center at Surratt House. Some of my other great photos of him are with my daughter, whom he met when she was three and helped me raise. I have photos of him at her wedding, and the last ones were taken with my grandson about age three sitting on his lap.

Just a side note: Mr. Hall continued to conduct our Booth Tours until he was well into his 80s - and he never accepted one dime in payment. Also, many people do not know that he was very well-versed in general history on Abraham Lincoln (not just assassination-related), an expert consultant on George Washington for the administrators at Mount Vernon, and a great student of opera. He had many talents, but never boasted about any of them. Even when I would pass on some hare-brained new story on the Lincoln assassination, he would shake his head gently and say, "Oh my... where do we start?"

[Jim Garrett]

I rumaging through his files, one can see a mind with a great sense of balance and humor. His notes to historians, librarians, descendants and other researchers are always polite and sometimes a little self-effacing. A true gentleman who left this old a much better place than he found in in his own not-so-small way.

I wish I had known him.

[L Verge]

I wish that everyone on this forum could have known him. He was the epitome of what a scholar and a gentleman should be.

[John Stanton]

Re Post #14. Rsmyth. I think you have a typo in your post. I can't find a "Rt. 296" in Cleydael. The Main road passing Cleydael is "Rt. 206". Could that be the location you mean? (296 may be a designation that is no longer used. It is fairly recently, that we got house numbers and street names. - We were Postal Routes, with box numbers.) The 206 and The Blvd address is close to what everyone believes was the location of the Cabin.

[L Verge]

Yes, Rich, it should be Rt. 206.

[BettyO]

(02-17-2013 02:33 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I wish that everyone on this forum could have known him. He was the epitome of what a scholar and a gentleman should be.

I, too wish that everyone could have known Mr. Hall --

He was always the one we turned to for ANYTHING!

I'll never forget when we found the Hartranft Letter Book and I borrowed a quarter to call him on the pay phone at Gettysburg College, (no cells phones back in 1983) telling him what we'd found.

"I had ceased to think that thing existed!" He explained excitedly. "Can you wait? I'll be there as soon as I can!"

I told him "Why, yes!"

He was up there with Nancy Griffith and I in an hour and a half....

OMG - I miss him and his always cherry sounding, "Cheers!"




Mr Hall at Garrett's Farm about 1984

[Jim Garrett]

I was recently loaned a book "Capitol Losses" on the buildings that have been torn down in the name of "Progress". It deals not omly with grand and historic building, but also the small less significant places that are more of a footnote to history.

The Lucas cabin certainly would not be considered historically significant to most. But it did have great historical significant to some. At some point over 100 years ago, it fell into neglect and eventually probably blendedinto history. It could have been saved at some point at relatively little cost. You can't undo "too late".

Unfortunately the Peyton-Brockenbough house in Port Royal will probably succumb to the same fate. The property is long vacant and in disrepair. It is held together with cables running through the building to keep the walls from bowing out. The current owner would like to sell the property, but wants way more than what the property is worth. The restoration costs would be huge and in these tight economic times, there does not appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Lets hope it doesn't go the way of the Lucas cabin, but someday can go the way of Claydael.

[BettyO]

Capitol Losses is a grand book....

Unfortunately, places like the Lucas Cabin fall by the wayside.

I worked for 8 years at a historic house, Maymont, here in Richmond. I'm still close friends with the site manager and others and go out there alot. They just recently about 3 years ago restored their basement as to what it originally looked like - and now give "backstairs tours" of the servant's quarters. These tours are extremely popular with the public. The house is an 1890s mansion which has been maintained since 1925 as a museum/living history site. The basement as well as the attic was the servant's quarters. They were never maintained - why? Because it was thought up until recently that "noone" wanted to see servant's quarters or understand the history of how they lived! Foolish thought! In order to understand history, we have to understand all aspects of it - both upper, middle AND lower classes. This is the only way, in my estimation, to fully understand the past and the people who lived it.

Unfortunately, historically significant places like the Lucas Cabin were also given the same thought in the last century - and left to fall into ruin and demolition. I pray that the Peyton House doesn't fall into the same category due to lack of funds -