(01-30-2017 02:55 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Samuel Knapp Chester also said Booth had been in Boston.

That is what Booth told Chester - but was it true? Did he come back from Montreal and cover his tracks by saying he was in Boston?

I'm just wondering why only 2 nondescript people claim to have seen him in Boston and only after he became the most famous man in the country.

Maybe Booth got his reputation as being good with a gun from this possibly non-existent event. I mean why 'shoot between' your legs if you're only showing off to one person? I would think Booth would demand a bigger audience then that.

Saw this excerpt online to share. The timing 'a week or ten days before the assassination of Lincoln' would correspond to Booth's supposed trip to Boston.

A remarkable feature in Montreal theatricals during 1865 is recorded by Mr. Henry Hogan, who writes me that John Wilkes Booth played a short engagement under the Buckland management, preliminary to the regular opening. Mr. Hogan says that after his performance was over Booth would hurry over to the "Hall" and down to Joe Dion's billiard rooms to play with the best in the city. He was here just a week or ten days before the assassination of Lincoln; in fact, when. the news reached here it was recalled by the friends of Booth that, just before leaving Montreal, he told them that they would hear in a very short time of something which would startle the world. His act on I4th April, 1865, caused a terrible sensation in this city, more especially among his theatrical col leagues and friends from the South, whom he had met at the ': Hall."

https://books.google.com/books?id=svQ_AA...al&f=false

Right below that is a letter that Booth wrote to friends - one of which is "Thomas Harbine..." Could that be "our" Thomas Harbin? The letter appears to be in reference to reading engagements in January in St. Joseph (Missouri?).

That would change the timeline of things wouldn't it. Isn't that Booth's trip through a snowstorm? Got to check my Kauffman.

(01-30-2017 05:35 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  

(01-30-2017 02:55 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Samuel Knapp Chester also said Booth had been in Boston.

That is what Booth told Chester - but was it true? Did he come back from Montreal and cover his tracks by saying he was in Boston?

I'm just wondering why only 2 nondescript people claim to have seen him in Boston and only after he became the most famous man in the country.

Maybe Booth got his reputation as being good with a gun from this possibly non-existent event. I mean why 'shoot between' your legs if you're only showing off to one person? I would think Booth would demand a bigger audience then that.

I was researching recently what Booth was doing on April 5. Fortune's Fool has some citations for Booth visiting the shooting gallery in Boston. I couldn't find the Dec 4, 1910 New York Telegraph article that Alford cites but I did find a fascinating article in the Nov. 20, 1910 New York Times about a young boy who made "quite a decent salary for a youngster by setting up pins in the bowling alley of Floyd & Edwards, then in a basement near the Parker House." Since the Telegraph article was published a couple of weeks later, I assume it's the same article.

This boy, John J. Pendergast, describes a "'distinguished-looking man with thick black hair...'" who walked into the bowling alley where there were a few other bowlers. "Connected with the bowling alley was a shooting gallery where many revolver competitions were held." Booth arranged a match with Edwards who was a "'wonderful shot.'" After Edwards was done, Booth shot at the targets and then began the "'fancy shooting.'" After Booth left, Pendergast asked Edwards the stranger's name. "'That excited individual told me it was no other than Wilkes Booth, the actor."

There is a John J. Pendergast in the 1860 Census who was born in 1853 and lived in Boston.

Thanks Linda,
So now we've got a witnesses who claims Booth was playing pool in Montreal and witnesses who claim he was in Boston bowling and shooting guns between his legs. Isn't research fun? Who do you believe?

I'm leaning towards Montreal. Booth was in financial straits at the time and there was money there. I'm sure he would have gotten paid for giving a dramatic reading, if nothing else. But I could be convinced otherwise.

I think he was playing croquette with Quantrill and Jesse James in St. Joseph, MO

I don't know who Alfred Smith was, but he also claimed Booth went to Boston.

From The Evidence:

Thanks Roger
But this one is also hard to believe. The only difference between this and the other witnesses is that Alfred put it in a telegram. Now we have Booth taking the train to NY, a steamboat to RI, picking up a woman, taking a walk with her and leaving at 3:00. Sounds to me that Alfred must have been the proprietor of the Aguntneck house and he's trying to use the tragedy to drum up business. Like the proprietor in the Pennsylvania hotel who claimed Booth predicted Lincoln's death by poisoning, written on a window glass.

(01-31-2017 10:54 AM)JMadonna Wrote:  Sounds to me that Alfred must have been the proprietor of the Aguntneck house and he's trying to use the tragedy to drum up business..

I agree - something is "off" here. I think the correct spelling is Aquidneck House, and the gentleman misspelled the place where he worked? Strange, if he were the proprietor, and it does sound like he might have been.

(unless the Aquidneck House was also called the Aguntneck House - I do not know)

Mary Edith Powel, a prominent citizen of Newport, also claimed later in her life to have seen Booth at Newport (she thought it was around April 6).

https://newport.oncell.com/en/mary-edith...29826.html

It appears that Smith was a clerk at the hotel. It's difficult to tell from the original letter whether he's misspelling the hotel name or just has sloppy handwriting. (I tried to upload the letter but couldn't get the image to appear.)

The entry in the hotel registry has been sold at auction. It does bear the date of April 5.

https://historical.ha.com/itm/autographs...14-61205.s

the Aquidneck is a slightly smaller water fowl than the Aguntneck, with the most visible difference being in the smaller body size, smaller but more pointed beak, and the adult male having blue coloring on its wingtips. The Aguntneck has a larger wingspan with slightly green tail feathers. They are commonly found in the marshy areas of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
While not on the endangered species list, their numbers have decreased significantly in the past 20 years. And I made all that up!

(01-31-2017 03:57 PM)Gene C Wrote:  the Aquidneck is a slightly smaller water fowl than the Aguntneck, with the most visible difference being in the smaller body size, smaller but more pointed beak, and the adult male having blue coloring on its wingtips. The Aguntneck has a larger wingspan with slightly green tail feathers. They are commonly found in the marshy areas of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
While not on the endangered species list, their numbers have decreased significantly in the past 20 years. And I made all that up!

I read all that and was getting ready to comment that I thought Aquidneck was an Indian name! You are getting too darned good at confusing things...

(01-31-2017 12:59 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Mary Edith Powel, a prominent citizen of Newport, also claimed later in her life to have seen Booth at Newport (she thought it was around April 6).

https://newport.oncell.com/en/mary-edith...29826.html

It appears that Smith was a clerk at the hotel. It's difficult to tell from the original letter whether he's misspelling the hotel name or just has sloppy handwriting. (I tried to upload the letter but couldn't get the image to appear.)

The entry in the hotel registry has been sold at auction. It does bear the date of April 5.

https://historical.ha.com/itm/autographs...14-61205.s

With all due respect to Mary Edith Powell I find it hard to believe that JWB came up from Washington to wander idly in front of her house and try to pick up teen age girls. Where was the woman that Smith says he checked in with?

I'm sure she was playing to the legend that Booth was seen there and thought she'd use it to spice up her memoirs. After some forty years later who's going to contradict her?

It would be interesting to know if anyone authenticated Booth's signature. I wasn't able to find that information from the auction site.

Someone thought the hotel register was authentic enough to pay $20,000 for it. As for the lady companion, she could have remained at the hotel while Booth went for his stroll.

Smith doesn't seem to have capitalized on Booth's visit to Newport in the days after the assassination, so I don't see what his motive would have been for lying to Stanton.

In his book, Arthur Loux also mentions actress Rachel Noah as having talked to Booth in Boston backstage on April 5 at Edwin Booth's performance in Hamlet and Orlando Tompkins receiving an inscribed ring from Booth in Boston on April 6.