Surratt Courier

[LincolnToddFan]

Kudos to forum member Susan Higginbotham whose research on Peanut John is featured in the current Surratt Courier.

Thank you! That was such a nice surprise!

Way to go, Susan!

[L Verge]

Susan has a two-part article on Surratt boarder, Nora Fitzpatrick -- hopefully coming in the November and December issues of the Courier. Very interesting follow-up on a person that no one even thinks about after the trial is over.

[LincolnToddFan]

Laurie, are "Nora" and "Honora" Fitzpatrick the same person?

[L Verge]

Laurie, are "Nora" and "Honora" Fitzpatrick the same person?

Yes. She was somewhat close to Anna Surratt's age, and her mother had died. Her father sent her to board with a nice, Catholic family.

[Jill Mitchell]

I was browsing through a downloaded copy of Boyd's 1864 directory of Washington, D.C. for the names of people connected to the Lincoln assassination. There is a listing for "Fitzpatrick, Honora, Mrs.; living at "h [house] 5th east, n [near] A south" or, in today's parlance, 5th and A SE. There is no other Fitzpatrick, Honora listed. There is also listed a Thomas Fitzpatrick, laborer, living at the same address. Is it possible that this is "Honora Fitzpatrick" connected with the Lincoln assassination? If it is, I was not aware that she was married. I seem to recall that she was always referenced as "Miss." To be a "Mrs." she would have had to be married at a relatively young age, if she was close in age to Anna. I suppose it possible that she could have lived at the address given in the directory, since in her testimony at the trial of John Surratt, she stated that did not come to board at the Surratt boardinghouse until October 6, 1864. Do we know the name of her father, the date of her mother's death and where she was residing prior to the time she came to the Surratt boardinghouse? ... Guess I'll have to await Susan's article for clarification.

And, with respect to "Peanuts" whose last name is thought possibly to be Burroughs: there is a listing for "Burroughs, John, col'd [colored], laborer, living in SW D.C. at "h [house] 1st west near O south."

[RJNorton]

And, with respect to "Peanuts" whose last name is thought possibly to be Burroughs: there is a listing for "Burroughs, John, col'd [colored], laborer, living in SW D.C. at "h [house] 1st west near O south."

Hi Jill. That's interesting as two folks (despite the bulk of evidence he was a white boy) claimed in later statements that he was black. A.C. Richards said he was at Ford's Theatre and, after the shot, made his way across the stage and out the back to the alley and came upon a colored boy. He questioned the boy and "he disclosed the fact that the clatter of a horse's feet which we then heard some distance down the alley, was that of a horse that a man had found some difficulty in mounting, and which he (the boy) had been holding." Also, in later years William Withers mentioned "Peanut John, the Negro chore boy at the theater." Both Richards' and Withers' statements were made 20+ years after the assassination, and based on what I have read, neither man is considered a reliable source.

[L Verge]

I believe the basis for stating that Peanuts was white is the fact that all other "colored" people who testified are noted as such in the transcripts. Also, there is mention that Peanuts sometimes went with some of the men for drinks at nearby saloons. In 1864 (and until 1964!) that was very unlikely to happen.

I don't know my D.C. geography of that day very well, but I believe that the address Jill gave would have been in the poor section of town that was called The Island.

---

I was browsing through a downloaded copy of Boyd's 1864 directory of Washington, D.C. for the names of people connected to the Lincoln assassination. There is a listing for "Fitzpatrick, Honora, Mrs.; living at "h [house] 5th east, n [near] A south" or, in today's parlance, 5th and A SE. There is no other Fitzpatrick, Honora listed. There is also listed a Thomas Fitzpatrick, laborer, living at the same address. Is it possible that this is "Honora Fitzpatrick" connected with the Lincoln assassination? If it is, I was not aware that she was married. I seem to recall that she was always referenced as "Miss." To be a "Mrs." she would have had to be married at a relatively young age, if she was close in age to Anna. I suppose it possible that she could have lived at the address given in the directory, since in her testimony at the trial of John Surratt, she stated that did not come to board at the Surratt boardinghouse until October 6, 1864. Do we know the name of her father, the date of her mother's death and where she was residing prior to the time she came to the Surratt boardinghouse? ... Guess I'll have to await Susan's article for clarification.

And, with respect to "Peanuts" whose last name is thought possibly to be Burroughs: there is a listing for "Burroughs, John, col'd [colored], laborer, living in SW D.C. at "h [house] 1st west near O south."

I shall let Susan make the decision of when she wants to spill the beans on a tiny piece of Honora's history. Just remember that Mrs. Surratt did not establish her boardinghouse until the late fall of 1864. Those city directories were probably compiled in late-1863.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I was browsing through a downloaded copy of Boyd's 1864 directory of Washington, D.C. for the names of people connected to the Lincoln assassination. There is a listing for "Fitzpatrick, Honora, Mrs.; living at "h [house] 5th east, n [near] A south" or, in today's parlance, 5th and A SE. There is no other Fitzpatrick, Honora listed. There is also listed a Thomas Fitzpatrick, laborer, living at the same address. Is it possible that this is "Honora Fitzpatrick" connected with the Lincoln assassination? If it is, I was not aware that she was married. I seem to recall that she was always referenced as "Miss." To be a "Mrs." she would have had to be married at a relatively young age, if she was close in age to Anna. I suppose it possible that she could have lived at the address given in the directory, since in her testimony at the trial of John Surratt, she stated that did not come to board at the Surratt boardinghouse until October 6, 1864. Do we know the name of her father, the date of her mother's death and where she was residing prior to the time she came to the Surratt boardinghouse? ... Guess I'll have to await Susan's article for clarification.

."

That was a different Honora. She turns up in various DC records, later as a widow. I don't think she had any family connection with "our" Nora, whose mother, Margaret, died in 1847 when Nora was a small child. Nora was a student at Georgetown Visitation from 1861-64, so she was fairly fresh from school when she arrived at the boardinghouse at age 20. Her widowed father, James Fitzpatrick, also was living in DC, apparently as a boarder himself.

[LincolnToddFan]

Caroline Kennedy began receiving catechism instruction at Georgetown Visitation shortly before the assassination of her father. I read somewhere that the school was founded in the late 1700's. Is it still standing?

[Susan Higginbotham]

Caroline Kennedy began receiving catechism instruction at Georgetown Visitation shortly before the assassination of her father. I read somewhere that the school was founded in the late 1700's. Is it still standing?

It's still operating as a Catholic girls' prep school. Quite pricey. I believe some of the buildings Nora would have known are standing, although its Founders Hall caught fire in 1993 and has been reconstructed.

[RJNorton]

Ever heard of the small village of T.B. in Southern Maryland? Kudos to Laurie for a wonderful article on the history of the village in the current Surratt Courier!

[Jim Garrett]

I might suggest that if you find yourself in modern day TB, there is no greater New York style deli in Md than the one in the old store in TB. An absolute must eat.

[L Verge]

That old store where the New York Deli is today was built in 1867, and was first named The People's Store (sounds communistic, doesn't it?). My family, the Huntts, purchased it in the early 1870s to replace their original store and ran it as a general store until the 1960s, when my uncle's health forced him to give up the business. We continued to own the store, however, until the 1980s, and it served a variety of businesses and even a church for awhile. Over the past ten years, it has been an ice cream factory, and now the New York Deli for the past 3-4 years. The current owner has even bought what was Mr. Huntt's casket shop next door to increase his dining space.

The moral of this history lesson is that the Yankees finally won over the Confederates in T.B. - but it took great food to do it!

[L Verge]

I should have mentioned that those of you who own Stanley Kimmel's Mad Booths of Maryland should be able to find a photo of the old Huntt store ca. 1935 within its pages. Mr. Kimmel photographed much of the village when he was researching his book, and my uncle was tending the store when Kimmel visited and had a long talk with him on the Huntt family story of their run-in with the assassination.

I believe that Dave Taylor has other photos of the village taken by Kimmel at that time. There was also a photo taken by Oldroyd while standing beside the store and focusing northward. It shows the second structure on the spot where John Chandler Thompson's hotel had been in 1865, when Herold spent the night of March 17-18 there. A small portion of the Huntts' home and ice house can be seen in that photo, but it might need enlargement to get details.

A note on the T.B. Hotel: Mr. Thompson's daughter-in-law did not enjoy living in a country village and wanted to move to D.C. The story is that she deliberately set fire to the original hotel building in order to necessitate a move. It didn't work - Mr. Thompson rebuilt on the exact same spot! My grandmother, born in 1874, remembered John Chandler Thompson very well and, as a child, she always thought that he was Santa Claus. She said he fit the Thomas Nast figure perfectly.

[RJNorton]

Kudos to Kathy Canavan on her Surratt Courier article entitled "The Petersens of Tenth Street Years After the Assassination." Kathy included lots of interesting information. I was fascinated by what William Petersen's grandson had to say in a 1921 interview. In describing his grandfather's house on 10th Street he said, "It was not a boarding house at all...I know that my grandfather did not conduct a rooming house." Go figure.