New Eyewitness Account?

[kerry]

It is interesting both refer to Mary calling Lincoln 'pa,' which I would assume most people wouldn't know about.

It's still confusing to me what she called him when they not being formal. A lot of people refer to her saying "Abe," but those accounts are mostly questionable. Julia Taft says she called him "Abra'm," which seems credible. He signed a letter to her "Lincoln." She seems to indicate in some letters she just called him "husband," which I think was typical at the time. Sickles said "pa." Her family claims it was always "Mr. Lincoln," but no one really echoes that.

What's odd is that in 1866, reports circulated that at the Springfield house, a blood-stained piece of Laura Keene's dress was on the wall framed, and they blamed Mary's oddity for it. However, she was not living there, so I don't know that it was her choice - I can't see her wanting it. But the claim surfaced very early. I agree it seems unlikely.

[RJNorton]

(05-26-2018 01:01 PM)kerry Wrote:  What's odd is that in 1866, reports circulated that at the Springfield house, a blood-stained piece of Laura Keene's dress was on the wall framed, and they blamed Mary's oddity for it. However, she was not living there, so I don't know that it was her choice - I can't see her wanting it. But the claim surfaced very early. I agree it seems unlikely.

Kerry, I was not aware of these spurious reports. Where can one read about them? Thanks.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending more old newspaper articles that mention the "imaginative" Silas Owen. I wonder what Charles Leale thought if he read articles such as the third one.

The first article is from the New York Herald dated November 23, 1887. The second one is from The Sun dated November 24, 1887. The third one is from the Fort Scott Daily Monitor dated June 1, 1887.

Steve writes, "I found a couple of interesting 1887 news articles that mention Silas Owen. He was arrested in November 1887 for falsifying documents for the mill he worked at, giving children who worked there older ages to get around state laws prohibiting the hiring of children under 13 years of age. It's not anything that impeaches his and Flood's Lincoln/Ford's Theatre claims, but I thought they shed some light on Owen's character and were worth sharing. I also found an earlier 1887 article with Owen making the same claims."

[kerry]

I can find the clip if needed, but I typed it up:

On September 7, 1867, the Columbian Register quoted the Boston Post as saying “Singular taste, that of Mrs. Lincoln, in having the scrap of Laura Keen’s dress, stained with her husband’s blood, framed and hung up in her house.” This was reportedly in the Springfield house, and may have simply been a false rumor, as Mary was averse to such reminders. Still, the paper commented, “not more so than the extensive sale of furniture, by auction, not long ago. An auction gave the transaction a notoriety which most people would have tried to avoid, under the circumstances.”

On October 14, the Buffalo Daily Courier printed a letter signed G, which, among other things, addressed the scandal. It was titled “She refuses the cloak of oblivion.”
"The robe worn by Laura Keene . . . was made valuable by the President’s life-blood, and the dingy red spot has been cut out, framed and hung in the parlor of one of his mourners."

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Kerry. At that time I believe the Lucian Tilton family was living in the home. Lucian had leased it from the Lincolns on February 8, 1861. The Tilton family remained in the home until May 1, 1869. Tilton was a railroader. I do not know much else about him. But his wife was said to be very involved in charity work. She was a manager for the Springfield Home for the Friendless. IMO, it sure does not seem like the Tiltons would have such a thing on the wall. I think it's strange (and sad) that such a story would even make it into print.

[kerry]

(05-27-2018 02:12 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks, Kerry. At that time I believe the Lucian Tilton family was living in the home. Lucian had leased it from the Lincolns on February 8, 1861. The Tilton family remained in the home until May 1, 1869. Tilton was a railroader. I do not know much else about him. But his wife was said to be very involved in charity work. She was a manager for the Springfield Home for the Friendless. IMO, it sure does not seem like the Tiltons would have such a thing on the wall. I think it's strange (and sad) that such a story would even make it into print.

I just did more research out of curiosity, and it says that Keene presented Mrs. Tilton with it.

Just found another article, which alleges Keene visited the home, brought the dress, cut out the piece in front of Mrs. Tilton, and autographed the frame.
.

[L Verge]

(05-27-2018 02:12 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks, Kerry. At that time I believe the Lucian Tilton family was living in the home. Lucian had leased it from the Lincolns on February 8, 1861. The Tilton family remained in the home until May 1, 1869. Tilton was a railroader. I do not know much else about him. But his wife was said to be very involved in charity work. She was a manager for the Springfield Home for the Friendless. IMO, it sure does not seem like the Tiltons would have such a thing on the wall. I think it's strange (and sad) that such a story would even make it into print.

Sounds like "fake news ca. 1867" to me! Certain elements of the press were content to still throw stones at the widow Lincoln any way they could?

As for Mary's term of endearment for her husband, I think it could be very likely that she used "Mr. Lincoln." From what I can gather (including my own family's stories), that was actually a fairly common usage during the 19th century.

[Susan Higginbotham]

In Benjamin French's diary, he sometimes calls his wife by her first name, at other times "Mrs. French."

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these articles.

Steve writes, "Laurie was definitely right about fake news! I found the original 22 August 1867 Boston Post article for the Mary Lincoln dress blurb, it's from a snarky gossip column entitled "All Sorts of Paragraphs". The column had run an earlier blurb on the story, without mentioning Mary on Aug 10th. I've cropped the Aug. 22 column, so you can see the context/gist of the other blurbs in the column. The Mary Lincoln Laura Keene dress blurb is the last one at the bottom of the crop.

I traced the original story from which all of these news stories are based to the 06 August 1867 edition of the New York Evening Press in an article by a correspondent who described the sights he saw when he visited Springfield. One the places he visited was the old Lincoln home, with the Tiltons letting him look around. The Tiltons explained that the framed piece of the dress had been given to them by Laura Keene when she visited Springfield I've attached a copy of the complete article because it's an interesting read all around and not just about the dress. I checked the local Springfield papers and Keene must have given it to them in early November 1866 when she and her company were performing in Springfield.

I also found a 16 November 1865 article in the Chicago Tribune reprinting an article from two days earlier in the Louisville Press, reporting that Keene had given part of the dress to somebody in Louisville when she had been performing there as well.

I have a book entitled By Square & Compass: Saga of the Lincoln Home by Dr. Wayne C. Temple. I think it's the most detailed history of the Lincoln Home that I have ever seen. There is no mention at all of Laura Keene and her dress. IMO, if there were blood on her dress it was most likely Rathbone's, not Lincoln's. And if this "gift" really happened, what happened to it? Wouldn't it be a gift to the home itself, not the Tilton family? Was it there when Osborn Oldroyd lived there? IMO, Robert Lincoln would have destroyed it if he knew about it.

IMO, if Dr. Temple believed the story, he would have included it in his book on the home.

[kerry]

Good find! Using it to pick on Mary was definitely fake news, but I don't know if the giving it to the Tiltons was definitely fake. Weird, in any event.

In 1896, a Democrat political appointee took over the home and put up a picture of Booth - Robert asked that it come down. Some people have strange taste!

[Finnigan]

Last call for the Philadelphia Weekly Times microfilm. I'm going to return the reel tomorrow if we're all done looking at it.

Re: calling your wife "mother," or husband "father," yes that was not unusual practice in the day.

[RJNorton]

(05-29-2018 09:21 AM)Finnigan Wrote:  Last call for the Philadelphia Weekly Times microfilm. I'm going to return the reel tomorrow if we're all done looking at it.

Many thanks for the posting, David!

In addition to denying the presence of Laura Keene, Clara Harris made another statement that no one else did (as far as I know). I believe this one was made much earlier (roughly a few weeks after the assassination) than what she said in the article David posted. Clara stated:

"Nearly one hour before the commission of the deed, the assassin came to the door of the box and looked in, to take a survey of the position of its occupants. It was supposed at the time that it was either a mistake or the exercise of impertinent curiosity. The circumstance attracted no particular attention at the time."

Am I correct when I say Clara Harris is alone in saying this --> did any other eyewitness state that Booth made a "trial run?"

[Steve]

Here's the references for the last group of articles if anybody is confused:

1. Boston Post 10 Aug. 1867 pg. 2

2. New York Evening Post 06 Aug. 1867 pg. 1

3. Boston Post 22 Aug. 1867 pg. 1

4. Chicago Tribune 16 Nov. 1865 pg. 1
(reprint of an article from pg. 2 of the 15 Nov. 1865 Louisville Daily Union Press)

5. Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield) 02 Nov. 1866 (ad)

Unless there's some "fake news" backstory with the author (using the pen name "Major Wisp") of the Evening Post's travelogue that I don't know about, there doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt that he visited the Tiltons' (Lincoln) home. And since Laura Keene performed in Springfield in Nov. 1866, there doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt the Tiltons' account of the dress scrap coming from her. Keene's behavior would be consistent with the Nov. 1865 newspaper account of Keene giving away a dress scrap in Louisville, Kentucky. ( I checked and Keene did perform in Louisville in late October 1865.)

Also, in Keene's 1897 biography is an account by a Cincinnati actress named Louisa Eldridge of Keene also giving her a piece of the dress a week after the assassination (which Eldridge lost in the intervening years):

https://archive.org/stream/lifeoflaurake...5/mode/2up

I agree with Roger, that if Robert had known about a Keene dress scrap hanging in the house, he would've asked that it be destroyed.

---

(05-29-2018 11:15 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  In addition to denying the presence of Laura Keene, Clara Harris made another statement that no one else did (as far as I know). I believe this one was made much earlier (roughly a few weeks after the assassination) than what she said in the article David posted. Clara stated:

"Nearly one hour before the commission of the deed, the assassin came to the door of the box and looked in, to take a survey of the position of its occupants. It was supposed at the time that it was either a mistake or the exercise of impertinent curiosity. The circumstance attracted no particular attention at the time."

Am I correct when I say Clara Harris is alone in saying this --> did any other eyewitness state that Booth made a "trial run?"

Maybe Clara was misremembering Forbes bringing the dispatch from S. P. Hanscom to the President?

[kerry]

Some witnesses indicated Booth was pacing back and forth near the box, so he may have.

[RJNorton]

(05-29-2018 04:05 PM)Steve Wrote:  Maybe Clara was misremembering Forbes bringing the dispatch from S. P. Hanscom to the President?

This seems possible, but if Reck is correct, the dispatch was delivered during the third act; thus the timing between visits would not fit with what Clara stated.

(05-29-2018 11:30 PM)kerry Wrote:  Some witnesses indicated Booth was pacing back and forth near the box, so he may have.

Yes, very true. But the eyewitnesses stated Forbes only let Booth pass into the box itself one time. I am assuming Clara meant Booth came to door #8 which remained open during the play. Door #8 was at the end of the passageway behind the State Box. (Someone may want to correct me if I am incorrect on this --> I do not think Clara Harris, from her seat, could see someone standing right in front of the door to the passageway.)