Fascinating History

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Bill Binzel for sending this interesting piece of history.

Bill writes:

"The Mount Vernon Ladies Association, a nonprofit organization, was formed in the 1850's to raise funds to purchase George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, which had fallen into a state of neglect and disrepair. They purchased the property in 1858, and members of the MVLA began conducting tours there in 1860. (The MVLA still owns the property and nearly 100 million people have visited the estate since 1860, and on nice afternoons, such as today, Lisa and I enjoy a walk around the grounds.) There is a relatively new exhibit at Mount Vernon, with the log book of those who visited the property in February 1862. Note the signatures of Robert Todd Lincoln, Lucy Lambert Hale, and John Hay. Miss Hale was the daughter of NH Senator John Parker Hale, and it is said that both R.T. Lincoln and Hay were interested in her romantically. However, Miss Hale became engaged to an actor, John Wilkes Booth. The engagement ended when her fiancé assassinated her father's friend (President Lincoln appointed Sen. Hale to be Minister to Spain). A picture of Lucy was found in Booth's pocket as he lay dying on the Garrett's front porch."

[AussieMick]

The visit occurred in Feb 1862 ....
I read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Lambert_Hale
and see that in February 1862 (or 1865 ... but the confusion seems odd and 1865 is surely wrong) that Booth sent a Valentine card to Lucy Hale.

It just seems a highly unusual sequence of events happening in February 1862. It would be interesting if we could get a specific date for that visit.

I obviously have no idea how reliable the information on wikipedia is ... it seems to suggest that Hale and Booth were "swinging hands" for 3 years.

[wpbinzel]

(01-14-2023 06:56 AM)AussieMick Wrote:  It would be interesting if we could get a specific date for that visit.

According to Mount Vernon, the date in the logbook was February 8, 1862.

[AussieMick]

Thanks, Bill. So ... less than a week before Booth sent Lucy Hale a Valentine's card, she was with Robert Todd and John Hay.
I'm sure Washington was quite a small community but I wonder whether she met Booth in that week.

[RJNorton]

Michael, I checked the late Art Loux's John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day. Booth wrapped up a two week stay in Chicago on February 2, 1862. His next known location was Baltimore on February 14, and he was in Baltimore for the rest of the month. He could have come to Washington between the 2nd and the 14th, but his location for those dates is apparently unknown for certain.

[wpbinzel]

In JWB and the Women Who Loved Him, Ernie Abel wrote that "in 1862, [t]wo days before Valentine's Day, John and June were both staying at their brother Edwin's house in New York" when JWB made his Valentine for Lucy (p.175). That is possible under Art Loux's timeline. Ernie cited Asia's Unlocked Book (p.121) as his source; however, Terry Alford's edited version of Asia's book has the Valentine's creation date of "the Tuesday before February 14th, 1865" (p. 86). According to Loux, JWB was in NYC on February 14, 1865; however, February 14, 1865 was a Tuesday, which is why I believe that Ernie thought that "two days before Valentine's Day" made 1862 the correct year. (JWB was in NYC on February 7, 1865 as well.) I have not done the research to try to determine which date is correct, but it is just one of those details over which we scratch our heads in an effort to determine what really happened... The fact that Miss Hale accompanied R.T. Lincoln and John Hay to Mount Vernon on February 8, 1862 only adds to the uncertainty.

[Dave Taylor]

The 1862 "Stranger" valentine was not written by John Wilkes Booth. That error originated with Albert Richmond "Boo" Morcom in his 1970 article for American Heritage entitled, "They All Loved Lucy". Morcom apparently found the letter to a "Miss Hale" in an antique store with no provenance. My guess is that he was familiar with the letter contained in Asia's book regarding JWB working on a valentine for Lucy Hale in 1865, and conflated it with the "Stranger" letter he found. The handwriting on the Stanger letter does not match John Wilkes Booth's. In addition, 1862 is too early of a date for the two to have become romantically linked. Somewhere I have read that the Hales didn't move into the National Hotel until January of 1865.

We do know that Lucy Hale and Robert Lincoln were linked, though the degree of their involvement is unclear. Dr. Blaine Houmes owned a book signed by Robert Lincoln and another man which was inscribed, "To / Misses Colby & Hale / from their admiring friends. / R. T. Lincoln / F. P. Anderson / '64", which supports at least a friendship between them as Bill's newest discovery supports as well.

[RJNorton]

(01-16-2023 03:55 PM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  a friendship between them

Dr. Houmes agreed it was most likely just a friendship. He wrote, "Although nothing suggests more than a friendship with Lucy Hale, this episode (i.e. the gift of the book) illustrates both the intertwined relationships of Washington society, and a very odd coincidence of the Lincoln assassination."

Source: p. 11 of Dr. Houmes' article titled "Lincoln & Booth: A Love Story?" in the journal Manuscripts, Volume 59, No. 1, 2007.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Fascinating indeed! Thanks for sharing.

[RJNorton]

Dave, many thanks for clearing up the 1862/1865 confusion.

When I first saw the date (February 8, 1862) for the Mt. Vernon visit I was curious why Robert was in Washington and not at Harvard. I checked Jason Emerson's biography of Robert and found his winter vacation began on January 18, 1862. And it appears Robert remained at the White House for the rest of January and much of February. This may have been due to the fact that his younger brothers were both ill during this time period. Robert remained at the White House at least through February 24, the date of Willie's funeral. Thus, Jason Emerson's book offers further support for the date in Bill's post...Robert was indeed in Washington, and not at Harvard, on February 8.

[STS Lincolnite]

(01-16-2023 04:26 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-16-2023 03:55 PM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  a friendship between them

Dr. Houmes agreed it was most likely just a friendship. He wrote, "Although nothing suggests more than a friendship with Lucy Hale, this episode (i.e. the gift of the book) illustrates both the intertwined relationships of Washington society, and a very odd coincidence of the Lincoln assassination."

Source: p. 11 of Dr. Houmes' article titled "Lincoln & Booth: A Love Story?" in the journal Manuscripts, Volume 59, No. 1, 2007.

Roger,

Do you have a copy of this article (in Manuscripts) that you could send to me. I can't find any information about that journal anywhere online...partially because when I do a search I get EVERYTHING that has the word "manuscripts" in it!

Thanks.

[RJNorton]

Scott, Blaine always told me I was free to post anything he ever sent me, so here it is. What he sent (in 2012) were copies, most quite light. I hope they are readable.

[Eva Elisabeth]

If the Valentine card was not written by JWB, what reliable sources are left about JWB being engaged with Lucy Hale? I can't help it, he was so much into his own handsomeness, Lucy just doesn't seem to look the part, and v.v. Robert seemed to fit better overall.

[RJNorton]

I checked Asia Booth Clarke's John Wilkes Booth: A Sister's Memoir. I was curious to see if Asia had commented on this subject.

On May 22, 1865, Asia wrote a letter to her friend Jean Anderson. In the letter Asia wrote:

"I told you I believe that Wilkes was engaged to Miss Hale, — They were most devoted lovers and she has written heart broken letters to Edwin about it — Their marriage was to have been in a year, when she promised to return from Spain for him, either with her father or without him, that was the decision only a few days before the fearful calamity — Some terrible oath hurried him to this wretched end."

I do not know if the letters Lucy wrote to Edwin Booth still exist. If they do, they may provide further indication of the relationship between Lucy and JWB.

[Dave Taylor]

(01-29-2023 05:31 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  If the Valentine card was not written by JWB, what reliable sources are left about JWB being engaged with Lucy Hale? I can't help it, he was so much into his own handsomeness, Lucy just doesn't seem to look the part, and v.v. Robert seemed to fit better overall.

Eva,

The idea that JWB wrote an anonymous valentine to Lucy Hale in 1862 is incorrect, but Asia and Junius both support that their brother composed a valentine for Lucy in 1865. By that time, their romance was in full swing. As Roger noted in his response, their enough evidence from the Booth family to support that the two were romantically involved and that, at least from their point of view, JWB and Lucy were "engaged".

Coincidentally, Edwin Booth was also engaged right before the assassination to a woman named Blanche Hanel. The two were planning on marrying in September of 1865. However, not long after JWB's crime, the two broke up. Edwin later married Mary McVicker in 1869.