New Eyewitness Account?

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these articles. Steve writes, "I found another assassination account that I don't think I've posted to the forum before. It's from the 28 Feb. 1909 edition of the New York Times. It's an interview with William Flood who claimed to be the first to reach Lincoln in the box. I'm skeptical of Flood's account in that it contradicts Leale's contemporaneous account.

I've also included a copy of Clara Harris's affidavit from 3-4 days later which was printed in the 23 April 1865 New York Times. Unless Flood is the Naval Surgeon Harris helped in the box, she doesn't mention him."

In addition to what Steve said about Flood, I noted that Flood claims to have known JWB well. I highly doubt that.

[LincolnMan]

Thank you for posting these. Interesting reads all.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these. Steve writes, The article's from page 1 of the April 4, 1909 edition of the Washington Post with an interview of Bedee's sister, Clara Apollonio, where she responds to an interview given by William Flood claiming he was the first person to climb into the box. The article has previously been posted to the Forum here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...l#pid80421

Though, she mistakenly thought it ran in the Post rather than the New York Times.

I'm also including images from one of the appendix of Reck's book where he discusses Bedee to be posted to the Forum if they can be. I've cropped out the parts of pages unrelated to Bedee and the papers which were in Lincoln's pockets at the theater.

I checked Reck's book, and he maintains Flood, not Bedee, was the first to arrive in the box from the stage below.

[Steve]

I found out some more information about William G. Flood, the father of William H. Flood who claimed to have climbed up to the box at Ford's Theatre.

William G. Flood did know Lincoln, they were members of the Illinois General Assembly together, though Flood was a Democrat and political ally of Stephen Douglas. When Lincoln became President Flood asked for a job in the Administration as an Army Paymaster despite being a Democrat. Lincoln obliged and requested War Secretary Cameron try to find a job for Flood:

https://books.google.com/books?id=mlgqKH...ln&f=false

I checked and it seems as though Flood did not get a patronage job.

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Steve for sending this account. Steve writes, "I found an account by Silas Owen written sometime after William Flood's death in 1911. In this later account Owen ignores his earlier stories about Flood climbing to the President's box. Now Owen doesn't have the best track record with honesty/not exaggerating, but I kind of wonder if he no longer felt the need to support Flood's claims after Flood died."

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve Williams for sending this information about Capt. Edwin Bedee's attempt to get into the mining industry in South Africa. The information comes from the 1956 book Diamond by Emily Hahn.

[Gene C]

It always amazes me, the research ability of some of the members of this forum.
It's a skill I do not have.
Thank you for sharing the results of your talent.

[Steve]

Assuming this newspaper account is acurate, do you think Bedee was telling the truth about having a testimonial from President Grant?

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these articles. Steve writes, "The first article comes from page 16 of the 16 May 1897 edition of the Indiana State Journal. In it a man named Samuel Tilford describes being at Ford's Theatre during the assassination with two friends, John Duncan and Morris Defrees. The second article comes from page 5 of the 18 Nov. 1906 edition of the Indianapolis Star and in it Tilford adds to his story. Instead of just rushing to box, he's now one of the people who helped carry the President to Petersen House. The way the article is worded seems to imply that Tilford believed Duncan and Defrees were no longer alive. The third article comes from page 8 of the 16 Sept. 1907 edition of the Muncie Star -- it's another interview with Tilford with Duncan now known to be alive. Here Tilford backtracks from his claim of helping carry the President across the street. The fourth article is an interview with Duncan and Defrees (who turned out also to be alive) from page 15 of the 07 Feb. 1909 edition of the Muncie Star.

(I've divided the 1909 article into two so it will be more legible when posted to the Forum.

[Steve]

Here's a link to the Brinkerhoff memoir quoted in the last article in the previous post. The ever enigmatic Maj. Potter even makes a brief cameo:

https://books.google.com/books?id=lgnCMm...&q&f=false

[RJNorton]

In the last article it says, "...Miss Keene had gone into the box via the stage entrance..."

What is the stage entrance to the State Box?

[Tom Bogar]

(05-14-2022 04:11 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  In the last article it says, "...Miss Keene had gone into the box via the stage entrance..."

What is the stage entrance to the State Box?

Roger, it was the stage left door. With the crowd blocking any chance of Keene reaching the box through the lobby stairs (down which Lincoln was later carried), she received the help of actor Tom Gourlay (see. 6 of my book) who was more familiar than Keene with the passages backstage. He led her through the stage left door, then left to an outside stairway up to the Fords’ apartment next door, through which they reached a reception room that connected back with the theatre’s dress circle, and then into the presidential box, from which Booth's wedged stick had by then been removed from inside.

[RJNorton]

Thank you, Tom. Now I understand. I was thinking maybe he was saying Laura Keene was lifted from the stage to the box, and I knew that wasn't right.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these images. Steve writes, "While looking through the images of Lincoln assassination accounts online in the Lincoln Financial Foundation collection, I came across a contemporary diary account by somebody in the audience of Ford's Theatre that night. The man was Adelbert D. Baughman. I couldn't find his account in Tim Good's book or a mention of him through a Forum word search, so I thought it would be a good candidate to post to the Forum. According to the documentation included with the images, the photographs of the diary pages were taken in 1959. At the time they were taken the diary was owned by members of Baughman's family."

[Steve]

I know I'm responding to posts from two years ago, but I have a question about the particulars about Laura Keene's exact route before she reached the dress circle. Hopefully somebody can answer it.

Laura Keene's account from the April 17, 1865 edition of the New York Herald says that she "made her way, which was rather circuitous, through the dress circle to the President's box, and got there a few moments after the occurrence":



Below is a map of the Dress Circle level to visualize part of her route. She would've gotten on to the dress circle from the door labelled "L" from the reception room/lounge and walked down to door labelled "M" which was the Presidential box door. Where/how exactly did the Fords' apartment connect to the lounge? The map is from the 1960's reconstruction proposal.



(The map is linked from a blog post, so apologies to anybody years in the future if it disappears, and credit to the PA Historian Civil War blog for the red annotations.)