Awww...Peanuts

[Cliff Roberts]

It's been several years since I worked on Peanuts, but I recall finding a likely family for him living in the D.C. suburb of Tennellytown (sp?), consisting of a mother, grandfather and several children including Joseph. There was no father. The ages and dates given in the 1850 and 1860 census suggested to me that Joseph was a teenager when he left home and likely came to Washington, alone, to find work. He'd only worked at Ford's for a month or so. As I recall, the business about him living with his father at the theater was at the heading of one of his statements - it doesn't appear to be a direct quote from him - which might suggest a misunderstanding on the part of the interrogator. I spent months searching for actors named Burroughs who might have played at Fords but with no success. Ned Spangler is quoted as stating that for one or two nights after the assassination, Peanuts stayed with him at a rooming house where several other theater employees were living - strong evidence that Peanuts had nowhere else to stay. A fellow genealogist has been working on the Tennellytown Burroughs family and thinks son Joseph left home in early 1865, which seems to fit. Her research confirms much of what I had. This Joseph eventually settled in Baltimore. It's been a year since we last communicated; I'll check and see if she's found anything more to connect her Joseph Burroughs with our Peanuts.