Mary's Move from the White House

[Laurie Verge]

Donna, I checked with the president of the Surratt Society, who wrote the piece on the flag raising incident, as to where she found Benjamin French information. She got that particular story from the White House Historical Society's website, author was a Michael Spangler. However, she also cites the eleven-volume journal of Benjamin French with family letters being in the Library of Congress' Manuscript Division.

French maintained his journal from 1828 until his death in 1870, so it must be chocked full with commentary on mid-19th century life and snippets about some important people that he had access to.

BTW: The current president of the Surratt Society is Louise Oertly. She mentioned Benjamin French because she has been doing genealogical research on the Oertly family. Her great-grandfather was Bartholomew Oertly, Assistant Architect of the Treasury Department during the Civil War. As Commissioner of Public Buildings, French wrote to Oertly in November of 1865, in reference to "work done on the East Room, incident to the funeral of President Lincoln." No clue at the moment what that was.