Path of the assassins

[Linda Anderson]

Thanks, Jim, for the article. I hadn't seen it before.

Do you have a record of Margaret's arrival in the US? It says in the 1900 Census that she arrived in 1853. The Naturalization box was not checked.

The title of "Mrs." was used as a sign of respect for housekeepers no matter what their marital status was. The March 14, 1874 Daily Critic article about Sumner's funeral titled, "The Old Housekeeper," calls her Mrs. Brodhead. Another article in the March 18, 1874 issue of Cincinnati Daily Gazette also calls her Mrs. Brodhead. I don't know where they got "Brodhead" from.

The Sun published "Another Phase of Grantism - Secretary's Seward Nurse Dismissed from Office on Account of her Religion" on Oct, 13, 1876. The article calls her "Mrs. Coleman, who was a nurse at the bedside of Secretary Seward when Paine [Lewis Powell] attempted to assassinate him."

George Robinson, Seward's nurse who actually did save his life, wrote a letter to the New York Times on Oct 25, 1876 which included his letter to the Sun, who never published it. The letter refutes several statements made by the Sun such as Mrs. Coleman, as Robinson also calls her, was not Seward's nurse and she was not injured by Payne.

I don't think anyone writes about Margaret Coleman as "Seward's Savior" these days.