The “rubber box” or did Laura Keene indeed held Lincoln’s head?

[RJNorton]

(09-11-2014 08:49 AM)loetar44 Wrote:  No direct statement from Laura Keene has ever been found.

Clara Harris vehemently denied that Laura Keene was ever at any time in the state box.

A statement by Dr. Leale confirmed that Laura Keene was there and that he gave her permission to hold the president’s head in her lap.

Jeannie Gourlay made the statement that her father escorted Laura Keene to the state box and later wrote that Laura Keene raised Lincoln’s head and “…found blood trickling down her dress.”

The statements were actually made many years later Dr. Charles Leale (44 years), Jeannie Gourlay (58 years) and like you said Jim: William Ferguson 65 years.

I believe GATH's The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial, and execution of his accomplices was published in 1865.

In it he wrote:

"Miss Laura Keene, the actress, proved herself in this awful time as equal to sustain a part in real tragedy as to interpret that of the stage. Pausing one moment before the footlights to entreat the audience to be calm, she ascended the stairs in the rear of Mr. Lincoln's box, entered it, took the dying President's head in her lap, bathed it with the water she had brought, and endeavoured to force some of the liquid through the insensible lips. The locality of the wound was at first supposed to be in the breast. It was not until after the neck and shoulders had been bared and no mark discovered, that the dress of Miss Keene, stained with blood, revealed where the ball had penetrated."

https://archive.org/stream/lifecrimecapt...n_djvu.txt

My question: if all the statements came later where did Townsend get this information in 1865?