Interesting Visit

[L Verge]

About six weeks ago, I was contacted by a lady who had (much to her surprise) inherited a good deal of material belonging to William J. Ferguson, the young actor who was running lines with Laura Keene off-stage at the moment that Booth struck. The lady had been in touch with Ford's Theatre, but they were not interested in discussing the materials until they were authenticated.

Somehow, I received her call for help and knew immediately who was the best man for the job - forum member, Tom Bogar. Tom was traveling for awhile this spring, but he did contact her, and they were able to meet here at the James O. Hall Research Center at Surratt House this past week. There were boxes of materials (and others had remained at home).

Tom spent several hours perusing the items and determined that they were all authentic. Included in the materials were a number of scripts that Ferguson wrote over the years. Some of you may know that he stayed true to his profession after the Civil War and went on to act in silent films.

Tom will be providing this charming woman a letter of authentication regarding the collection that he has viewed. She will likely need an appraisal, and I suppose that she will be contacting Ford's again. There are still goodies out there to be found.

P.S. The middle initial "J" stands for "Jason."