Just Trivia

[David Lockmiller]

(12-22-2020 09:07 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  As I write this my mind is blank regarding Mrs. Lincoln firing someone and Crook getting a promotion. Can you kindly expound on that and maybe my memory will come back. Thanks.

Sorry, again, it was Pendel that got the promotion and not Crook. That was my mistake in confusing the two names.

In Thomas Pendel's book, Thirty-six Years in the White House, in the chapter titled "Under President Lincoln," at pages 37-39, it reads:

On Thursday evening, December 29, 1864, Mrs. Lincoln had one or two notices written to be sent down to the daily papers in regard to a New Year reception she would hold. She wanted them published at once. She handed them to Edward McManus, the doorkeeper of the White House, with instructions to take them to the local papers at once. This he failed to do. Probably a half or three-quarters of an hour passed before Mrs. Lincoln had occasion to come through the main corridor again. When she did so, she approached Edward and asked him about the notices. "Why, Edward," she said, "I told you to take them to the newspaper offices at once. Now, this is the last duty you will ever perform in the White House." He treated this statement very lightly, and smiled a sickly kind of smile. But it was indeed his last day.

Next morning early Mrs. Lincoln sent for me, saying she wanted to see me in the private part of the house. When I went up there she told me she wanted me to resign my position and take charge of the front door — to take the place of Edward McManus. I told her I could not do this unless I was regularly appointed to the duty. She told me to go up to the Capitol and see Mr. French, the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, and tell him to make out my appointment as doorkeeper of the White House.

I went to see Mr. French, but he declared that this appointment was not in his power to make, as it was made directly by the President. So I returned, and in the course of the day I had an opportunity to speak to the President. I said, "Mr. President, would you have any objection to my taking the place of Edward McManus?"

He said, "None at all."

That evening, after nightfall, on Saturday, it being the last day of the week, month and the year of 1864, I was up near the door of the President's office when little Tad came along and said, "Tom Pen, give me that paper. Come on in now to papa's room."

The President was sitting at the table facing the east. Tad said, "Papa, dear, do me a favor?" Out he handed my appointment. "Sign this for Tom Pendel." He laid it down on the table, and the President took up his pen and endorsed the appointment. And that appointment holds good to this day.

On the fourteenth day of April, 1865, in the evening, just previous to the time when the President and Mrs. Lincoln were going to the theatre . . . .