Lincoln Financial Foundation file on Mrs. Surratt

[Susan Higginbotham]

I stumbled onto this file from the Lincoln Financial Foundation on Mrs. Surratt. It contains a lot of newspaper clippings, some of which are most peculiar, such as the claim by Mrs. Surratt's "water boy" that Mrs. Surratt was at the tavern to greet Booth in person on the night of the assassination! There's also a piece about Alfred Gibson, who claims to have served Mrs. Surratt her last breakfast, a clipping about a Mrs. Dade who claims to have served Booth's supper at the Mudd house, and the revelation that Mrs. Surratt had her own "Poe Toaster" who regularly brought flowers to her grave back in the 1960's. Thought it might be of interest as I hadn't run across some of the clippings before.

https://archive.org/details/assassixxxxxxxx00linc

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And here's another file related to the trial of the conspirators. I haven't had the chance to look through much of the material yet, but the Lincoln Financial Foundation seems to have put quite a few interesting things online.

https://archive.org/details/assassinatconlinc

[Rsmyth]

Hi Susan, looks very interesting and I will read through this when I have some time - thanks for posting.
Lettie Hall was the Mudd's slave. He had nine that can be identified. After the war, Lettie moved first to Alexandria, VA then Butler, PA where she married the Rev. D.B. Wade. The had two children; Stella Buckner and Walter Standard
Lettie Hall Wade died on Saturday, April 18, 1936 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Butler.

[L Verge]

I have seen most of the clippings in this file - and some are really bad history (such as the stories that Nathan Simmes concocted). Rich, do you have a photo of Simmes's grave marker. I know there is one floating around in our library files.

As for the person(s) who have placed flowers on Mrs. Surratt's grave, it still continues today, I believe. I know that throughout the 1970s, 80s, and early 1990s, one of the people was a docent at Surratt House.

[Rsmyth]

I do have his grave pic but can no longer post on imageshack. But, he is buried in Bradford Cemetery - West Bradford, PA, all the way in the back against the stone wall. Hie marker says he helped JWB on the night of the assassination but then told the Union troops which way he went, thus aiding in his capture. That was the local lore and back in the 60's (I think) the Boy Scouts placed the current marker on his grave.

[RJNorton]

and some are really bad history (such as the stories that Nathan Simmes concocted).

Ed Steers talks about Nathan Simms in his Lincoln Legends book. One version of Simms' story is that he helped Booth disembark from his horse when Booth and Herold arrived at the Surratt tavern. Also, it was Mrs. Surratt herself who greeted the fugitives when they arrived. She said, "I am glad the old rebel is dead." When Booth and Herold departed Simms helped Booth back up on his horse.

I guess this means that Weichmann dropped Mary off at Lloyd's, and a Mary-look-alike accompanied Weichmann back to Washington. Strange that Weichmann could sit next to the impostor and not know it was really a different lady from the one he took to Surrattsville.

[BettyO]

Or perhaps it was Mary Lincoln posing as Mary Surratt sitting beside Weichmann....remember that some folk seem to think that Mary Lincoln also had a hand in the assassination - perhaps SHE had a double sitting in the box with Abe and she was there to assist Booth and instigate the entire thing....after all, she didn't want her hubby to know how much she was spending on things for the house and herself....

Hey, we could start a whole new conspiracy theory!

Sorry - I'm just being facetious. I don't put a lot of stock in certain reports unless there are other newpaper reports/recollections to back up certain information. The idea that Mary Surratt was actually at Surratt Tavern when the "dynamic duo" rode up is absolutely absurd.

[RJNorton]

Hey, we could start a whole new conspiracy theory!

John Wally said, "Mrs. Surratt, who had held the horse outside the theatre for Booth while he was shooting Lincoln, who helped him mount and escape, and at whose house the conspiracy was hatched, was arrested and placed in the Capital prison."

This puts Mary Surratt in three different places on the night of the 14th!

[Jim Garrett]

Mrs. Surratt was a very busy woman.

[L Verge]

I am going to give Nathan a tiny little piece of belief - purely out of speculating on some fact. Most of us have read about Aunt Rachel Hawkins, who had been rented to the Surratts in 1859, and remained loyal to her mistress until death (a newspaper article about an interview with the elderly lady is included in that file that Susan has generously shared). Aunt Rachel was married to a slave on a nearby plantation owned by Walter Griffin. Mr. Griffin is mentioned as one of the acquaintances with Herold.

From what we can piece together, Rachel did not have a good relationship with her husband, Tom Semmes, but she did have several children. One may have been a boy, and that boy may have been Nathan. Rachel did not make the move to D.C. with Mary and Anna, preferring to stay near her children. A daughter, however, did go to the city to work for another family, and Rachel was in D.C. over the Easter holiday to visit that daughter.

What I'm getting at is that PERHAPS (and I cannot prove it), Nathan Simmes was Nathan Semmes and happened to be at the tavern that night. From that point on, he could have confused, concocted, or elaborated on what really went on. There is no evidence, however, that Booth ever got off his horse in Surrattsville - and he craved more than water when he reached here. Nathan is just another puzzling piece in the puzzling history of the Lincoln assassination.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Rich for sending these photos of Nathan Simms' grave.

[John E.]

There's also a piece about Alfred Gibson, who claims to have served Mrs. Surratt her last breakfast,

Alfred Gibson also claimed:

1. He told Gen. Grant to put out his cigar at the trial
2. Annie Surratt watched the execution from his room until she fainted
3. Pitched quoits with the conspirators
4. Wrote daily notes for Hartranft on the conspirators' well being.
5. Stood front and center at the execution
6. Wrote the names of the condemned on paper and then slipped them in to the vials that accompanied the dead.
7. Was given a cuff link by Michael O'Laughlen

I'm not convinced he did any of these things.