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Laurie Verge · 08-23-2012, 10:44 AM

I agree that money was the key factor. George was in dire straits once his brother left the carriage painting partnership, and the local clientele in Southern Maryland were so strapped for cash that maintaining the appearance of their "vehicles" was not high on their list of priorities. Also, Union raids had obsconded with much of the "horse power" needed to pull those vehicles.

His main source of income appears to have been payment for his nighttime trips across the Potomac and the hospitality of his housemate, Mrs. Wheeler.

As for his language barriers, I do think it was a problem; but his line of work did not require extensive English - and his role in the assassination until the very last moment only required him understanding that there was a good deal of money involved.

jonathan · 08-23-2012, 11:41 AM

I'm a little late to the food/snack chat, but some salted peanuts poured into a bottle of Mountain Dew would hit the spot right about now, it's been a looong time. And I've only had soft shell crabs a couple of times, but when I was growing up, we would go to my Grandparents house at the coast and use traps and strings to catch the regular hard shell blue crabs. I remember doing it on a little beach on the intracoastal waterway, and we'd take them back and eat them that night. My grandmom would cut them up somehow and fry them, and they were so good you would just eat until they were gone, regardless of how full you were. So when this theoretical feast happens, I'd love some of those fried crabs, soft or hard shell. Smile

Julie-the-Cheesehead · 08-23-2012, 12:50 PM

This crab and ham talk sounds so appetizing! I like to make crabcakes sometimes from frozen crabmeat (which is expensive here so only once in a while) but it would be great to try crabcakes from an actual Maryland restaurant someday. Maryland is probably #1 on my list of states I want to visit!

MaddieM · 08-23-2012, 01:17 PM

(08-23-2012 12:50 PM)Julie-the-Cheesehead Wrote: This crab and ham talk sounds so appetizing! I like to make crabcakes sometimes from frozen crabmeat (which is expensive here so only once in a while) but it would be great to try crabcakes from an actual Maryland restaurant someday. Maryland is probably #1 on my list of states I want to visit!

Oh, you lot! I'm on a diet. This is killing me!

Laurie Verge · 08-23-2012, 03:28 PM

(08-23-2012 01:17 PM)MaddieM Wrote:
(08-23-2012 12:50 PM)Julie-the-Cheesehead Wrote: This crab and ham talk sounds so appetizing! I like to make crabcakes sometimes from frozen crabmeat (which is expensive here so only once in a while) but it would be great to try crabcakes from an actual Maryland restaurant someday. Maryland is probably #1 on my list of states I want to visit!

Oh, you lot! I'm on a diet. This is killing me!

I'm on a perpetual diet, Maddie, but I can dream!!!!

Jonathan, I suspect your grandmother used to pick the crabmeat out and sautee it before putting it on a sandwich? We do that, put it on half an English muffin, top it with cheese and stick it under the broiler long enough to almost melt the cheese. Surprise - we call it a Crab Melt.

They serve it at the seafood restaurant that we take all of our Booth Escape Route Tours to for lunch. You literally sit on a pier over the Potomac River. We tease tourists and tell them that Booth and Herold rowed right past Capt. Billy's restaurant and would have stopped in for cream of crab soup and a crabcake sandwich if the joint had been there in 1865 (it didn't get started until about 1945 when Billy Robertson got back from WWII).

Also, Jonathan: Did you catch crabs with chicken necks or bacon?

I know we're off thread here, but I think we're getting a good lesson in geographical culture. Right, gang???

jonathan · 08-23-2012, 04:54 PM

Laurie, actually she fried them in the shell. I think she either broke off the top hard shell somehow, or cut it off from underneath, because I don't remember ever having to eat around that. All I remember was the softer undershell, which of course still wasn't soft enough to eat. She would cut them into halves or quarters, fry them, and just serve up this huge plate of them. I think she also broke the big legs off and did them separately, but they weren't as good as the bodies. So you'd have these halves or quarters of the bodies with the smaller legs attached, then separately you'd have the big legs with the claws. Either way, you'd still have to pick the meat out yourself, but it was soooo worth it, as crab always is. Those crab melts sound fantastic too though.

As far as catching them, we'd put one average sized crab pot out in the water a ways and let it fill up, then we'd have the strings with pieces of meat tied to the end. It's been so long, I don't remember what kind of meat it was, but I'm almost positive it wasn't bacon. I would expect chicken. I also remember that while we were waiting, us kids would chase fiddler crabs on the beach, just for fun. It was a good time.

BettyO · 08-23-2012, 05:15 PM

(08-23-2012 03:28 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:
(08-23-2012 01:17 PM)MaddieM Wrote:
(08-23-2012 12:50 PM)Julie-the-Cheesehead Wrote: This crab and ham talk sounds so appetizing! I like to make crabcakes sometimes from frozen crabmeat (which is expensive here so only once in a while) but it would be great to try crabcakes from an actual Maryland restaurant someday. Maryland is probably #1 on my list of states I want to visit!

Oh, you lot! I'm on a diet. This is killing me!

I'm on a perpetual diet, Maddie, but I can dream!!!!

Jonathan, I suspect your grandmother used to pick the crabmeat out and sautee it before putting it on a sandwich? We do that, put it on half an English muffin, top it with cheese and stick it under the broiler long enough to almost melt the cheese. Surprise - we call it a Crab Melt.

They serve it at the seafood restaurant that we take all of our Booth Escape Route Tours to for lunch. You literally sit on a pier over the Potomac River. We tease tourists and tell them that Booth and Herold rowed right past Capt. Billy's restaurant and would have stopped in for cream of crab soup and a crabcake sandwich if the joint had been there in 1865 (it didn't get started until about 1945 when Billy Robertson got back from WWII).

Also, Jonathan: Did you catch crabs with chicken necks or bacon?

I know we're off thread here, but I think we're getting a good lesson in geographical culture. Right, gang???

Ooohhh -- Thanks, Laurie! I LOVE crab meat and am going to make one of these crab melts this weekend....I, too am attempting to diet (bad choice with all the Halloween candy soon to come out!) But I've got to try that melt!

Thanks a bunch!! (Drool, drool....) HA! Tongue

Laurie Verge · 08-23-2012, 05:21 PM

We didn't have access to a boat, so we would sit on a pier with chicken necks attached to sturdy string and wait for the tug. Once you felt the tug, you gently started pulling in the string until the crab was close enough to net. When they got wise to what you were doing and dropped off the line, you then said a swear word and threw that chicken neck back in!

We steamed our hard shells whole with a little bit of beer and Old Bay seasoning in the pot of water. I am not fond of hard shells. For one thing, you can starve to death picking out the meat - give me a soft shell sandwich or a crab cake to tide me over and I'll consider picking the hard shell for entertainment value only. I also am finicky about having dirty fingers from food. I can handle fried chicken and corn on the cob, but that's about it.

I also tried steaming crabs myself once and felt so guilty when they squealed bloody murder (no blood, but it was murder!) when I threw them into the boiling water... Never did it again, and left the kitchen when my friends cooked them.

I only did this with friends because my father would never touch any kind of crab - even though my mother and I loved them. He had served in Air/Sea Rescue during WWII at Langley Field in Virginia, where pilots were trained. Many of the planes went down in the water, and his crew was in charge of going out in the boats to retrieve the Norden bomb sight first and then the pilots who never made it out of the plane.

The way they found the wreckage was to track the hordes of crabs that headed after the bodies. By the time they reached the plane and got the bomb sight out, they had to fight off the crabs to retrieve the bodies. Most of the critters headed for the eyes first.

Have a wonderful dinner, folks.

To end (I promise) on a historical note, research that we have done here at Surratt House for several cookbooks that we have published indicates that crabs were not particularly popular among the middle- and upper-classes of American society until the 20th century. They were reserved for the lower- and slave-classes. The upper crust really enjoyed their oysters, however, and Virginia and Maryland used to have oyster wars. Those two states supplied the rest of the country with wonderful oysters after the Civil War when rail transportation became wide-spread. It was such a vigorous trade that they depleted the supplies and have never fully regained the quantities that they once produced.

John Wilkes Booth was a great fan of oyster bars. There, Roger, I have managed to get back on the topic of Booth. Has anyone ever seen reference to Mr. Lincoln enjoying oysters once he got to Washington?

RJNorton · 08-23-2012, 06:01 PM

Laurie, forum member Donna McCreary probably won't remember doing this, but she signed my copy of her book, Lincoln's Table, about 12 years ago. She covers oysters on pp. 46-48. Included are recipes for Scalloped Oysters, Steamed Oysters, Steamed Oysters in the Shell, and Oyster Pie.

BettyO · (This post was last modified: 08-23-2012 06:28 PM by BettyO.)

Quote:I'm on a perpetual diet, Maddie, but I can dream!!!!

Jonathan, I suspect your grandmother used to pick the crabmeat out and sautee it before putting it on a sandwich? We do that, put it on half an English muffin, top it with cheese and stick it under the broiler long enough to almost melt the cheese. Surprise - we call it a Crab Melt.

They serve it at the seafood restaurant that we take all of our Booth Escape Route Tours to for lunch. You literally sit on a pier over the Potomac River. We tease tourists and tell them that Booth and Herold rowed right past Capt. Billy's restaurant and would have stopped in for cream of crab soup and a crabcake sandwich if the joint had been there in 1865 (it didn't get started until about 1945 when Billy Robertson got back from WWII).

Also, Jonathan: Did you catch crabs with chicken necks or bacon?

I know we're off thread here, but I think we're getting a good lesson in geographical culture. Right, gang???

OK Laurie - you did it --

You inspired another cartoon!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

L Verge · 08-23-2012, 07:45 PM

That's great, Betty! Where did you find the photo of Capt. Billy's?

Roger,

Scalloped oysters are great and so are oyster stew and fried oysters. Just don't expect me to eat raw oysters on the half shell. I don't care how many condiments you serve with them, I just can't get them down my throat.

BettyO · 08-23-2012, 07:57 PM

(08-23-2012 07:45 PM)L Verge Wrote: That's great, Betty! Where did you find the photo of Capt. Billy's?

Roger,

Scalloped oysters are great and so are oyster stew and fried oysters. Just don't expect me to eat raw oysters on the half shell. I don't care how many condiments you serve with them, I just can't get them down my throat.

Got the photo off of Captain Billy's website! He has a fantastic site - just Google it....

I LOVE oysters and will eat them anyway but Raw!! I'm like you, Laurie - although I DO like Oysters Rockefeller.....

RJNorton · (This post was last modified: 08-26-2012 06:56 AM by RJNorton.)

Forum member Dave Taylor has written an extremely informative article regarding George Atzerodt's burial.

MaddieM · 08-26-2012, 07:03 AM

(08-21-2012 06:19 PM)BettyO Wrote:
(08-21-2012 03:34 PM)Julie-the-Cheesehead Wrote: This was really interesting Betty! Thanks for posting that article!

It seems they got George's age wrong, wasn't he 31 at the time of his death? But it was still interesting how they found him and I agree, it was the signature on the register of the Kirkwood House and also that he was seen in the company of Davey on April 14 (by the horse stable owner) that sealed his fate for execution. I also wish he had done something to help, maybe he might have gotten a lesser sentence if his information helped get Booth sooner.

Hi Betty! I am a newbie on this forum, hi everyone- but I "know" Betty from the interwebs.

Hey, Julie! Welcome aboard!! We've missed you and are all glad that you're here! Your old friends as well as new ones welcome you!

Would 31 have been middle aged in those days?

BettyO · (This post was last modified: 08-26-2012 07:50 AM by BettyO.)

(08-26-2012 07:03 AM)MaddieM Wrote:
(08-21-2012 06:19 PM)BettyO Wrote:
(08-21-2012 03:34 PM)Julie-the-Cheesehead Wrote: This was really interesting Betty! Thanks for posting that article!

It seems they got George's age wrong, wasn't he 31 at the time of his death? But it was still interesting how they found him and I agree, it was the signature on the register of the Kirkwood House and also that he was seen in the company of Davey on April 14 (by the horse stable owner) that sealed his fate for execution. I also wish he had done something to help, maybe he might have gotten a lesser sentence if his information helped get Booth sooner.

Hi Betty! I am a newbie on this forum, hi everyone- but I "know" Betty from the interwebs.

Hey, Julie! Welcome aboard!! We've missed you and are all glad that you're here! Your old friends as well as new ones welcome you!

Would 31 have been middle aged in those days?

Maddie -

I think that 40 would have been considered middle aged - 30 - 31 was considered "mature." Atzerodt, to my knowledge was 32 years old and was considered the "Old Man" of the conspiracy four - while Lew Powell and Davey were considered the "kids"