2018 Surratt Society Conference

[Wild Bill]

I agree with Roger, Booth (through Herold) paid Dr Mudd $25.

[L Verge]

I have decided that it's time to get out of bed and return to the world after putting in 32 hours of overtime during the Surratt conference this past weekend. In some respects, the conference was disappointing! Everything went wonderfully well; the speakers were all great; our staff went above and beyond as did the hotel's staff; food was excellent; the extra bus trips were fun and educational. That left absolutely nothing to complain about, which is usually part of the routine! I know we'll hear some things from a few attendees, but everyone who talked with me seemed very pleased with the weekend.

Ironically, about two minutes into his presentation, our banquet speaker, Brady Carlson, author of Dead Presidents, all of a sudden mentioned the wonderful Lincoln site run by Roger Norton. It seems that Brady was a student of Roger in 8th grade history class. After the presentation, he raved to me about what a wonderful teacher Roger was -- very creative in his projects, a very nice person, etc. Brady is now in his 40s and is a broadcaster with Wisconsin NPR.

We had a total of 130+ attendees representing 22 states and the District of Columbia. Receiving the prize for coming the longest distance was our own Carolyn Mitchell-Voss of this forum, who came from San Diego with her husband. We also welcomed first-timers from Utah and also several from Colorado. Missouri brought us the first to register, Terry Moore, and Louisiana, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland (of course), West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Connecticut, and I think New Hampshire were all represented.

Next year will be #20, and we are already working on the programs. I hope to meet some of you in 2019.