Extra Credit Questions

[Joe Di Cola]

(10-11-2012 07:52 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Was she a vampire?

Not if it was daylight!

[RJNorton]

Hint #1: The gash was in the girl's foot or ankle.

[RJNorton]

Hint #2: An exact date of the incident is unknown, but it "obviously" happened after the death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

[LincolnMan]

According to Mr. Herndon, her name was Tilda. What was that short for?

[RJNorton]

Kudos, Bill, you got it. The girl involved in the incident was Matilda Johnston, Abe's stepsister. Louis A. Warren wrote that the incident happened in 1824 or 1825.

[LincolnMan]

What is my prize, Roger?

[RJNorton]

Since the story involves an axe, an axe will be your prize.

There is a story that on April 8, 1865, holding his arm straight out, Lincoln picked up an axe by the butt, with the handle parallel to the ground, and held the 7-pound tool motionless. His strength amazed everyone who was watching.

I believe the provenance is good, and this particular axe is now at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Just give the museum a call, tell them you got this question right, and arrange a time to have the museum formally present you with the axe Lincoln once held.

[J. Beckert]

The "axe trick" is no easy feat. I've heard Lincoln did this while visiting the Troops and none of the young men could duplicate it. He supposedly held it horizontal to the ground for a full minute. When I saw the axe in a news story a few years ago, it stated a soldier who witnessed this took the axe and sent it home. The family also kept his letter that accompanied it.

[LincolnMan]

Nice prize Roger-I axed for it and you delivered!

[J. Beckert]

Story about the incident and a picture of the axe.

http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com/2...ed-at.html

[bob_summers]

I'm pretty much of a one trick pony (Dr. Mudd), so I've enjoyed lurking and learning on this Extra Credit Questions post. To earn my keep, I'd like to contribute this question for fun: What was Booth served for breakfast at the Mudd farm?

[Rsmyth]

Chicken and biscuits cooked by slave Lettie Hall Dade!

[bob_summers]

You got me!

[Rsmyth]

Bob, maybe you can answer this question. It is not trivia since I do not know the answer. Lettie ended up in Pennsylvania but after that I lose her. Do you know what became of any of the Mudd slaves? Was there a colored burial ground? Thanks.

[bob_summers]

Rich, that's a good question about a slave burial ground. There must have been one, but it's something I've never looked into.

Regarding Dr. Mudd's slaves, he had nine slaves that I've been able to identify. There may have been more. The first five slaves were documented in the 1860 Federal Slave Census. They were a 26 year-old man, a 19 year-old girl, a 10 year-old boy, an 8 year-old girl, and a 6 year-old girl. The 26 year-old man was Elzee Eglent. The 19 year-old woman was his sister Mary Simms. The 14 year-old boy was their brother Milo Simms. The little slave girls were orphan sisters. The 8 year-old girl was Lettie Hall. The 6 year-old girl was Lettie’s sister Louisa Cristie.

Assassination trial testimony documented four additional slaves, acquired between 1860 and 1864. They were Frank Washington, Richard Washington, Melvina Washington, and Rachel Spencer. At the trial, Frank Washington said he was owned by Lydia Ann Dyer, but Dr. Mudd's wife said in a later interview that Frank Washington was a slave of Dr. Mudd, so I count him as such.

Rachel Spencer probably came from the plantation of Dr. Mudd's father Henry Lowe Mudd, where her mother Lucy Spencer, sister Maria Spencer, and brothers Baptist Spencer and Joseph Spencer were slaves. Maria Spencer was married to William Hurbert, a slave on Susanna Mudd’s plantation in nearby Prince George’s County. Frank, Richard, and Melvina Washington probably came from the Dyer plantation. Jeremiah Dyer said at the assassination trial that he had given Melvina Washington to Dr. Mudd just before the war.

I was able to find out a little about the later lives of five of Dr. Mudd’s slaves.

War Department records show that Rachel Spencer worked for the family of a Mr. Day, who was a clerk in the office of Captain Erskine Camp, superintendent of Soldiers Rest, a Union Army rest camp near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot in Alexandria, Virginia. I can't put my hands on it right now, but I have a 1870 or 1880 census record showing Rachel living with her mother Lucy in Washington, D.C.

The name Milo Simms appears in the 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1888 Washington City Directories. The name is distinct enough that this is probably the same Milo Simms who was Dr. Mudd’s slave. His occupation is listed variously as servant, laborer, oysters, and junk.

Frank Washington, Lettie Hall, and Louisa Christie all stayed with the Mudds after emancipation in 1864, and were still there as late as the 1870 census.

When Lettie Hall eventually left the Mudd farm, she lived for a while in Alexandria, Virginia, but next showed up in 1928 in Butler, Pennsylvania where she lived with her husband Pastor D.B. Dade. She gave an interview in 1928 to the Butler Eagle newspaper recounting John Wilkes Booth’s visit to the Mudd farm, and telling of her serving Booth chicken and biscuits for breakfast. Lettie died in Butler, Pennsylvania in 1936.

I've posted two newspaper clippings on Lettie here.