Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation Owes Big $$$

[RJNorton]

This paragraph from the NPR report that I posted earlier seems pretty definite that Waller received the hat around the time of the 1864 re-election battle. Am I correct in assuming that Lincoln did not campaign in Illinois at that time? Did Waller per chance come to D.C. for the inauguration after having been a solid supporter of Lincoln (finally) in his second campaign?

Lincoln did not campaign in Illinois in 1864.

There is no mention of Waller ever meeting Lincoln in Lincoln-Day-By-Day. I also checked the Collected Works and do not see any correspondence between Lincoln and Waller.

[RJNorton]

Has the Lincoln hat with the bullet hole that Laurie mentioned ever turned up anywhere? Somehow I thought Lincoln had it disposed of to not alarm Mary.

Bill, I think you are right. I have never heard of this hat being on display anywhere.

Quoting from Matthew Pinsker's Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home:

"About eleven o'clock one night, Private John W. Nichols of Company K was on guard duty at the large gate on the edge of the institution's grounds when he heard a rifle shot and then witnessed the "bareheaded" president riding quickly on horseback toward his cottage. Private Nichols asked the president about his missing hat and was told that "somebody had fired a gun off at the foot of the hill" which frightened Lincoln's horse and then led to a struggle to regain control that had "jerked his hat off." Concerned, Nichols recalled years later that he and another member of the company went down the twisting driveway toward the main road where they discovered the president's signature silk plug hat with a bullet hole through the crown. The next day Nichols claimed that he returned the item to the president, who assured him "rather unconcernedly" that the whole episode was the product of "some foolish gunner" and that he wanted the matter "kept quiet."

[Steve]

Here's my source for William Waller voting for Douglas in the 1860 election, Elbert Waller mentions it himself in a brief aside in his book on Illinois history:

https://archive.org/stream/wallersbriefh...0/mode/2up

This 1912 book has some more information on William Waller in its biography of Elbert, though its description is somewhat hagiographic:

https://archive.org/stream/historyofsout...8/mode/2up

From what I can gather William Waller was a farmer who was a Democrat who lived just outside Murphysboro in Jackson County, Illinois and who voted for Douglas in the 1860 election. He was also a staunch Unionist opposed to pro-successionist Democrats and joined some unnamed organization opposed to the Knights of the Golden Circle. The Knights or people of similar pro-Confederate leanings threatened him and his family and he switched ties to the Republican party. He never enlisted in the Army. I checked the list of Illinois delegates to the National Union Convention in Baltimore (thinking that he might have gone there and then made a detour to Washington) but he wasn't on the list. I also searched for Waller in DC newspapers printed during the war (hoping maybe he went to Congress to testify on what was happening in southern Illinois?), but alas couldn't find any mention of him in Washington.

[RJNorton]

Steve (and everyone), other than what Clara Waller and John W. Allen maintained, have you come across any credible evidence that Abraham Lincoln and William Waller ever even met each other?

From my view, I cannot think of any reason why Abraham Lincoln would give this guy his hat.

(maybe my aging brain is missing something here)

[Steve]

Steve (and everyone), other than what Clara Waller and John W. Allen maintained, have you come across any credible evidence that Abraham Lincoln and William Waller ever even met each other?

From my view, I cannot think of any reason why Abraham Lincoln would give this guy his hat.

(maybe my aging brain is missing something here)

I haven't come across any evidence at all that Lincoln and William Waller met. If Lincoln ever personally gave him his hat, it would have to have been in Washington DC. and there's no evidence Waller ever went there. It's not impossible that he did; it just seems unlikely to me that a farmer in Illinois with several small children, who's been threatened, would travel for a visit to DC for no apparent reason.

According to her findagrave page Clara only married Ebert Waller in 1948, over fifty years after William Waller died:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4639...-dee-frank

Ebert was only born in 1870. So we're only getting a third-hand account from Clara, if the hat actually belonged to William Waller. There's not even an account by Ebert himself, that his father was given the hat by Lincoln.


My gut tells it's most likely that Ebert himself bought the hat second-hand, perhaps from somebody, an estate sale, or antique shop in Springfield sometime when he was a state legislator and Clara somehow confused the stories of Ebert's father during the war with the hat.

[RJNorton]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abraham-lin...tion-debt/

[RJNorton]

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/06/20...and-museum

[David Lockmiller]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abraham-lin...tion-debt/

Roger,

The story contains this tidbit of unsurprising information:

Tony Leone – a Lincoln buff himself – once sat on the board that oversaw the museum.

"Somebody's got some explaining to do," Leone said.

"We really don't have any serious accounting of how much they raise every year and how much they spend," he added, saying he thinks it's reached the level of a scandal.



Perhaps the state legislature should demand that the accounting books be opened to public scrutiny.

[David Lockmiller]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abraham-lin...tion-debt/

Treasures that could be sold include Lincoln's iconic hat made of beaver fur. There were even two marks on the brim from "well-worn fingerprints."

This reminded me of F.B. Carpenter's narration on Lincoln's salute to the White House guards ("Six Months at the White House," page 169):

I was always touched by the President's manner of receiving the salute of the guard at the White House. Whenever he appeared in the portico, on his way to or from the War or Treasury Department, or on any excursion down the avenue, the first glimpse of him was, of course, the signal for the sentinel on duty to "present arms." This was always acknowledged by Mr. Lincoln with a peculiar bow and touch of the hat, no matter how many times it might occur in the course of a day; and it always seemed to me as much a compliment to the devotion of the soldiers, on his part, as it was the sign of duty and deference on the part of the guard.

Roger, could you perhaps post the photograph, with the distinctive finger marks on the hat, contained in the article itself?

[RJNorton]

Roger, could you perhaps post the photograph, with the distinctive finger marks on the hat, contained in the article itself?

Yes, David. Here is the hat:

[RJNorton]

There is an interesting video on the collection's gloves here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdANJr1oDU

[David Lockmiller]

Roger, could you perhaps post the photograph, with the distinctive finger marks on the hat, contained in the article itself?

Yes, David. Here is the hat:

Thanks, Roger!

It has been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." This photograph is worth ten thousand words. It lends truth to F.B. Carpenter's words.

I see from the video that Roger posted on the Lincoln gloves (immediately above) that this hat is the one that he wore as "a country lawyer." So, I am not sure that this is the same hat that he wore in the White House.

And, yes, everyone, I know Lincoln tipped his hat to others.

[davg2000]

Roger, could you perhaps post the photograph, with the distinctive finger marks on the hat, contained in the article itself?

Yes, David. Here is the hat:

Thanks, Roger!

It has been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." This photograph is worth ten thousand words. It lends truth to F.B. Carpenter's words.

I see from the video that Roger posted on the Lincoln gloves (immediately above) that this hat is the one that he wore as "a country lawyer." So, I am not sure that this is the same hat that he wore in the White House.

And, yes, everyone, I know Lincoln tipped his hat to others.

This is not a White House hat. The two White House hats that we have (one at Hildene and the other at the Smithsonian) were taller. The ALPLM has never claimed that Lincoln wore this hat as president.

[Steve]

This is not a White House hat. The two White House hats that we have (one at Hildene and the other at the Smithsonian) were taller. The ALPLM has never claimed that Lincoln wore this hat as president.

If the hat's provenance is correct and it did originally come from William Waller, than it would've had to have been given to him in Washington by President Lincoln. Waller had been a Democrat who voted for Douglass in the 1860 election. Waller didn't become a supporter of Lincoln until after the Civil War began. According to the news articles about the hat, affidavits used for its provenance say that Waller was given it “during the Civil War in Washington”.

[RJNorton]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...story.html