DC Sites

[KateH.]

Is there a link to the directory? I've only been using Ancestry for a day and can't seem to find it. Thanks.

[BettyO]

Kate -

Go here: http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.a...d=15797770

[BettyO]

Found this -- Herold listed as a "Druggist" in the 1865 DC City Directory....he's not living at home with mom, but boarding on 8th Street....

[L Verge]

That is the same as his mother's address -- 636 8th Street. Wanna bet that Momma was making him pay rent??

[KateH.]

Seeing as he was the only male in the immediate family by 1865, I'm sure he was bringing in something to help out.

Also, thank you for the link, Betty

[BettyO]

Thanks, ya'll! I got a bit too wrapped up in his occupation as "druggist!" He was a druggist's assistant, wasn't he? This makes it appear that he had his own apothecary!

[KateH.]

Yes, druggist clerk or doctor's assistant. He did get a degree in pharmacology from Georgetown when he was 18, and he might have had the experience to open his own apothecary one day. But in 1865 he was still more of a learning apprentice. However, as you said, that statement reads as if he owned the shop.

[RJNorton]

Has it ever been determined if there is a connection between David Herold's background and the ruse Lewis Powell used at Seward's? In other words, could the fake prescription idea have originated with Herold?

[RJNorton]

Hello Everyone:

I'm not sure who lived where, but I can say with near certainty that Rathbone and Harris were delivered by carriage to the White House and that the presidential party (all four of them, plus the coachman, Francis P. Burke, left together for the theater. Here are the proofs:

1. Michael Burlingame, Ed., Lincoln Observed---p. 188 (Noah Brooks)

2. Forbes's Affidavit, 1892, in Good, We Saw Lincoln Shot , p. 102

3. Clara M. Laughlin, The Death of Lincoln, p. 40

4. Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: the Prairie Years, p. 580

5. Katherine Helm, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln, pp. 242, 256

Thank you.

Additional material or corrections are welcome.

John

Just out of curiosity I thought I'd see what George Alfred Townsend wrote about this in The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (1865):

"At 8 o'clock the same evening, President Lincoln and Speaker Colfax sat together in a private room at the Whit House, pleasantly conversing. General grant, with whom the President had engaged to attend Ford's Theater that evening, had left with his wife for Burlington, New Jersey, in the 6 o'clock train. After his departure, Mr. Lincoln rather reluctantly determined to keep his part of the engagement, rather than disappoint his friends and the audience. Mrs. Lincoln, entering the room and turning to Mr. Colfax, said in a half laughing, half serious way, "Well, Mr. Lincoln, are you going to the theater with me or not?" "I suppose I shall have to go, Mr. Colfax, said the President, and the Speaker took his leave in the company of Major Rathbone, of the Provost Marshal General office, who escorted Miss Harris, daughter of Senator Harris, of New York. Mr. And Mrs. Lincoln reached Ford's Theater at twenty minutes before 9 o'clock."

If I am reading this correctly, Townsend thought Clara and Henry were already at the White House when the group departed for Ford's.

I believe some folks on the forum are more familiar with "Gath" as a writer than I am - generally speaking, how reliable is he?

[BettyO]

Has it ever been determined if there is a connection between David Herold's background and the ruse Lewis Powell used at Seward's? In other words, could the fake prescription idea have originated with Herold?

I have always believed that it did, Roger. There is nothing set in concrete regarding the ruse - but it does indeed sound like Herold. I don't think that Powell would have thought this up; he possibly could have. We don't really have any evidence.

[Jim Garrett]

Gath was a journalist more consumed with the betterment of his career and seems that he would not let facts get in the way of a good story. A good bit of the mis-information from later authors originate with his work.

---

That is the same as his mother's address -- 636 8th Street. Wanna bet that Momma was making him pay rent??

It seems that in the old city directories, they listed adult males living uner the roof of a parent as bds. Since Davey was not the head of household, and he was an adult, he boards.

[L Verge]

Gath did tend to "pad" his reporting, but in this particular case. I don't see any reason why he would place Rathbone at the White House if he wasn't already there.

[Gene C]

Jim Bishop in "the Day Lincoln was Shot" says
"The president's carriage turned north at Fiftteenth Street and east on H Street. It pulled up in front of the home of Senator Ira Harris. Forbes got down off the box and rang the bell. Misss Harris and Major Rathbone, flushed with excitement at the unexpected honor, came out and stepped into the carriage. .......He was not in uniform, and he was not armed" p193

[RJNorton]

Gene, that is why I find this discussion so interesting. For my entire adult life I have pictured Abraham and Mary's carriage pulling up to pick up Clara and Henry. I never thought of it any other way until recently. Bishop's book is the first assassination book I ever read, and what he wrote has had a lasting impression. I had a similar experience when it was first suggested that Herold might not have been with Powell at Seward's. I never imagined it any other way until recent times.

[KateH.]

Roger, I also agree with Betty. Of course we have no proof of who thought up the idea of Powell posing as a delivery man. However, given as how Herold probably had done the same job, it seems likely he thought of it. He probably knew someone delivering medicine was more likely to be welcomed inside without questions. For example, not sure if the story is true, but didn't Herold deliver castor oil to the Executive Mansion and give it to Lincoln?