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Grave Thursday: Laura Keene

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Each week we are highlighting the final resting place of someone related to the Lincoln assassination story. It may be the grave of someone whose name looms large in assassination literature, like a conspirator, or the grave of one of the many minor characters who crossed paths with history. Welcome to Grave Thursday.

I’m very pleased to announce that this week’s installment of Grave Thursday is the contribution of author and theatre historian, Dr. Thomas Bogar.

Dr. Bogar’s books include American Presidents Attend the Theatre and his most recent book Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford’s Theatre. Dr. Bogar was kind enough to share his own picture of Laura Keene’s grave and write about her for this week’s entry.

Laura Keene

Burial Location: Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Connection to the Lincoln assassination:

Laura Keene’s performance as Florence Trenchard in Our American Cousin was a major reason why President Lincoln chose to attend Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. He enjoyed the play’s folksy humor and knew that night was to be Keene’s benefit. (He made it a point to attend such events whenever he could, to boost box office revenue for the chosen performer.) He had seen her act the year before and admired her acting. Born in England in 1826, Keene came to America under the aegis of manager James Wallack in 1852 and became an immediate success in witty, polite comedies that showcased her natural elegance and refinement. Her strongest assets were her large, dark, expressive eyes, slender, graceful figure, lustrous auburn hair, and melodious voice. In an era of overwhelmingly male management, she succeeded for nearly a decade (1854–1863) managing theatres in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, compiling an admirable record of artistic and financial success. Her productions were noteworthy for their taste and attention to detail.

That night, at the moment of the shot, she was donning her gloves offstage right for her next entrance. Her managerial instincts prompted her to stride to the footlights and call out repeatedly, “Order, gentlemen! Order! For God’s sake have presence of mind and keep your places and all will be well.” Then, led by a backstage route up and around and into the presidential box, she knelt at Lincoln’s side and cradled his head in her lap, bathing his face with water. After his death, she left Washington (against orders) with John Dyott and Harry Hawk en route to perform in Cincinnati, only to be arrested in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. From then on, her career and health (tuberculosis) entered a slow, irreversible decline. She toured in a lesser orbit to tepid reviews and poor box office. Bookings grew more difficult, and the towns and theatres grew smaller and dingier. Past the peak of her fame, she was unable to draw the crowds she had before and during the war. The constant travel was grueling, and she was sometimes ill for weeks at a time. Performing in tiny Tidioute, Pennsylvania, on the Fourth of July, 1873, she suffered a massive stroke. Few in the theatrical profession even learned of her death on November 4 at age 47 until after her interment, in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Ultimately, the events of one night overshadowed all of her accomplishments; when she is remembered today, if at all, it is as “that actress who was performing at Ford’s Theatre when Lincoln was shot.”

GPS coordinates for Laura Keene’s grave: 40.647506, -73.992331

For more information about Laura Keene and the others working at Ford’s Theatre on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, please purchase your copy of Dr. Bogar’s book, Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford’s Theatre.

The book is an amazing read and is filled with fascinating stories about the different employees and actors from America’s most (in)famous theater. My sincerest thanks go to Dr. Bogar for writing this post.

Categories: Grave Thursday, History | Tags: Acting, Ford's Theatre, Graves | 13 Comments

Grave Thursday: Art Loux

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Arthur F. Loux

Art Loux

Burial Location: Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Overland Park, Kansas

Connection to the Lincoln assassination:

Art Loux may not have been around during the time of Lincoln’s assassination, but, based on his detailed work on the subject, you would find it difficult to believe that he wasn’t. As a John Wilkes Booth and Lincoln assassination researcher, Art spent over 40 years delving into the history and engaging with others in the field. His name appears in the acknowledgements of countless books and practically all of the authors in the field considered Art a friend and generous colleague.

Art’s magnum opus, the product of his entire lifetime of researching, was his book, John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day.

This fabulous book documents the day to day movements of the world renowned actor, John Wilkes Booth, who turned into our nation’s first Presidential assassin. Art spent decades compiling Booth’s daily whereabouts and movements using newspapers, personal writings, and published accounts. In the days before the internet, Art sent letters to practically every library and historical society in America asking the recipients to check whatever newspapers and microfilm they had for mentions of the assassin. The magnitude of his research is staggering. Thanks to Art’s careful and meticulous eye, the life of John Wilkes Booth has been documented in a way never before thought possible.

Art Loux passed away on December 29, 2013, two days after signing a deal with McFarland & Company to have John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day published for the masses. In one of the greatest injustices of fate, Art never got to see his work become one of the most revered texts in Lincoln assassination literature.

I have written about my deep appreciation for Art Loux before and I have a page here on BoothieBarn in memory of Art. Please take a few minutes out of your day to read more about the career and life of this wonderful historian.

I decided to choose Art for today’s Grave Thursday selection for two reasons. The first is that this Sunday, October 16th, would have been Art’s 72nd birthday and so I felt a mention this week was appropriate. The second reason I chose to include Art in Grave Thursday is because I know he would have enjoyed it. In addition to being a big Lincoln assassination buff, Art was also a big cemetery buff. Art was always visiting cemeteries looking for, and photographing, graves. Art’s daughter Jennifer, who supervised the publication of her father’s manuscript after his death, has told me that she has many childhood memories trekking through graveyards with her father looking for such-and-such’s grave. To prove it, here’s a picture Art took in 1978 of his daughter standing next to Laura Keene’s grave in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn (Keene, by the way, is the subject of next week’s Grave Thursday):

Art later became a big contributor to the site FindaGrave.com, uploading over 800 pictures he had taken over the years of different people’s graves. I hope by including Art in Grave Thursday I am honoring not only a man I deeply respect and miss, but also the hobby that he enjoyed so much.

Every time I open Art’s book, I am grateful I had a chance to know such a generous man who gave knowledge so freely and without the expectation of anything in return. In 1977, Art penned the following note, in which he wrote admiringly of the generosity and helpfulness of those in the Lincoln assassination field:

Like the people he writes of in his note, Art, too, was remarkable. He was always generous with his time and knowledge, and still stands as a role model for me on how amateur historians are supposed to act and share. Every new post I put up here on BoothieBarn is my attempt to share my discoveries and knowledge with as many people as I can, just as Art did.

So, if you ever find yourself in the Topeka/Kansas City area, stop by Pleasant Valley Cemetery and pay your respects to one of the great historians in the field of Lincoln assassination studies, Arthur F. Loux.

GPS coordinates for Art Loux’s grave: 38.838552, -94.695460

Categories: Grave Thursday, History | Tags: Art Loux, Graves, John Wilkes Booth, Research | 8 Comments

Grave Thursday: C. Dwight Hess

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Dave Taylor

C. Dwight Hess

Burial Location: Westville Cemetery (Old Section), Westville, Indiana

Connection to the Lincoln assassination:

C. Dwight Hess was the manager and co-owner of the National Theatre in Washington D.C. The theater, also known as Grover’s Theater after Hess’ co-owner, Leonard Grover, was the main theatrical competitor of Ford’s Theatre in Washington City. As the manager of the National Theatre, Hess was very familiar with the actor turned assassin John Wilkes Booth.

On April 13th, the day before Lincoln’s assassination, John Wilkes Booth paid a visit to the National Theatre where he found Hess running lines with the stage prompter George Wren. Booth barged into the office where Hess and Wren were speaking, sat himself down, and proceeded to converse with the two men. Hess and Wren broke from their rehearsal and entertained the young actor. During the conversation, Booth inquired with Hess whether he was going to participate in the Grand Illumination planned for that evening. Hess replied in the affirmative but that he was saving his best material in order to illuminate the next night, Friday, April 14th, the anniversary of the fall of Fort Sumter. After mentioning his plan to illuminate on Friday night, Booth then asked Hess, “Ain’t you going to invite the President out?” Hess replied that, yes, he was hoping to invite the Lincolns and even thanked Booth for reminding him to do so. After a bit more conversation, Booth departed and both Wren and Hess would comment that they thought it odd that Booth would mention the President given his known dissatisfaction with the Union government. Hess was not aware that Booth was laying the groundwork for a possible assassination right inside Hess’ own theater. C. Dwight Hess did send along an invitation to Mrs. Lincoln, inviting her and her husband to his planned illumination on Friday and for the theater’s performance of Aladdin! or the Wonderful Lamp. While Tad Lincoln would take up Hess’ offer, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln would choose Ford’s Theatre for their entertainment on April 14th, and John Wilkes Booth’s plan would change venues because of it.

Hess would be present at his theater when the terrible news came in that the President Lincoln was assassinated over at Ford’s Theatre. His first thought after clearing the house was to send word to Leonard Grover who was not in D.C. at the time. Hess quickly dispatched a telegram to Grover which conveyed both his shock and relief:

Clarence Dwight Hess (who is also often recorded as Charles Dwight Hess) would later be a witness at the trial of the conspirators where he would testify about Booth’s visit to his theater on April 13th. After 1865, he continued in the theatrical business where he managed other theaters and even his own opera group which toured throughout Americas. In his later years, Hess retired to a small farm near Westville, Indiana. When he died on February 15, 1909, he was buried at the Westville Cemetery. Check out the Maps page for more details. For more information about Grover’s National Theatre and its connections to the Lincoln assassination story read the Grover’s Theatre and the Lincoln Assassination post.

GPS coordinates for C. Dwight Hess’ grave: 41.540153, -86.914445

Categories: Grave Thursday, History | Tags: Acting, Ford's Theatre, Graves, John Wilkes Booth | 9 Comments

Photo of the Day: John Wilkes Booth

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Categories: History | Tags: John Wilkes Booth | 32 Comments

Grave Thursday: Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Each week I am highlighting the final resting place of someone related to the Lincoln assassination story. It may be the grave of someone whose name looms large in assassination literature, like a conspirator, or the grave of one of the many minor characters who crossed paths with history. Welcome to Grave Thursday.

Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.

Burial Location: Rosedale Cemetery, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

Connection to the Lincoln assassination:

Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. was the eldest brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Lincoln. For much of his younger brother’s upbringing, June (sixteen years John Wilkes’ senior) was acting in California. By the time June returned from the west, John Wilkes was grown and beginning his own acting career. Nevertheless, out of all of the Booth brothers, June may have had the closest relationship to John Wilkes. The differences in their ages and June’s more substantial life experiences likely made June a surrogate father figure to his younger brother. John Wilkes also took great interest in the lives of June’s children, doting upon and nurturing the acting careers of his nieces. More than anyone else in the family, June was the most sympathetic to John Wilkes’ political views. While June did not address politics with the same passion as John Wilkes, he was, nevertheless, more Confederate in his sympathies than the other Booths during the Civil War. However, June knew that he was a father and breadwinner to his children first and so he kept most of his sympathies to himself to protect his income and family.

While John Wilkes was close to June, he did not confide in him about his plot against Lincoln. In spring of 1865, John Wilkes kept up the charade among his family that he had made a fortune in the oil business and that he need not act upon the stage any more. Shortly before Lincoln’s assassination, June had learned the truth of John Wilkes’ failure in his oil ventures and wrote to him to “let go yr oil bus.” and “attend to your profession”. June was unaware that, since his failure in the oil fields, John Wilkes had referred to his plot to kidnap Lincoln as the “oil business”. When detectives found June’s letter while searching John Wilkes’ rented room at the National, they believed the elder Booth might have known of his brother’s plot. After barely escaping mob justice in Cincinnati where he had been performing, June was arrested at his sister’s house in Philadelphia. He and his brother-in-law, John Sleeper Clarke, were kept at the Old Capitol Prison in D.C. until they were released in the month of June.

Post assassination, Junius Brutus Booth returned to his career as an actor and theater manager. He married his third wife, Agnes Perry, in 1867 and had four boys with her, two of whom would survive into adulthood and become actors themselves. In his later years, Junius moved to Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts. June and Agnes opened and ran a large hotel called the Masconomo House where they often arranged for outdoor theatrical performances, including some of the earliest “Shakespeare in the Park” performances that had ever occurred.

When Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. died in 1883 he was not interred in the Booth family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. Instead, June is buried in Manchester-by-the-Sea at Rosedale Cemetery. His two young sons by Agnes preceded him in death. Agnes and a third son, Sydney Barton, were later buried in the same plot. Check out the Maps page for more details. For more images of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., his wives, and his children, visit the Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. Picture Gallery.

GPS coordinates for Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.’s grave: 42.582743, -70.768894

Categories: Grave Thursday, History | Tags: Booth Family, Graves, John Wilkes Booth | 1 Comment

The Fake David Herold

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Recognize this face?

No? Well, that’s completely understandable because, despite the words on the bottom of this CDV, this image is definitely not of conspirator David Herold. However, like the false image of Mary Surratt that has been previously discussed on this site, in the wake of Lincoln’s assassination this image was copied and distributed to the general public as the likeness of David Herold. The nation clamored for images of John Wilkes Booth and his gang of conspirators and, when images were unavailable or difficult to acquire, some photographers were forced to improvise.

One of those improvising photographers was a man by the name of Anthony Berger. Berger had learned his trade from the famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady and had even run Brady’s studio in Washington, D.C. Under Brady’s tutelage, Berger became a experienced photographer and respected artist in his own right. Berger photographed President Lincoln at least 14 times and many of the classic images of Lincoln that we revere today were taken not by Brady, but by Berger. All of the images of Lincoln that we use on our money today were the products of Berger’s work:

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken by Anthony Berger on February 9, 1864. This image was the basis for the Lincoln penny.

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken by Anthony Berger on February 9, 1864. This image appears on the current $5 bill.

By 1865, Berger had moved to his own photography studio in New York. This is why the above image of “fake Herold” was copyrighted in Brooklyn and not in Washington, D.C. The true identity of the man pictured in Berger’s photograph is unknown as is Berger’s reasons for attempting to pass off such an image. The most obvious reason would be financial gain with Berger knowingly passing off a fake image of Herold during a time of huge demand and in a place where no one would know the difference. Or perhaps Berger truly believed that it was an image of David Herold and, being so far away from anyone who could correct him, it was mistakenly published as such. Eventually, Berger’s false image found its way into the illustrated newspapers that were published in New York. This fake David Herold image appeared as an engraving in Harper’s Weekly on June 10, 1865:

In addition to being flipped horizontally, someone took the liberty of adding a mustache to the man, a detail that does not appear on the original image. Perhaps this was done in order to fit the newspaper reports of the day which gave descriptions of the conspirators appearances. We know that Herold, like most of the conspirators, grew out his facial hair during the trial as the conspirators were rarely shaven during their imprisonment. Military commission member Lew Wallace sketched the conspirators while they were in the courtroom and his drawing of Herold also demonstrates an increase in facial hair:

By the time the execution came about we know that Herold had returned to his nearly clean shaven look:

Despite Berger’s success at getting his image published in the illustrated newspapers, it appears that the image never really became the big seller he was hoping for. Perhaps the wide publication of it in Harper’s Weekly made him, and others, aware that the image was incorrect. Just a couple of weeks later Harper’s Weekly published engravings of the conspirators based on the mug shot photographs by Alexander Gardner. Comparing Berger’s and Gardner’s photographs of Herold made it clear that Berger’s image was false.

So many errors were made in the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination. Names were misspelled, printed biographies contained inaccurate details (like Herold having attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy), and false images were published. Some of these myths and mistakes still pop up in the present. This fake image of David Herold, like the one of Mary Surratt, is a nice visual reminder that we have to carefully sift through the reports of the past and always question the validity and reliability of the evidence. Like Abraham Lincoln once said, “Not everything you read on the internet is true”.

References:
Roger Norton’s Lincoln Discussion Symposium
Roger Norton’s Abraham Lincoln Research Site

Categories: History | Tags: Abraham Lincoln, David Herold | 1 Comment

Dr. Mudd’s Suicide Attempt

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Dave Taylor

1871 must have been a rough year for a certain Charles County physician. In late March of that year a few of the regional newspapers carried stories about the apparently successful suicide of Dr. Mudd who played a small role in the story of Lincoln’s assassination.

The Dr. Mudd reported to have committed suicide by cutting his own throat was not Dr. Samuel Mudd, but rather his second cousin, Dr. George Dyer Mudd.

This “other” Dr. Mudd was actually the elder of the doctors Mudd. George even sponsored his younger cousin, Samuel, when the latter was applying for his doctorate in medicine.

Unlike his younger cousin, Dr. George Mudd was a Union supporter during the Civil War and as such was well liked and known among the Union soldiers who occupied Charles County. It was likely due to this reason that Dr. Samuel Mudd chose to confide to Dr. George Mudd that two “strangers” had come to his house on the morning of April 15th, after the assassination of President Lincoln. Samuel told this to George on April 16th, when both men attended Easter Sunday services at St. Peter’s Church. Dr. Sam hinted to Dr. George that he was worried that these two men might have been connected with Lincoln’s death, but did not put too fine a point on this suspicion. George Mudd said he would tell the authorities, but did not actually report the news until the next day. The authorities eventually followed up on Dr. George Mudd’s lead, and pretty soon the whole family’s name was Mudd due to his younger cousin’s well established acquaintance with John Wilkes Booth.

Despite what the papers initially reported in March of 1871, however, Dr. George Mudd did not succeed in his attempt to kill himself. A correction was quickly published.

Further information was published in the local newspaper, The Port Tobacco Times, on March 24th. The article started with a copy of one of the original notices citing Dr. Mudd’s death by suicide:

“The above, which we find in the Baltimore papers of Wednesday last, is incorrect, and we copy it merely to correct the misstatements of false rumors, growing out of a very unfortunate affair. From trustworthy sources we learn that on Sunday morning last, during a fit of temporary insanity, superinduced by mental prostration, Dr. Mudd did attempt to take his own life but was prevented by friends, but not until he had inflicted an ugly cut upon his throat. The wound is by no means fatal, and, at last accounts, the Doctor is pronounced out of danger.”

Dr. George Mudd recovered from his suicide attempt and it does not appear he ever tried to take his own life again. Instead, two years later, Dr. George Mudd enter politics and was elected as a state senator. When he was re-elected to the legislature in 1876, many newspapers confused him with his infamous cousin.

Categories: History | Tags: Dr. Samuel Mudd, John Wilkes Booth, Mudd | 11 Comments

Grave Thursday: Hartman Richter

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Dave Taylor

Ernest Hartman Richter

Burial Location: Neelsville Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Germantown, Maryland

Connection to the Lincoln assassination:

Ernest Hartman Richter, often known as just Hartman Richter in assassination literature, was the first cousin of conspirator George Atzerodt. Richter’s mother’s maiden name was Christanna Maria Atzerodt, the sister of George’s father, Johann. Like his cousin, Hartman Richter was born in Germany. In 1844, the Atzerodts and Richters immigrated to the United States where they settled in Montgomery County, Maryland. Johann Atzerodt and his brother-in-law Frederick Richter invested in a farm in what is now Germantown, Maryland, and the families lived there together for some time. After a few years, Atzerodt sold his interest in the farm to his brother-in-law and moved his family to Westmoreland County, Virginia.

After the assassination of Lincoln, conspirator George Atzerodt escaped Washington City and headed north towards this former family home, now owned by his uncle and cousin. Atzerodt arrived at the Richter farm on April 16th and was welcomed in with open arms. George stayed about the home for several days until the early hours of April 20th, when Union soldiers came knocking at the door. It was George’s cousin, Hartman Richter who answered the soldiers knock that morning. I’ll let Sgt. Gemmill, the lead officer who arrived at the Richter home, explain what happened next:

“I went to the house of a man named Richter, I think, and asked him if there was a man there named [Atwood]. I had two men with me at the time. I understood him to say that he was his cousin but [he] had left and gone to Frederick. One of my men understood the same, but the other did not. I then told him I would search the house. He then said there was a man in the house. He commenced telling me a yarn and I was suspicious of him. I then searched the house and went up to his room. There were three men in one bed, two of them young men by the name of Nichols living in the neighborhood, who did not explain how they came there; but as my orders were to arrest Atzerodt alone, I did not arrest them [Note: the two Nichols men were the brothers of Hartman Richter’s wife]. When the door opened the two of them awoke. He [Atzerodt] did not awake or at least pretended not to till I went up to the bed. I asked him his name. He gave me a name which I though was Atwood, but I heard it indistinctly as he spoke with a German accent and I was not certain about it.”‘

Despite Sgt. Gemmill having orders to only arrest Atzerodt, Richter’s attempt to hide his cousin’s presence in the home was very suspicious and led Gemmill to return to the Richter home. “I told his cousin to get ready, as I wanted him to go with me. He said he did not want to go; that he did not know what he was arrested for. Atzerodt never asked me a question in relation to the cause of his arrest, although he was in my custody several hours.”

Hartman Richter was taken down to Washington and imprisoned aboard the USS Saugus just like his cousin. Richter also has the distinction of having his mug shot photograph taken just like the main conspirators. From time to time you’ll find people who mistake Richter’s mug shot photographs for ones of Dr. Mudd. Dr. Mudd was never placed, or photographed, on the monitors.

Richter, like the conspirators, was transferred to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary where he would be imprisoned until May 13th. By that date it had been well determined that Richter had no knowledge of his cousin’s involvement in the plot against Lincoln. He was transferred to the more “minimum security” prison, the Old Capitol Prison, where some of the other “suspicious but not evidently guilty” persons were held. On May 30th, Richter was released from jail completely.

Ernest Hartman Richter far outlived the cousin he tried to protect, dying on February 21, 1920. He is buried in the Neelsville Presbyterian Church Cemetery, in Germantown, Maryland, not too far from the site of his former home. Check out the Maps page for more details. For more images of Hartman Richter and the other “non-conspirator” who had mug shot photographs taken, visit the Fake Conspirators Gallery.

GPS coordinates for Ernest Hartman Richter’s grave: 39.1958242, -77.2431242

Categories: Grave Thursday, History | Tags: George Atzerodt, Graves, Hartman Richter, Prison | 15 Comments

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Grave Thursday: Laura Keene

Grave Thursday: Art Loux

Grave Thursday: C. Dwight Hess

Photo of the Day: John Wilkes Booth

Grave Thursday: Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.

The Fake David Herold

Dr. Mudd’s Suicide Attempt

Grave Thursday: Hartman Richter

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