This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  In the coming weeks I will be posting about some of the events planned to mark the occasion.  Remember to check out the Calendar section of BoothieBarn for more events, including some smaller events that might be happening in your area. 

As has become fairly apparent by my recent postings, I have developed a deep interest in the Booth family of Bel Air, Maryland. While this site is still devoted to exploring all aspects of Lincoln’s assassination, I have discovered that the familial background of the Booths is a fascinating sidebar. Looking at the lives and interactions between the members of the Booth family provides a great deal of insight into the path that led John Wilkes Booth to go from actor to assassin, family to fiend. Therefore, I am extremely excited for the upcoming Tudor Hall Symposium. This is a one time only event taking place on May 9, 2015. I’ll let the release from the Spirits of Tudor Hall group explain:

We’re very excited to announce that the Junius B. Booth Society (JBBS) and the Historical Society of Harford County (HSHC) are holding a one day, one-of-a kind symposium on Saturday, May 9, 2015, titled Tudor Hall, the Booths of Maryland and the Civil War from 8:00 AM to 4:45 PM at the Bel Air Armory in Bel Air, MD. Tudor Hall, the home of the theatrical Booths of Maryland, a short distance away will be open to the attendees following the symposium for tours till 7 PM. We are holding this timely symposium to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln Assassination and the end of the Civil War. The symposium will explore the complex theatrical Booths— who left their mark on America forever (good and bad), the history of Tudor Hall and the attitudes of Marylanders during the Civil War. As was true with many Maryland families during the Civil War; the Booths were truly a house divided. This is a fundraiser and the proceeds will be split between JBBS and HSHC. All proceeds to JBBS will be used for turning Tudor Hall into a museum.

We have a spectacular line-up of nationally recognized speakers on this fascinating subject:

Fortune’s Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth
By Terry Alford, author of Fortune’s Fool: The Biography of John Wilkes Booth. Terry Alford is a Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and is a recognized expert on John Wilkes Booth. His long awaited comprehensive biography of John Wilkes Booth, researched for decades, will be released early in 2015.

Edwin Booth During the Civil War
By Daniel J. Watermeier, author of American Tragedian: The Life of Edwin Booth. Daniel J. Watermeier has, through decades of tireless research paired with his own sharp insight, put together the most complete Edwin Booth biography to date. Watermeier’s book offers an in-depth look at the triumphal career and tumultuous life of one of the American stage’s most celebrated figures. His book is scheduled for release early in 2015. Daniel’s talk will focus on Edwin Booth during the Civil war.

A Brief Introduction to Tudor Hall
By Jim Garrett, author of The Lincoln Assassination: Where Are They Now? Jim is a recognized historian of the Lincoln Assassination and a tour guide at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. and gives special talks at Tudor Hall. Jim’s talk will focus on the history of Tudor Hall, home of the theatrical Booths of Maryland.

Booth’s Backstage Friends at Ford’s
By Thomas A. Bogar, author of Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford’s Theatre.Thomas Bogar tells the untold story of Lincoln’s assassination: the forty-six stage hands, actors, and theater workers on hand for the bewildering events in the theater that night, and what each of them witnessed in the chaos-streaked hours before John Wilkes Booth was discovered to be the culprit.

John Wilkes Booth and the Knights of the Golden Circle
By David C. Keehn, author of Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War. David C. Keehn’s book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the Golden Circle region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the complex history of this mysterious group (John Wilkes Booth was a member), including its involvement in the secession movement and the Civil War. David’s talk will focus on John Wilkes Booth and his involvement in the Knights of the Golden Circle.

Agenda
Saturday, May 9, 2015
8:00-8:45 AM   Registration and continental breakfast
8:45 AM   Opening remarks
8:55 AM    Morning Session
Fortune’s Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth by Terry Alford
Edwin Booth During the Civil War by Daniel Watermeier
A Brief Introduction to Tudor Hall by Jim Garrett
12:10-1:45 PM   Lunch on your own at area restaurants or bring your own lunch.
1:45 PM   Afternoon Session
Booth’s Backstage Friends at Ford’s by Thomas Bogar
John Wilkes Booth and the Knights of the Golden Circle by David Keehn
Speakers’ Panel (speakers answer questions from audience and each other)
4:45 PM   Closing remarks

Following the closing remarks the first floor of Tudor Hall is open to attendees till 7 PM.

Fees for Symposium 
Early Registration until April 24, 2015 ─$65.00
Includes continental breakfast and afternoon refreshments.
Registration after April 24, 2015 ─$75.00

The speakers’ books will be for sale at the symposium.

The symposium will be held at: 
Bel Air Armory
37 N. Main Street
Bel Air, MD 21014
Handicapped access
Limited parking is available in the back. Parking is also available nearby at the Historical Society of Harford County at 143 N. Main Street and on the street.

How to Register:

You can register for the May 9, 2015 Tudor Hall Symposium in Bel Air, Maryland two different ways.

1. Register online and pay with PayPal (or with a credit card) through the Historical Society of Harford County website

• Visit the Events page of the Historical Society of Harford County website by clicking HERE
• Scroll down until you see the event details:
• Click on the “Buy Now” bottom to open the PayPal page to complete your registration and order:

2. Register by mail and pay by check

• Download the registration form by clicking HERE
• Print the form, fill it out, and mail it with your check payable to The Historical Society of Harford County to:

The Historical Society of Harford County
143 N. Main Street
Bel Air, MD 21014
Attn: 2015 Symposium

Please consider registering for this one time only Tudor Hall Symposium. All the proceeds from the event will go to the Junius Brutus Booth Society, a group that has done tremendous work in transforming Tudor Hall into a Booth family museum.  In the three years I’ve lived in Maryland I’ve seen this group improve Tudor Hall time and time again.  They deserve all the support they can get for their efforts to bring the story of the Maryland Booths to the masses.  I, of course, will be attending the symposium and I can’t wait to see you there.

So register now and mark your calendar for the Tudor Hall, the Booths of Maryland and the Civil War Symposium on May 9, 2015!

Henry Byron Booth was the third child of Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes.  He lived a short life, dying from smallpox at the age of 11.  His early death prevented him from knowing his two youngest siblings, John Wilkes and Joseph Adrian.  You can read more about Henry Byron’s brief life in this prior post and by visiting the Booth Children Picture Gallery.

Though only a little is known about Henry Byron, it is clear that he was much loved by his family.  After the young boy’s death, his father, Junius, admitted that Henry had been his favorite child writing, “Guess what his loss has been to us – So proud as I was of him above all others.”

Almost forty-five years after his death, Henry Byron’s mother, Mary Ann, still mourned him.  When her granddaughter, Edwina Booth, wrote of the rough time she, her father, and ailing step-mother were having on their visit to England, Mary Ann wrote of her last, tragic visit to her homeland:

 Dear Child how I do wish you were more comfortable & back again in America after going so far & ^not^ seeing the half I wanted you to see, but it is so like my last trip to England, it was nothing but misfortune & death of my dear Boy Henry. that cast a gloom over everything.

Mary Ann Booth to Edwina Booth, April 21, 1881

Practically nothing remains to mark Henry Byron’s existence aside from his name carved on the reverse of the Booth obelisk in Green Mount Cemetery.  His real grave was destroyed when the English cemetery he was buried in was transformed into a park in the late 1890’s.  It is for this reason that any item relating to Henry Byron is an exciting, and rare, find.

The Helen Menken Collection is a privately held theater collection in New York. The collection contains several Junius Brutus Booth letters and playbills. The letters were at one time consulted by Dr. Stephen Archer who provided transcriptions of many of them in his wonderful book, Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus. One letter that Dr. Archer decided not to include in his book was an October 26, 1834 letter from Junius to his father Richard. At the time Junius was in Boston with Mary Ann and the children. His note to his father, still at the family farm in Maryland, provides instructions to their servant, Joe Hall, regarding the care of the farm’s animals and upcoming crops. It is a plain enough letter demonstrating Junius’ operation of his farm while acting on tour. It has little insight to offer which is probably why Dr. Archer chose not to include it in his book on Junius.

However, for individuals like me with a growing interest in the entire Booth clan, this letter has an exciting addendum.  Junius ends the letter with the following sentence, “Henry wishes to write two lines in this letter which will be seen beneath.”  Then, below Junius’ signature, the following note can be seen:

Though the letter has been torn and part of it has been lost, with the script of a nine year-old Henry appears to write:

Dear Grandfather
We hope you are w[ell?]
Joe [?] and all the stock [?]
Peacock & the other hor[ses?]
God bless you
Yours ever
Henry Byron

While some words may be difficult to make out, his signature is large and bold, demonstrating significant practice at getting it right:

The existence of this note is exciting not only because it is likely the only surviving document written by Henry Byron Booth, but also because, even in its short and incomplete state, it mentions another member of the Booth family: Peacock the pony.

In January of 1821 when Junius Brutus Booth (then married to Adelaide Delannoy and with a young son named Richard) decided to run off to America with Mary Ann, the two started their journey from the English town of Deal.  While in Deal, Junius purchased a piebald pony named Peacock.  Piebald is a coloration pattern of white (or non-pigmentation) with dark spots or patches on top.  Dalmatians, for example are extremely piebald. As a neighbor of the Booths recalled later, Peacock’s, “color was in blocks, white squares with bright bay squares.”

From Deal, Junius, Mary Ann, and Peacock traveled to the Island of Madeira, a Portuguese colonized isle off the coast of Morocco.  Madeira was a common stopping place for ships before setting across the Atlantic.  The young couple was so entranced by the beautiful island that they decided to stay for awhile.  Years later, their daughter Asia described the attention little Peacock received as her parents vacationed on Madeira:

“They remained for several weeks at Madeira; and, as horses were exceedingly rare on the island (oxen and mules being used on the mountains to carry freight, etc.), Peacock created great excitement. Sums of money were offered for him, but my father declined parting with his new favorite; and in April, he took passage for himself, wife, and pony by the schooner Two Brothers for America.”

Peacock the pony served his master well for many years in America.  Junius would often ride Peacock to nearby Baltimore and even hitch him up to his wagon with a larger horse for trips to Philadelphia.  Even though Peacock was small, “Every horse was scared that met with him,” recalled a neighbor.

Ella Mahoney, who later owned the Booth home of Tudor Hall and ran it as a museum, wrote a story about how Junius reacted to Peacock’s ultimate death:

“I often heard it related of him that coming home on one occasion, he found the little horse Peacock, now quite aged, dead. He sent for several of his neighbors (my uncle among them), and going to the house forced Mrs. Booth, terror-stricken, to sit on the horse, wrapped in a sheet, while he walk­ing around with a gun on his arm, read a funeral service. Two of the neighbors whom Joe had hastened to bring, arriving, one attracted his attention, while the other going quietly up behind, pinioned his arms, rendering him harmless. Instead of struggling or growing angry, he dropped the gun and remarked, “Well, you’ve got me, come to the house and have a drink.” But later in the day he disappeared, and the next day was quite ill.”

Like so many stories about “crazy Junius”, this story is probably exaggerated.  After his father’s death, John Wilkes Booth would lament, “We know that two-thirds of the funny anecdotes about our own father are disgraceful falsehoods.”   Still it is likely that Junius, a life long lover of animals, was deeply saddened by the loss of his prized pony Peacock.  Peacock was a living memory of Junius’ “honeymoon” with Mary Ann and, as this note from Henry Byron appears to prove, was well loved by all.

This note nicely reminds us of the lives of two forgotten members of the Booth family: Henry Byron Booth and Peacock the pony.

References:
Helen Menken Collection
Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus by Stephen Archer
The Elder and Younger Booth by Asia Booth Clarke
John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir by Asia Booth Clarke edited by Terry Alford
ALPLM

Joseph Adrian Booth, born on February 8, 1840, was the youngest child of Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes.  His middle name of Adrian was selected in honor of his eldest brother Junius, Jr., 18 years his senior, who was quite skilled at performing the character of Adrian De Mauprat in the play Richelieu.  Joe spent his boyhood at different schools (often joined by his brother John Wilkes) and on the family farm at Tudor Hall.  When Joe came of age, he had limited aspirations.  With assistance from his brother Edwin, Joe became a treasurer at a theater in Baltimore.  During the next theatrical season he accompanied Edwin on tour, occasionally filling in on stage with minor roles.  Unlike his brothers however, Joe did not take to acting and never attempted to make a livelihood out of it.  Instead, Joe decided to pursue a career in medicine.  In the fall of 1860, he enrolled at the Medical College of South Carolina.  He seemed happy with his choice of profession and, for the first time, appeared to have a path in life.  The outbreak of the Civil War, however, threw a wrench in his plans.  Joseph was in Charleston when the attack on Fort Sumter occurred on April 12, 1861.  Following in the footsteps of his older brother John Wilkes who left his acting engagement in 1859 to soldier at the execution of John Brown, Joseph entered the fray, albeit briefly, to assist as an army surgeon during the attack.  He may have been influenced to do so by his mentor, Dr. Columbus DaVega, who designed and ran a floating hospital for the attacking Confederate troops.  Though the documentation is lacking, it is entirely possible that Joseph assisted Dr. DaVega on his floating hospital during the siege on Fort Sumter.  Joe’s service with the Confederacy was short lived however, and, after the medical college had been shut done due to the upcoming war, he returned back north.

For a time he may have joined up with his brother John Wilkes, accompanying him on tour as he had with Edwin a couple of years before. By early 1862, however, Joseph Booth ran off and disappeared for a time.  He left home with barely a note to explain himself.  The family was unsure if he had enlisted in the army, run off, or even committed suicide.  He showed up a couple months later in England, where Edwin was touring for a year.  While there he had hoped to see his grandmother, but she had passed away before he had arrived.  He was, however, the first of the Booths to meet his brand new niece Edwina, who had been born in England in December of 1861.  Joe, who enjoyed changing how he said certain words, called her Ed-wine-a, like the beverage. Edwin and Joe visited Paris together as Edwin unsuccessfully searched for a theater there to engage him.  By July 15, 1862, Joe was off again, this time he headed for Australia.  When later asked his reasons for going to Australia, Joe responded, “I went out there with this quite boyish freak to make my fortune. I tried mining for a time. Was on a sheep and cattle station, northern part – clerk in the station.”  Joe stayed in Australia for quite some time, much to the lament of his mother.  A poor correspondent, Mary Ann Booth worried daily about her youngest son:

“…Rosalie went yesterday to Blockley post office – but no letters – I saw the [ship] Africa brought the Australian mails – but I don’t know of what date, so I thought there might be one for me – its 6 months today since Joseph left Gravesend [England] – but as no one saw him off how can we be sure that he went there I do think it was the cruelest thing that could be, Josey to throw himself away as he has done and make us all so very miserable he is hardly ever out of my thoughts by day, & at night I dream of him.”

Eventually Joe tired of life in Australia but he was still not ready to come home.  It’s possible that Joe was enacting this long journey in order to avoid the Union draft at home.  Though he would later claim to have been neutral when it came to the war, his brief service with the Confederacy may have made him unwilling to fight for the Union.  When he did leave Australia, he set sail for California.  His eldest brother Junius was living in California at the time and with his help, Joe found work as a mail carrier for Well’s Fargo in San Francisco.  June departed California with his family not long after Joe’s arrival leaving Joe alone again.  Joe worked for Well’s Fargo for about a year before tiring of the work.  He spoke thusly about it, “I disliked the business very much.  The city is very hilly, and I had a great part of the city to go over.  I was on foot.  Had to carry a great many letters around.”  Joe quit Well’s Fargo and decided he finally wanted to come home.

Joe departed California for the long journey to New York on April 13, 1865.  The next day, his brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated the President.  Joe’s boat arrived in Panama on May 2nd.  Joe and the other passengers learned then that the President had been assassinated by a man named Booth.  Joe, however was not worried as there were many people with the last name of Booth.  From the Pacific side of Panama it was necessary to board a train to cross the isthmus and catch a different ship on the Atlantic side.  Sometime during the train ride across Panama, Joe learned that the man named Booth who had assassinated Lincoln was, in fact, his own brother.  A fellow passenger wrote sympathetically of the impact this news had on Joe:

“He said to me oh it is awful to think that my brother should be guilty of such a horrid crime, he said also that his brother must have been crazy to have committed such a deed, and said it would drive him mad. he was very much depressed in spirits and wanted me to be with him all the time to cheer him up. He also said that he wished he was dead and often spoke of his mother and said that this was a dreadful blow for her at her time of life and said that this would blight the future of the rest of the family. He seemed to be very much affected during the rest of the voyage and as we occupied the same berth he would nestle up to me and ask me to be his friend and to stand by him as he felt almost heart broken and friendless.”

While en route to New York, the authorities had learned of Joe’s suspicious departure from California the day before his brother shot the President.  When his ship arrived in New York on May 11th, Joseph Booth was arrested and interrogated the next day.  In his lengthy interrogation, Joe stated that he had very little correspondence with his brother over the past three years and know absolutely nothing about his plot.  Joe also explained his long absence from home.

The entire interrogation can be read starting here on Fold3.com (with a paid membership) or as an appendix in the book, John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir by Asia Booth Clarke edited by Terry Alford. General John Dix conducted the interrogation, and telegraphed to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that he had found, “nothing to justify his detention.” Joe was then released and went home to his mourning family.

A future post will detail more about Joseph Adrian Booth, especially his post assassination life. In the meantime, you can learn more about the youngest Booth sibling by checking out his new Picture Gallery!

Sadly, there are only two known images of Joseph Booth.  All the other images in the Joseph Adrian Booth Picture Gallery contain stories and documentation relating to his life.  Remember to click on an image to open its attachment page which contains a description about it.  You can also open the image full size by clicking the image’s dimensions on the top of its attachment page.

To visit the Joseph Adrian Booth Gallery, click HERE or on Joseph’s picture in the image below:

References:
John Wilkes Booth’s Enigmatic Brother Joseph by John C. Brennan
The Youngest Brother – Joseph Booth by Tom Fink
John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir by Asia Booth Clarke edited by Terry Alford
Edwin Booth: A Biography and Performance History by Arthur Bloom
Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus by Stephen M. Archer
John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day by Art Loux