A shameless request…

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Dave Taylor

Technology is amazing. The internet has opened up so many areas of research that were unheard of just a short time ago. What’s more, the way we are interacting with technology is constantly changing and improving, too. Five years ago I had one desktop, or “tower”, computer, and one plain, old, no contract, flip cell phone that only made phone calls. Today, I have a new desktop computer, an “air book” laptop, and an iPhone. Technology has made it so easy for me to research the Lincoln assassination from practically any venue and in any situation. For example, in the middle of Tudor Hall last weekend, I whipped out my iPhone, brought up this site, and explained to one of the volunteers why one of the pictures they had up was not of Joseph Adrian Booth, but was of a friend of John Wilkes’ named Richard Johnson. I can now research and discover new things from my desktop computer in my office, my laptop while watching TV on the couch, and when I’m on the go from my iPhone. All of this is thanks to the increasing advances with technology.

There is one downside to having so many different avenues for research: organization. When I find something interesting on, say, my laptop, I save it to my laptop. When I stumble across something while on my iPhone, I save it to my phone. When typing up posts and attaching pictures on my desktop, I save things on my desktop. The result, three different “Booth” folders and files on three different devices. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve remembered something that I’d read, and I had to dig through three different computers to find where I saved it. Worse, when my desktop required repair for a long time and I was stuck using only my laptop, I filled that poor little thing’s memory very quickly. So what is the solution?

For me, it is Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud based program that allows you to sync multiple devices together and save things to all of them simultaneously. When I take a picture with my iPhone, I can seamlessly upload it to Dropbox and find it on my desktop computer when I get home. No cords, no flash drives between computers, no transferring files. It has really helped me in getting my material organized and accessible.

So, why am I bothering you all with this infomercial for Dropbox? Honestly, it’s because I am trying to get more storage space. You see, Dropbox is free (which is awesome) but they only give you so much free space. After using up so many gigabytes of free space, you need to upgrade (pay) to get more. However, Dropbox also has a very generous referral process. For every person you refer and get to install the Dropbox program, both you and the person you referred are rewarded with 500 MB of free space. So, that’s why I’m being shameless right now. I know Dropbox is incredibly helpful for me. I have Dropbox installed on my iPhone, my desktop computer, my laptop, and my work computer. This allows me to access my files anywhere I go. If you think Dropbox might be a good thing for you, please consider using this referral link from me, Dave Taylor, when signing up and installing the software. By doing so, both you and I will be rewarded with an extra 500 MB of free space.

So many of the pictures I put up here on BoothieBarn are here due to the seamless way I can sync my phone with my computers. The more space I can get (no matter how shamelessly I may act in doing so) the more images and resources I can have with me no matter where I go. Read about Dropbox and decide if you think it’s something that might benefit you in your life. If you do decide to use Dropbox and do so by using my referral link, I would be truly grateful.

Ok, enough of that commercial. Now back to your regularly scheduled Lincoln assassination programming…

Trial CDV

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Visiting Tudor Hall

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Dave Taylor

Last Sunday, May 19th, I took advantage of one of the bimonthly tours of Tudor Hall near Bel Air, Maryland.

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On June 30, 1821, famed British tragedian Junius Brutus Booth and his pregnant lady, Mary Ann Holmes, arrived in America. Their voyage across the sea from their native England was due twofold. First, Junius hoped for greater wealth and success in the new land and second, the pair were hoping to escape and start anew to avoid the truth of their relationship. Though assumed to be man and wife, Junius and Mary Ann were not married. Spell bound over her beauty and grace, Junius had fled England with Mary Ann, leaving his true wife, Adelaide Delannoy Booth, and son, Richard Junius Booth, behind. He set foot in the new land with his new woman, determined to start anew. His reputation proceeded him and quickly he was a star on the American stage. By December of 1821, Mary Ann gave birth to their first born, Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. Junius realized quickly that his fledging family would need a place to call home beyond their boardinghouse room in Charleston, South Carolina. In May of 1822, Junius signed a thousand year lease to rent out 150 acres in Harford County, Maryland. The area was isolated about 25 miles north east of Baltimore. It provided the privacy Junius craved for himself and his illegitimate family. The Booth’s first residence on their acreage, and the only one Junius himself would ever know on the property, was a small cabin. Booth had the cabin moved from its former spot on the property to a natural spring that ran through the land.

Junius moved the family's first home, the log cabin, to a spot about where the white car is in this picture. It was close to the natural spring that ran through his newly acquired land.

Junius moved the family’s first home, the log cabin, to a spot about where the white car is in this picture. It was close to the natural spring that ran through his newly acquired land.

The act of moving the cabin to the spot by the spring was a big event:

“It caused quite an excitement in the neighborhood, people coming to witness the novel sight of a house being rolled across the fields, and many lent a helping hand.”

As his family grew, Junius had addition made to the log cabin, but ultimately had a more appropriate home in mind for his family. However, the act of caring for his family in America and sending money back home to England to keep Adelaide off of the scent forced him to continually delay his plans for another home. By 1840, Mary Ann was weary with her isolated life on the farm with so many children and so she and the kids moved to Baltimore, coming back during the summers to their Bel Air cabin.

Fast forward to 1851. After finally being caught in his lies, Adelaide Booth publicly and embarrassingly divorced Junius Brutus Booth, allowing he and Mary Ann to legally wed. The 56 year old actor was looking forward to retiring and so plans were made to finally construct the dream home in Bel Air that he had desired. From architectural plans he chose an Elizabethan style home:

The original, interior layout of Tudor Hall.

The original, interior layout of Tudor Hall.

He commissioned, architect James Gifford to build his new home which he called, “Tudor Hall”:
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Sadly, Junius would never live in the completed house. He died on November 30th, 1852, before it was finished. After her husband’s death, Mary Ann would take her young children back to Bel Air to live at Tudor Hall. Eventually, when all her children had come of age, Mary Ann would leave Tudor Hall and rent it out. In 1878, she sold Tudor Hall and the Booths never returned.

Harford County managed to acquire Tudor Hall in 2006. Previous to this it was always a private residence. The owners who lived there the longest were Ella Mahoney, whose first husband bought the house straight from Mary Ann Booth, and Dorothy and Howard Fox. The second floor of the building currently houses the offices for the Center of Visual and Performing Arts of Harford County.

Tudor Hall, as a museum, is still in a transitional phase. The Junius Brutus Booth Society and Spirits of Tudor Hall, are working hard to get Harford County to give them more control in order to truly turn this gem into a museum dedicated to the Booth family. The guided tours are informative and done by volunteers with a passion for history.

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Other than the building itself, the only other thing on the Tudor Hall property today that was there when the Booths were there is this spring house (minus the roof) which was made around the same time as Tudor Hall, and this pond, which was made by the Booths:

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Tudor Hall is a must see for those interested in the illustrious Booth family. Check out their tour schedule by visiting the Spirits of Tudor Hall Facebook page and blog the former written by Edwin Booth expert and friend of BoothieBarn, Carolyn Mitchell. And please consider joining the Junius Brutus Booth Society. The more members they have and the more funds they receive, the louder their voice becomes to transform Tudor Hall into the Booth family museum it deserves to be. Visit the Junius Brutus Booth Society here.

References:
My Thoughts Be Bloody by Nora Titone
Sketches of Tudor Hall and the Booth Family by Ella Mahoney (free online version here)

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Tudor Hall Teaser

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Dave Taylor

Today, I made a visit to Tudor Hall, the home of the Booth family, and other sites relating to the Booths in Harford County, MD. A more thorough post will follow later but, as we drive home, I thought I’d put up this teaser of pictures from my day:

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And, as a challenge to you all, what is the Boothie significance of where I am in this picture?

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Hint: Snoop around the Harford County Historical Society’s web page for it.

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Burying a Terrorist

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dave Taylor

The latest issue of Time Magazine (5/20/2013) contains a brief timeline regarding the difficult task of burying assassins and terrorists. The topic was brought up due to the recent burial of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Caroline County, VA. Ironically, it was at the Garrett’s home in Caroline County that John Wilkes Booth was brought to justice. Time gave this brief regarding the burial of John Wilkes Booth:

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UPDATE: Here’s another news agency noting the similarities between the two cases: http://www.foxbaltimore.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/tsarnaev-body-controversy-similar-john-wilkes-booth-19510.shtml#.UZgq4r7D8dU

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New Gallery – Mary Surratt

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Dave Taylor

History of the Surratts

Click here to visit the newest BoothieBarn Picture Gallery:

Mary E. Surratt

fair fat forty

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Abraham Lincoln, Foully Assassinated

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Dave Taylor

On May 6th, 1865, the British magazine, London Punch, published the following poem which expressed the international sense of shock and sympathy over the unprecedented assassination of the 16th President of the United States of America:

Foully Assassinated

Abraham Lincoln, Foully Assassinated

You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln’s bier,
You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace,
Broad for self-complacent British sneer,
His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face,

His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease,
His lack of all we prize as debonair,
Of power or will to shine, or art to please,

You, whose smart pen backed up the pencil’s laugh,
Judging each step, as though the way were plain:
Reckless, so it could point its paragraph,
Of chief’s perplexity, or people’s pain.

Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet
The Stars and Stripes, he lived to rear anew,
Between the mourners at his head and feet
Say, scurrile-jester, is there room for you?

Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen —
To make me own this kind of princes peer,
This rail-splitter a true-born king of men.

My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue,
Noting how to occasion’s height he rose,
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true,
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows.

How humble, yet how hopeful, he could be;
How in good fortune and in ill the same;
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.

He went about his work — such work as few
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand —
As one who knows, where there’s a task to do,
Man’s honest will must Heaven’s good grace command.

Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow,
That God makes instruments to work His will,
If but that will we can arrive to know,
Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill.

So he went forth to battle, on the side
That he felt clear was Liberty’s and Right’s,
As in his peasant boyhood he had plied
His warfare with rude Nature’s thwarting mights –

The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,
The iron bark that turns the lumberer’s axe,
The rapid, that o’erbears the boatman’s toil,
The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer’s tracks,

The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear —
Such were the needs that helped his youth to train:
Rough culture — but such trees large fruit may bear,
If but their stocks be of right girth and grain.

So he grew up, a destined work to do,
And lived to do it – four long-suffering years;
Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through,
And then he heard the hisses changed to cheers,

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,
And took both with the same unwavering mood;
Till, as he came on light from darkling days,
And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood,

A felon hand, between the goal and him,
Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest, —
And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim,
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest!

The words of mercy were upon his lips,
Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen,
When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse
To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men.

The Old World and the New, from sea to sea,
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame!
Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high;
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came.

A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before
By the assassin’s hand, whereof men doubt
If more of horror or disgrace they bore;
But thy foul crime, like CAIN’S stands darkly out.

Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife,
Whate’er its grounds, stoutly and nobly striven;
And with the martyr’s crown crownest a life
With much to praise, little to be forgiven!

What makes this poem unique is its author. This specific poem was written by British playwright, Tom Taylor. It was Tom Taylor’s play, Our American Cousin, that Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated. While Laura Keene had made improvements to Tom Taylor’s original version of the play, you can’t help but wonder if Mr. Taylor was motivated to write this poem over his perceived guilt at writing a play so appealing, that it lured Lincoln to his death.

References:
The poets’ Lincoln by Osborn Oldroyd

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New Gallery – John H. Surratt

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Dave Taylor

“John Harrison Surratt was born April 13, 1844 in Prince George’s County, MD. He attended Saint Charles College, a Roman Catholic preparatory seminary located then at Ellicott City, MD, from the fall of 1859 to the summer of 1862. His father died in 1862 and John succeeded him as the postmaster of Surrattsville and he also became involved in the work of the Confederate Secret Service. Doctor Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to John Wilkes Booth at a Washington hotel in December, 1864 and he became a member of Booth’s band of conspirators. Their intent was to kidnap Abraham Lincoln, bring him South and hold him as ransom to end the war. Their one attempt had to be aborted because of the non-appearance of Lincoln. When Booth turned from kidnapping to assassination, John Surratt was not available but was on a mission for the Confederacy. With this, our story begins….”
– from the preface of The Travels, Arrest and Trial of John H. Surratt by Alfred Isacsson

Check out the newest Picture Gallery to see more images relating to that elusive conspirator, John Harrison Surratt, Jr.

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For the Escape Theorists…

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Dave Taylor

For those out there who believe that John Wilkes Booth did not die at Garrett’s farm on April 26th, 1865, the following will surely validate your long-held beliefs.  After reading my post about his birthday, a Texas lawyer who has written a book on the subject of Booth’s escape sent me a picture he received just this day from a man he knows as “John David St. E. Helen George”.  Apparently this gentleman is also celebrating his 175th birthday today:

Booth's 175th Birthday

Coincidence? I think not!

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