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From: "Ernest Everett Blevins" <>
Subject: [SUVCW] Letter of Eyewitness to Lincoln's Assassnation
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:04:58 -0400


This appeared on NEGHS email list. The link to the article is
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20080414/NEWS/540199860

Greeley family holds piece of history: an account of Lincoln's assassination
[Admin's note: Greeley Family is not related to Horance Greeley
but Greeley is the town name]
Mike Peters, (Bio)<javascript:NewWindow(500,500,'/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=PETMIK');>

April 14, 2008


It was found years ago, rolled up inside a forgotten chest in the attic, and
now the Moore family's "Lincoln letter" will be added to a national museum
in Illinois.

Dean Moore of Greeley has been the keeper of the letter for 20 years now,
and most of the time it was hidden away in a closet, almost forgotten.

The letter was written 111 years ago, by a former Ohio congressman and
eyewitness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's
Theater.

Today is the 143rd anniversary of that assassination.

No one really knows why Congressman Morris wrote the letter in 1897, or why
he sent it to a man named H.S. Maddock of Cincinnati, Ohio, but the words of
his experience are haunting:

"The play had progressed for some time, and the curtain had just been rolled
up for another act, and almost immediately ... the audience was startled by
the report of a fire arm.

I threw up my head to see if I could discover from whence the sound came. I
saw the assassin, as he proved to be, in the president's box, making for the
front.

"When he had reached it, he placed his hand on the bannister, and in a loud
voice, cried out, 'Sie semper tyrannis,' and leaping over, landed on the
stage. ... He soon straightened up and ran diagonally across the stage and
disappeared behind the wings or scenery, and thus escaped.

"I cannot describe the scene that followed. There was a death-like silence
for a few moments.

"The president fell or leaned forward. ... Mrs. Lincoln rose partly to her
feet, extending her arms forward and upward, uttering some cries. ...

"I jumped up on my chair and called out: 'Hang the scoundrel!' (using some
expletives not very creditable to myself.)"

The entire letter is more than 800 words, written in the old-fashioned,
beautiful writing of a man who was well-taught in penmanship.

"My mother was given the trunk in the 1930s by some friends who were
moving," Moore said. "She put the trunk in her attic and didn't look inside
for several years. When she finally did, she found the letter rolled up
inside."

So the letter became part of the Moore family with kids taking it to school
for presentations, lending it out to others, and once it was given to a
house painter by Moore's mother. Dean got it back the next day.

Moore said his wife, Lee Moore, is the official curator of the letter,
keeping it safe through the years. Fifteen years ago, they wanted to
authenticate the letter, and Dean Moore began his research.

Moore is retired from United Agri Products and has since started his own
business, Market Worx, which broadcasts Market Watch on 466 radio stations
across the country.

But he admits now that the letter turned him into a history detective. They
first took it to a Denver University historian who was discouraging and even
hinted the letter might be a fake.

But Moore persisted. He wrote to historians in Ohio, wrote to Lincoln
experts, even got handwriting samples of Congressman Morris to compare to
the letter.

After much research, Moore was able to confirm the letter was real, and
Congressman Morris was an eyewitness to one of the most traumatic events in
U.S. History.

When he contacted the Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.,
officials there were eager to have the letter and display it in the museum.

So this week, Moore will give the letter to the museum in a formal
presentation. He'll present it in the name of his mother, Dasie Moore
Muller.

-- Staff writer Mike Peters' column about Weld County people appears Mondays
in the Tribune. His humor column, the Gnarly Trombone, appears Saturdays.

*MORE ONLINE*

To hear Dean Moore's story of the letter, go to greeleytribune.com

Ernie Blevins
List Administrator

--
Ernest Everett Blevins, MFA • Blevins Historical Research
110 Evergreen Way • Villa Rica, Georgia 30180
• 770-456-1876

Historic Preservation Consultant -- Historical and Architectural Research --
Genealogical (Family) Research -- Preservation Planning and Documentation --
House History

Member: American Planning Association, New England Historic Genealogical
Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Sons
of Union Veterans, and member of numerous other lineage and heritage
societies.


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