Props to H. B.

[mklhawley]

This is from Joe Chetcuti.


The latest newspaper discoveries by Howard Brown revive an old topic.


Sandford Conover speaking of Tumblety's days in Washington D.C. during the Civil War:
(Tumblety) had very cosy and tastefully arranged quarters in, I believe, H Street.


Years ago on the Casebook, I focused on that quote. I suspected it was a sly maneuver by Conover to try to link Tumblety with H Street. That is because H Street became the most notorious street in America in the 19th century. It was on H Street where the Surrat boarding house was located. That was the boarding house where the plot to assassinate Lincoln was planned.

But through the years, I've never seen anything further that linked Tumblety with H Street or the Surrats. Was Conover just blowing hot air with his "H Street - Tumblety" talk? Well, look at what has just been found in the May 31, 1914 Buffalo Courier.

"Now (Tumblety) had among his close friends the family of Surrats in Washington. Mrs. Surrat kept a boarding house."

Conover was a shifty political liar. In his remarks to the NY World, he made it sound as if Tumblety treated some of his patients on H Street. I find that to be doubtful. But that tricky Conover may have had an ulterior reason for linking Tumblety with H Street. Was Conover hinting at an association between Tumblety and the Surrats, as later emphasized in the May 31, 1914 Buffalo Courier?

On a different note, the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier was recently printed on the message boards. Our dear departed friend, Chris Scott, originally shared that article with everyone a few years ago:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=18904

The current display of the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier shows more of the article than Chris presented. Chris had given us just the second half of the article. We now see the entire article. The first half of the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier article had been printed in the Nov 28, 1888 Albany Journal. Andy Spallek originally posted that Albany Journal article on the Casebook in January 2009.

[Mayerling]

This is from Joe Chetcuti.


The latest newspaper discoveries by Howard Brown revive an old topic.


Sandford Conover speaking of Tumblety's days in Washington D.C. during the Civil War:
(Tumblety) had very cosy and tastefully arranged quarters in, I believe, H Street.


Years ago on the Casebook, I focused on that quote. I suspected it was a sly maneuver by Conover to try to link Tumblety with H Street. That is because H Street became the most notorious street in America in the 19th century. It was on H Street where the Surrat boarding house was located. That was the boarding house where the plot to assassinate Lincoln was planned.

But through the years, I've never seen anything further that linked Tumblety with H Street or the Surrats. Was Conover just blowing hot air with his "H Street - Tumblety" talk? Well, look at what has just been found in the May 31, 1914 Buffalo Courier.

"Now (Tumblety) had among his close friends the family of Surrats in Washington. Mrs. Surrat kept a boarding house."

Conover was a shifty political liar. In his remarks to the NY World, he made it sound as if Tumblety treated some of his patients on H Street. I find that to be doubtful. But that tricky Conover may have had an ulterior reason for linking Tumblety with H Street. Was Conover hinting at an association between Tumblety and the Surrats, as later emphasized in the May 31, 1914 Buffalo Courier?

On a different note, the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier was recently printed on the message boards. Our dear departed friend, Chris Scott, originally shared that article with everyone a few years ago:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=18904

The current display of the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier shows more of the article than Chris presented. Chris had given us just the second half of the article. We now see the entire article. The first half of the Nov 30, 1888 Buffalo Courier article had been printed in the Nov 28, 1888 Albany Journal. Andy Spallek originally posted that Albany Journal article on the Casebook in January 2009.

Some time back I read in some book (I'm sorry I'm vague on this) that during the search and prosecution of Lincoln Conspirators under Stanton, Conover (great name for a liar) was a government prosecution witness and was being used to build up cases against George Sandars, Luke Blackburn, Jefferson Davis, and even President Andrew Johnson (there was an attempt to prove Johnson was in a plot to become President) when Conover's double agent nature was revealed in court. It knocked the props out of the value of any of his testimony, and helped end the series of assassination investigations and trials (the second and last was against John Surratt when he was captured) by 1868,

Jeff

[Howard Brown]

A couple of things that I'd posted on JTRForums....

Captain Cavanaugh mentions three roles Booth portrayed in 1863....and despite a 51 year gap in time, recalls them perfectly. Melnotte, Pescara, and Hamlet......

Booth's itinerary for July 1863 :



Meanwhile, also in July, Tumblety is on the lam after Philadelphia Mayor Alexander Henry orders his arrest.

It has been difficult for me to find anything regarding Tumblety and a connection to the city of Buffalo for July 1863. In Tim Riordan's 'Prince Of Quacks' , Tim ( on page 94 ) points out that Tumblety headed north and 'may have visited family in Rochester' and was practicing in Albany in September.

North American
Philadelphia
July 3, 1863
***********

[Howard Brown]

For the benefit of anyone interested in this Booth-Tumblety connection, here's that article in segments.

Buffalo Courier
March 31, 1914
***************

[Howard Brown]

2 of 3

[Howard Brown]

3 of 3

[Howard Brown]

...on the other hand, we can put Booth within spittin' distance of Tumblety in 1863....February and March, in fact, at the Arch Street Theater situated on 6th & Arch Streets.

This theater is 1/2 mile from Tumblety's headquarters in Philadelphia at that time....333 Chestnut Street. A 10 minute walk.

[Howard Brown]

The Buffalo Courier article is from May, not March. My error.

[GUT]

Thanks for the interesting information Howard.

[Howard Brown]

My pleasure, GUT.

I think it is very likely that these two met in Philadelphia.
At least in one sense we're fortunate that there is no mistake about where Booth was in 1863 at the two critical times ( Feb.- March and July ). Tumblety was definitely in Philly in Feb.-March 1863....and Cavanaugh states he was there during the time Booth was in Buffalo in July in the 1914 newspaper article....but it would be nice to find something else which showed where Tumblety was during the time he left Philadelphia and say, before September of 1863, when we know he was in Albany.

[GUT]

Ripper or not he's one interesting bloke.

[Mayerling]

Ripper or not he's one interesting bloke.

That he definitely is GUT.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

General response to the article

Thanks for posting all this Howard. There are a few minor points I'd just add regarding the rioting and Booth's roles.

In July 1863 New York City and several northern cities saw heavy rioting in the wake of the instituting of a national draft by the Federal Government. The New York City riots (now recalled as "the Draft Riots") led to attacking the offices where the Draft numbers were called, attacking Horace Greeley's Republican newspaper "the Tribune" (the "Herald - Tribune" would not exist until the 20th Century when the Tribune and James Gordon Bennett's newspaper "the Herald" joined together in a merger), attacking an Orphan Asylum and burning it (it was for African-American children), and hanging (lynching - and burning too) free African-Americans on the street that were unlucky to be captured, and also attacking and killing any pro-Union people who tried to confront the mobs alone. The exact number of dead has been variously given as low as one hundred and twenty and as high as one thousand three hundred. Hundeds of African-Americans fled out of Manhattan to New Jersey, Brooklyn (then a separate city), Long Island (read Queens), and even the northern part of New York City (the Bronx) to survive - it was decades before Manhattan Island had a sizeable African-American population again.

Manhattan had a history of riots - in 1849 there were riots against the British actor William Macready (whose great-grandson George would be a famous movie villain in films like "Gilda" and "Paths to Glory") by partisans of Edwin Forrest, then America's leading Shakespearean actor (or at least the chief rival to Junius Brutus Booth Sr. for that title). The "Astor Place Riots (Astor Place was where the theatre district was in 1849) ended when state mllitia fired on the rioters killing over 100. There had been a pitched battle in the 1850s on Broadway between street gangs over politics. Even after 1863 there was a serious riot, in 1871, between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants on "Orange Day" which broke out over a parade.

During the 1863 riots Tammany leader (and future "Boss") William M. Tweed went around at great personal risk to convince the rioters to go home and stop inviting reprisals. It helped to cool things a bit (this aspect of Tweed's career was rarely noted due to his later notoriety, but recent studies of the man show he did believe in keeping the peace). His advise that July was sound - troops fresh from Gettysburg were sent to New York City and fired into the mobs.

I mention all this because it puts (somewhat) the nature of the 1863 Buffalo riots (which also center on anti-Black feelings) into perspective. It is also possible that Wilkes Booth's antics breaking that window were opened up by his own awareness of the rioting throughout New York State (and in the North in general) in the wake of the Draft legislation. Booth had been working for the South for awhile at this point helping to bring quantities of medical supplies to Southern locations, and in getting in touch with Confederate agents in Canada (where he possibly got to know fellow Confederate courier and agent John Surratt). Booth may have also been aware that Confederate agents in the North helped encourage those riots.

As for the breaking of the window, this was mild (really mild) in comparison to other antics by pro-Southern Northerners or Confederate agents in the later years of the Civil War and just after it. In November 1865 P.T. Barnum's famous Museum and Theatre on Anne Street in Manhattan burned down in a spectacular fire, the origins of which seemed based on arson Barnum was a well-known supporter of the Union, and in an earlier arson attack in the City (in November 1864 - when several hotels and wharfs were set on fire by Confederate agents) the American Museum had been attacked then too, but the fire was put out. It turned out that Barnum's Museum had a window display of wax figures showing the capture in May 1865 (at Danville, Georgia) of Jefferson Davis - and Davis's figure was covered by a woman's clothing outfit. A rumor (actually a lie) had circulated that the Confederate President tried to flee disguised as a woman, and the story was given credence in the North in the wake of Lincoln's murder. Actually Davis was accidentally given a woman's cloak instead of his own by Northern soldiers after his arrest when they led him away. But the wax figurines of the disguised Davis probably angered an ex-Confederate soldier or a sympathizer, who set the fire.

New York City was very pro-South in the Civil War. Much of the cotton trade to Europe was shipped through New York City. In fact, in 1861 Mayor Fernando Wood (later the Democrat's minority leader in the House of Representatives from 1867 to 1881) proposed the City either declare it's neutrality in the war or secede as a free city and port. Lincoln laughed at this proposal, saying that he never heard of the front porch seceding from the house. The large numbers of Draft rioters in New York City had come from Irish American immigrant groups (though not all the rioters) who resented the Draft: to them the Draft - which gave wealthier men a chance to purchase a replacement to fight for them in their place - was a rich man's party and a poor man's funeral.

Another Buffalo resident, a Democrat at the that time and later, was an up and coming lawyer who took advantage of the Draft law exception and paid for a substitute (who was badly wounded by military action). This lawyer would later be Sheriff and Mayor of Buffalo, then Governor of New York State, and then President of the United States twice (in non-consecutive terms, the only one to be that way). it was Stephen Grover Cleveland. And his use of the substitute was used against him in all his political campaigns by his opponents.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Booth's Theatrical Parts

John Wilkes Booth did play Shakespearean parts. Here we see he played Richard III (the Duke of Gloucester at the start of that play, but sometimes it was spelled "Duke of Gloster" as that is how "Gloucester" is actually pronounced). Both "The Lady of Lyons" and "Money" were popular 19th Century plays by Edward Bulwer - Lytton ("The Last Days of Pompeii", "Eugene Aram", with it's well known awful opening, "It was a dark and stormy night" which has resulted in the modern day "Bulwer-Lytton" competition). "Money" is actually a comedy of manners that he wrote.

[His best recalled play (which Wilkes' brother Edward frequently performed) was "Cardinal Richelieu". If, by any chance, you should see the old biography film from 1936, "Cardinal Richelieu" with George Arliss in the title role (and supported by Edward Arnold as Louis XIII and Cesar Romero), it is based on the Bulwer-Lytton play, and note in particular Arliss's performing what was the high point of that role and play (which I'm sure Edwin Booth gave his all for - so did Arliss for that matter), "the curse of Rome" scene, where a threatened Richelieu warns his political enemies that as a Cardinal his death will bring upon them the damnation of the Papacy and of God. Heavy stuff in the 1850s. ]

The role Wilkes plays "Pescara" was in a play called "The Apostate" (Pescara is the title role).

Oddly enough Wilkes one contribution to the American stage and his own repertory is not here - the sculptor anti-hero in "The Marble Heart" which he co-wrote.

Jeff

[Howard Brown]

Thanks Jeff...great material there !
When you brought up the Draft Riots, I thought that they might have been a factor in Tumblety steering clear of NYC and heading to the western part of New York State. However, those riots occurred on the 13th through the 16th, the middle of the month.
You might have missed the one scan I posted of the performance of the The Marble Heart..which Booth did perform in Philadelphia, but not Buffalo when he was there during July.