Eyewitnesses to Lincoln's Assassination Live Here.
Eyewitnesses to Lincoln's Assassination
Live Here.

EYEWITNESSES TO LINCOLN'S
ASSASSINATION LIVE HERE

One Was an Actress in the Cast of "Our American
Cousin;" Another a Call Boy;
Next-Door Neighbor
___________

BY SI SNIDER

How Los Angeles Touched The Tragedy of Abraham Lincoln.

Local Residents Who Saw the Assassination.
The actress who was in the cast of "Our American Cousin"
and a program boy.

    There are living in Los Angeles several persons who directly touched the fringes of the great tragedy of Abraham Lincoln, the anniversary of whose birthday is tomorrow.
    Living in retirement in Hollywood is an old actress who was in the cast of "Our American Cousin" and was on the stage the night Lincoln was shot.
    Prof. Gilbert Bailey of the University of Southern California lived next door to Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., as a child.
    The program boy at Ford's Theater is living in Los Angeles and until lately the call boy who summoned the actors to the stage was a member of the Hollywood colony.
    Most of these facts together with much hitherto unpublished data have been brought to life by the Rockett Film Company, which is planning to make a motion picture of Lincoln's life and whose researches have continued for a year or more.

    One of the most interesting of the living witnesses of Abraham Lincoln is Mrs. Frank Wynkoop of Los Angeles, whose stage name was Helen Truman, or Trueman, as it appeared in the program of Ford's Theater in Washington, D. C., the night President Lincoln was shot.
    Miss Truman, whose real name was Helen Coleman, was born in Norfolk, Va., of a fine old southern family and her people cast their fortunes with the Confederacy.
    She first saw President Lincoln at the White House, Sept. 3, 1864, where she went with her mother to intercede for the life of her brother, who had been condemned to death for attempting to run the blockade of the port of Norfolk.

SAVED HER BROTHER

    "The President received us most kindly," said Mrs. Wynkoop, looking back with clear vision through the fifty-eight years intervening, and his great sympathy quite overcame my poor mother and myself. It was terribly hot, but the President gave no evidence of discomfort, and quite made us forget it. He heard our sad story, asked a few questions, and said:
    "'Go home, make yourselves comfortable and do not worry. I will see what can be done, but I think I can assure you now that if the facts are as you state them the boy will not be executed. Return here in ten days.'
    "After the long, hot ten days, full of anxiety and alarms we returned to the White House and, after an hour's wait, were called into the President's office, where we saw at once by the expression of his face that he had good news for us.
    "He explained that my brother's case had been complicated by a charge of spying, but that he had been found not guilty of that charge and President Lincoln, himself, had pardoned him of the other.

FELL ON KNEES

    "We both fell on our knees to thank him and there were tears in his sad and weary eyes when he showed us the door. Since then I have always adored him and my mother never ceased to bless him.
    "We had sacrificed more than $20,000 worth of family jewels and heirlooms for lawyers before we appealed to President Lincoln and I was forced to seek a theatrical engagement to earn a living for mother and me. John T. Ford of Ford's Theater, Washington, gave me a chance and my first appearance was with Mr. and Mrs. Billy Florence in "Dombey & Son," Sept. 22, 1864.
    "In those days it was the practice for established stars to travel from one theater to another alone, or, in rare cases, with one or two leading people the theater stock company supplying the rest of the cast. The itinerant star usually provided the play and, in some cases the scenry, [sic] costumes and props, but ordinarily these were supplied by the theater.

THE FATEFUL NIGHT

    "From September 22, to the night of the assassination, April 14, 1865, President Lincoln attended the theater as often as affairs of state would permit and I took note of the plays he liked, for I was inexpressibly grateful to him and on the nights he came to see us I tried to be at my best and, in so far as my opportunities admitted, I watched every movement of the President and his parties.
    "For example, I noticed that he never applauded with his hands, but he laughed heartily on occasion and his face spoke plainly of his approval. On the other hand, Mrs. Lincoln always attested her appreciation by clapping her hands and sending us flowers and, like all real women, she seemed to enjoy a good cry when the play turned to pathos.

PLAYS HE SAW

    "President and Mrs. Lincoln never came to the theater together except on the night of the assassination and when they appeared together that night we were all surprised and remarked about it.
    "During the time I was a mem-

___________

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EYEWITNESSES LIVED HERE

(Continued from Ninth Page)

ber of the Ford Stock Company President Lincoln came to see Junius Benten Booth in "The Merchant of Venice," J. B. Roberts in "Faust," Peter Ritchings in "The Viviandiere," William Burton in "Caste," Lotta in "The Seven Sisters," "Married Life," by our company; "Paul Pry," with John E. Owens; "The Rivals," "Jack Cade" and "Metamora," with Edwin Forrest, supported by John McCollough; and then came Laura Keene with Harry Hawk and John Dyott in "The Workingmen of Washington" and "Our American Cousin." Miss Keene's last appearance was Friday, April 14, 1865 and as it had been announced that both the President and Gen. Grant were to be present the attendance was the best of the season and the house was packed to the walls, there being no fire restriction in those days.
    "I saw the Presidential party when they arrived and was near enough to them to note how Mrs. Lincoln was dressed. She did not wear evening dress but a new spring silk, light gray in color and with a black pinhead check and bonnet to match. Ordinarily she wore an evening gown with a head dress of flowers.

HOW MRS. LINCOLN LOOKED

    "Mrs. Lincoln was not beautiful, but good-looking, animated, dignified and she had a million dollars worth of that wonderful thing called personality and she would have been distinguished in any company.
    "I first met J. Wilkes Booth at a dinner given by Mr. Ford to our company on Christmas night, 1864. Booth was not a member of our company, but he was a great friend of Mr. E. A. Emerson, leading man of our stock company, and he came to the theater often to see Emerson.
    "We all respected Booth because he was a good actor, was courteous and kindly, but none of us except Mr. Emerson felt very friendly toward him because he was cold, taciturn, aloof and at times seemed almost arrogant.

SAW BOOTH WAITING

    "The night of the assassination I saw him back stage near the passage to the boxes just a few minutes before the shot and we nodded cordially. A minute later I was called on scene down front and did not think anything of Booth being there. I had just finished with the words: "Good evening, Mr. Trenchard" and made my exit in number two across the stage from the President's box when I turned to speak to our leading lady, Miss Gourley, and Mr. Withers, leader of the orchestra, who were standing in three. Then I started into my dressing-room and had taken not more than three steps when I heard the shot that killed the President.
    "It alarmed me because I knew there was no shooting in our play and it sounded so close by.

THE WIFE'S SCREAM

    "Instantly there was a dead silence--then Mrs. Lincoln's blood curdling shriek and I turned about just in time to see Booth apparently fall upon the stage from the President's box. He at once arose, shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis" and ran limping across the stage directly toward me. Then I saw that he brandished a knife, but I was too amazed to move. He ran into number three and struck at Miss Gourley and Mr. Withers as he passed, cutting Miss Gourley's dress but not wounding her. His flight and death are history but I want to say a word in behalf of Ned Spangler, who was charged with being Booth's accomplice. I never knew a finer boy and I'm sure he had nothing to do with Booth's unspeakable crime.
    "Mrs. Lincoln's scream turned the house into a hell of noise. There will never be anything like it on earth. The shouts, groans, curses, smashing of seats, screams of women, shuffling of feet and cries of terror created a pandemonium that must have been more terrible to hear than that attending the assassination of Caesar. Through all the ages it will stand out in my memory as the hell of hells.

LAURA KEENE HELPED

    Miss Keene with towels and cologne was the first to reach the President but, of course, she could do no good. Our entire company was arrested but was released in a few hours and placed under surveillance of the secret service.
    "None of us, even Mr. Emerson, could ever understand Booth's act. We ascribed it to fanaticism gone mad and aggravated, possibly, by exaggerated ego.
    "To me, of course, because of his saving my brother, Lincoln was the great event of all times, but as a child of the stage, I love to think of him as a sincere lover of the drama and a friend of its exponents and his life itself proved to be the greatest drama of history save alone the life of Jesus Christ."

PROGRAM BOY AT FORD'S

    Joseph Hazelton is a familiar figure among the studios of Hollywood. At 70 he is still active and is often cast in pictures because he is a good actor and a fine type.
    Hazelton was a program boy at Ford's Theater the night of the assassination and he stood about half way between stage and rear on the orchestra floor of the house when Booth fired the fatal shot.
    Hazelton knew Booth very well as a boy would know a man whom he saw frequently, who was kind to him, and whom he admired as a great actor.
    The program boy did not see Booth the night of the tragedy until he dropped to the stage from the President's box and half ran, half staggered across it brandishing his knife.
    When the pandemonium of noise broke loose after the silence which followed the shot the boy, terrorized at the hell around him, fought his way to the front of the theater and out the door, then clear of the mob he ran breathlessly to his home and sought safety in bed.
    Mr. Hazelton's knowledge of the interior of Ford's has been helpful to producers of pictures who have attempted to reproduce the assassination scene and he has a very interesting lecture upon the subject which has been widely heard.
    Of the attaches of the theater present that night the only living one aside from Mr. Hazelton is W. J. Ferguson, the call boy, who was hurt last summer while at work in a picture in Hollywood and who is now in New York.


Source:

Snider, Si, "Eyewitnesses to Lincoln's Assassination Live Here, One was an Actress in the Cast of "Our American Cousin;" Another a Call Boy; Next-Door Neighbor," The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Sunday, 11 February 1923, pp. III9, III10.

Created September 10, 2004; Revised September 10, 2004
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