Vol. VIX No. 6 - July-Aug. 1991 - Lincoln Group of the District of

VOLUME IX NUMBER 6
JULY-AUGUST 1991
A bimonthly
publication
of the LI:\COLX
(~ROUP OF THE DISTRICT
OF COLCl\1RIA.
IXC .. a non-profit.
tax-exempt historical
a nationwide
membership.
devoted to the st udv of Abraham
Lincoln - inc« 19:J;'). Programs
held monthly in Washington,
nationally
and locally recognized
Lincoln
scholars
and specia list s. Direct correspondence
concerning past and future
society with
D.C., featuring
articles,
news,
membership
and
subscriptions
to Paul
Annual Message From the President
LINCOLN GROUP OF D.C. PRESIDENT
CALLS YEAR "GRATIFYING, ENRICHING"
by LGDC President Clark Evans
Having just completed my first term as President of
the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, I realize
how gratifying and enriching the past year has been--for me
individually and for the organization as a whole.
Thanks to the sacrificial support of our officers and
members, we have been able to make progress on several
major fronts.
The work of our Program Chairperson, First VicePresident Carolyn Quadarella, resulted in one of the finest
seasons of dinner meetings in memory during the 1990-91
year. I consistently receive favorable comments on the
quality and range of our guest speakers.
H. Verdu in. Editor.
721 Dartmouth
Avo.,
Silver
Spring.
MD 20910;
(301)
495-7891.
LINCOLN'S SUMMER WHITE HOUSE, ANDERSON
COTTAGE, SET FOR RESTORATION
EFFORT
BY U.S. SOLDIERS' AND AIRMEN'S HOME
by David Seddelmeyer and Paul Verduin
Anderson Cottage, the summer residence of Abraham
Lincoln and two other 19th-century presidents, is currently
the target of a major restoration and preservation effort
by the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home of Washington, D.C.
With an estimated $1.6 million needed for restoration,
both private and public funding are .being sought for the
project, which is now in its early stages.
(continued on page 2)
**********************************************~****
Mark Your Calendars Now
UPCOMING FALL, 1991 LGDC EVENTS
Sept. 17 --- Mark Katz, Civil War photo collector,
author of Witness to an Era: The Life
and Photographs of Alexander Gardner
Oct. 15 --- Presentation on Lincolniana in the Lincoln
Museum at Lincoln Memorial University, located
near the Cumberland Gap, Harrogate, Tenn.
Nov. 19 --- Ed Bearss, National Park Service Historian:
"Lincoln and Jefferson Davis" (On two Kentucky
sons who went very separate ways)
Dec. 17 --- Fred Schwengel: "Abe, Carl, and I" (Recalling
his lifelong love affair with Lincoln, and his
friendship with Lincoln biographer Sandburg)
Each evening presentation will take place with dinner
($14 per person) at the Officers' Club of Ft. McNair in
southwest Washington, D.C. See the next two issues of
The Lincolnianfor reservations procedures and speaker
profiles, or call Velma Cherwek (703) 451-2496.
***************************************************
The Lincolns' Summer White House: Anderson Cottage
The "Cottage"-about the size of a five-bedroom modern
American home--is located about four miles north of the
White House. The century-and-a-half-old structure occupies
a site on the extensive grounds of the Soldiers' and
Airmen's Home near North Capitol St. and Harewood Rd. in
northwest Washington, D.C.
The shaded house where Lincoln spent more than a
quarter of his presidency became known as the Anderson
Cottage after the Civil War, in honor of Brevet Major
Robert Anderson, commander of Ft. Sumter at the time of its
fall. Maj. Anderson was a strong supporter of the
Soldiers' Home established at the site ten years before the
Civil War. Retired military personnel still reside at the
facility today.
Built in the Gothic Revival style in 1842-43 by
(continued on page 3)
INSIDE: ANOTHER EMANCIPATION CELEBRATED (p.4); PICNIC RECAP (p.8)
**LElTER
TO THE EDITOR**
LINCOLN AND CIVIL WAR SCHOLARS
CLOSING RANKS TO DEFEND STEPHEN OATES
IN PLAGIARISM CHARGE, READER SAYS
Editor's note: The following is a June 11 letter from
LGDC-member Prof. Herman Belz, professor of history at the
University of Maryland, and a prominent scholar on the
Constitution and the Civil War.
The carefully worded letter comes in response to our
coverage of the accusation raised last November by Illinois
Wesleyan English professor Robert Bray that the most
current full-length Lincoln biography, With Malice Toward
None by Stephen Oates (1977), was to a significant degree a
plagiarism of Benjamin Thomas' 1952 biography, Abraham
Lincoln. (See the March-April and May-June issues of The
Lincolnian.)
Subsequently a formal charge of plagiarism was brought
before the American Historical Association by historian and
Lincoln scholar Cullom Davis, director of the Lincoln Legal
Papers Project.
Neither The Lincolnian, nor the Lincoln Group of D.C.
has taken a position 011 this important question.
****************************
Dear Paul:
You may be interested in some details of the Stephen
Oates plagiarism question which you may want to pass on to
members of the LGDC.
Stephen wrote an impressive 1S0-page manuscript
showing that all the other Lincoln biographers going back
to the late 19th century used essentially the same-body of
factual material concerning Lincoln's early years.
Borrowings and adaptations of language were and are
customary in treating events concerning which the
documentary sources are quite limited.
Oates argues that the material he used was in the
public domain, and that he provided greater documentation
and offered more attributions to Thomas and others than
earlier writers had done, especially perhaps Thomas
himself. Throughout his cogent rebuttal Stephen maintained
a reasonable and scholarly attitude, firmly defending
himself and in the process telling us a good deal about the
art of biography, which he has made a kind of specialty.
Stephen Oates sent his rebuttal to 22 Civil War and
Lincoln scholars, of whom I was one. James McPherson among
others conducted a telephone survey in May, and ascertained
the unanimous judgment of the panel that Oates was not
guilty of plagiarism.
What happens to the charge of plagiarism in the
American Historical Association remains to be seen.
think it will-be quietly dropped. In all of this, Cullom
Davis appears now to have acted hastily in reporting the
matter to the AHA.
If I learn more about the matter I shall transmit the
information to you.
Sincerely,
Herman Belz
PAGE TWO
SET TO LEAD: (from top left): Clark Evans (president),
Nat Miller (treasurer), Velma Cherwek (corresponding
secretary), Carolyn Quadare//a (1st vice-president), Edith
Hebblethwaite (recording secretaiy). Not pictured: Gayle
Harris (2nd vice-pres.), Paul Verduin (Lincolnian editor)
***************************************************
PRESIDENT EVANS THANKS OFFICERS, MEMBERS
FOR "GRATIFYING" YEAR OF LGDC GROWTH
(continued from page 1)
The past year was also significant in having another
highly successful auction under the able gavel of Roy
Licari.
We believe the upcoming 1991-92 season, scheduled to
commence this September at Fort McNair, promises to be
every bit as exciting as the last.
Paul Verduin merits particular commendation for his
outstanding contribution as editor of The Lincolnian. With
articles and opinions furnished by several of our members,
the entire Group can take pride in producing a newsletter
as topical, informative, and handsome as this one is. It
is heartening to realize that our ever-growing membership
is giving The Lincolnian a wider audience both in the
Washington area and all parts of the nation.
A president could not wish for a finer assemblage of
officers. In addition to Carolyn, my appreciation goes out
to our Recording Secretary Edith Hebblethwaite,
Corresponding Secretary Velma Cherwek, Treasurer Nat
Miller, outgoing Second Vice-president Richard Schlenker,
and incoming Second Vice-president Gayle Harris. I also
wish to pass bouquets to many of our regular members,
regrettably unnamed, who have made special contributions of
their time and money this past year.
In short, to quote from President Lincoln's Second
Inaugural Address on the state of the Union war effort in
March of 1865, I trust the membership will find the
progress of the Lincoln Group to be "reasonably
satisfactory and encouraging to all."
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST 1991
**LINCOLN
HOME RESTORATION
PROJECT
BEGUN**
EFFORT TO RESTORE LlNCOLNS' SUMMER
WHITE HOUSE BEGUN BY SOLDIERS' HOME(continued from page 1)
farmer-turned-banker
George W. Riggs, the house served as'
Lincoln's summer home from approximately mid-summer to
November in 1862, '63, and '64. Presidents Rutherford B.
Hayes and Chester A. Arthur also used the residence as a
summer home. Lincoln was the first president to utilize
the Cottage as a warm-season residence, but James Buchanan
occasionally occupied another house at the Soldiers' Home
during his antebellum presidency.
Engineering and architectural plans for the proposed
restoration are now completed, Soldiers' and Airmen's Home
officials say.
LGDC First Vice-President Carolyn Quadarella and
former Second Vice-president Richard Schlenker toured the
historic Cottage on May 30 as part of a Memorial Day
observance conducted by the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home.
Schlenker reports the Cottage is a very sound structure
which has received good maintenance over the years because
of its continuous use.
More Like a Mansion
More apt to be called a mansion in modern usage,
Anderson Cottage is a two-story gray stucco structure
featuring steeply pitched roofs, wall dormers, polygonal
clustered chimney pots, and gingerbread trim along eaves
and gable-ledges. The romantic structure is set on a hill,
surrounded by trees. Originally brick, the stucco was
added in 1897.
According to Home officials, Anderson Cottage and its
grounds were purchased from George Riggs in 1851 for use as
a soldiers' retirement home. According to Margaret Leech's
Reveille in Washington, the house and property were bought
by the U.S. government with part of the tribute-money Gen.
Winfield Scott extracted from Mexico City during the
Mexican War.
The White House, located near the swampy tidal Potomac
River, was particularly unpleasant and unhealthful during
the 19th century's summer months, so the Soldiers' Home
property was a popular refuge for four pre-Camp David
presidents.
During the second, third and fourth years of the
Lincoln presidency, Mary Lincoln and the Lincoln children
remained at Anderson Cottage during the warmer months,
while the President commuted daily on horseback or by
carriage to the White House to attend to his duties.
Cottage's Remoteness Posed Dangers
Initially, Lincoln sometimes made the daily trip
unaccom panied, and often returned alone after nightfall.
The remoteness of the Cottage, located in those days three
miles outside the city of Washington, was viewed by some
Southern partisans as an invitation to kidnap the Civil War
president and haul him South, according to Come Retribution
author William A. Tidwell. Substantial evidence indicates
John Wilkes Booth initially attempted just such a
kidnapping on the road to the Soldiers' Horne, but failed
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991
due to defective information as to the president's
movements.
Both Tidwell and Leech relate the story of a roadside
assassination attempt told by a private in the 105th
Pennsylvania Volunteers. The private, who was on guard
duty at the Cottage in August, 1864 said Lincoln was shot
at and nearly killed while riding alone to the Cottage
grounds as he approached the gate. The next day Lincoln
told the District of Columbia marshal, his old friend Ward
Hill Lamon about the incident, making light of it by
complaining about the loss of his hat. According to Leech;
the hat was later found with a bullet hole in it.
Mary Lincoln also suffered a mishap near Anderson
Cottage. She was injured in a carriage accident there,
three weeks after the death of her son Willie. Despite
these two events, Mrs. Lincoln later recalled that she and
her family had very pleasant times at the Cottage.
Cottage Had Many Uses Over Time
As an integral part of the Soldiers' Home (whose name
was later altered), Anderson Cottage has undergone many
renovations over the years--serving as a guest house,
hospital, men's quarters, recreation hall, women's
barracks, and administrative office.
Currently, the Cottage is used as office space. After
the recent Memorial Day tour, Lincoln Group participant
Richard Schlenker remarked, "It's full of files and people
at typewriters."
However, the Lincoln Group representatives reported
that the Lincoln bedroom on the second floor has been
maintained in the spirit of the Civil War era. "The
bedroom used by Lincoln was very nice, large, with a
fireplace," Carolyn Quadarella observed.
Schlenker and LGDC First Vice-president Quadarella
agreed it is important that Anderson Cottage, which played
a significant role in the Lincoln presidency, be restored,
although they noted that from a physical standpoint the
work of restoration would be extensive.
Private Financing Hoped For
The U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home is an independent
federal agency, according to the Home's deputy governor,
Col. John W. Gheen. In a telephone interview with The
Lincolnian, Col. Gheen stated that "private fmancing is
hoped for," but he and the Home's architect-in-residence
J oseph Woo intimated that federal restoration assistance in
some form, although unlikely, has not been ruled out.
Restoration plans were designed under contract by the
Washington architectural firm of Geier, Brown and Renfrow.
"Our plan is to restore the second floor to the period
of President Lincoln," Soldiers' Home Deputy Governor Gheen
explained. "The first floor will be a museum of the
history of the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home."
Col. Gheen sees the funding and actual restoration for
Lincoln's summer White House as a "long range effort," due
to the uncertainty of funding sources. "But we're
committed to it," he stated hopefully, expressing gratitude
for the Lincoln Group's help in publicizing the endeavor.
PAGE THREE
**ANTEBELLUM
EMANCIPATION
MARKED**
BICENTE_NNIAL OF BIGGEST PRE-LINCOLN
EMANCIPATION, FREEING 500 SLAVES,
CELEBRATED 75 MILES FROM WASHINGTON
The post-Revolutionary-War
voluntary emancipation of
500 slaves, by far the largest prior to Lincoln's Civil War
Emancipation Proclamation, is being celebrated some 75 air
miles from Washington, D.C. as this issue goes to press.
The event, slated for July 28, received nearly two pages of
illustrated coverage in the Washington Post July 21.
In 1791, ten years after the Battle of Yorktown,
Robert Carter of Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County, Va.,
the wealthiest planter in Virginia and one of the richest
men in America, decided that no man should own another. He
summarily made provision that, over a 21-year period, all
of his 500 slaves should be freed.
In his one-man emancipation proclamation, Carter said:
''/ have for some time past been convinced that to retain
[human beings J in Slavery is contrary to the true
principals of Religion and justice. ':
A twilight, torchlight ceremony commemorating the
bicentennial of the slave liberation is to be held at the
site of Carter's Nomini Hall, in rural Westmoreland County,
deep in Virginia's tidewater Northern Neck. Featured
performers will be the Northern Neck Baptist Convention
Choir and the Sankofa African Drummers' Ensemble. Local
black ministers and two historians are to speak. One of
the latter is doctoral candidate John Barden of New Bern,
N.C. Barden is writing his thesis on Robert Carter's mass
manumission.
The other historian scheduled to be at the event,
called by its organizers "A Celebration of Freedom" is Ira
Berlin, history professor and director of the Freedmen and
Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland.
Berlin's book Slaves Without Masters is a landmark study of
the antebellum South's free blacks. The Post article
quoted Berlin as saying, "Robert Carter was really a
heavyweight. .. socially, politically, economically and just
in the number of slaves he had."
The celebration's chief organizer is Frank Delano, a
local businessman, Faulkner student, Shakespeare buff, and
free-spirited former Peace Corps volunteer native to the
area. "Who knows why I do these things," he told the Post.
Aside from the potent symbolic connection between
Carter's emancipation and Lincoln's Proclamation, some
curious circumstantial connections with Lincoln exist.
Carter owned several plantations in neighboring Richmond
County, where Lincoln's maternal forebears are ofrecord
until 1784. Carter's daybook documents his attendance at
Baptist preaching services at Hannah Lee Corbin's in 1778
and 1779 in the immediate neighborhood where Lincoln's
great-uncle and Indiana-Illinois neighbor William Hanks,
then a teenager, was living with his Baptist-leaning
parents and with Lincoln's grandmother Lucey Hanks,
research by The Lincolnian's editor shows. Carter, like
Hannah Corbin, had defied his peers by becoming a Baptist.
PAGE FOUR
FUN IN CASHTOWN: Lincoln Group picnickers gather on the
front porch of historic Cashtown Inn to hear innkeeper
Chuck Buckley tell about Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill's
arrival there in 1863, just before the Battle of
Gettysburg. (Story 011 page 8)
***************************************************
CURIOUS CLONE OF THE WASHINGTON
MONUMENT
HONORS JEFFERSON DAVIS 95 MILES
FROM LINCOLN'S KENTUCKY BIRTHPLACE
by LGDC Treasurer Nat L. Miller
Fairview, a small town in western Kentucky, is the
birthplace of Jefferson Davis. He was born there in 1808.
A year later, and a distance of 95 miles away--as the crow
flies--Abraham Lincoln was born at Hodgenville, Ky.
In 1924, the Jefferson Davis Monument, a 351-ft.-high
concrete obelisk, was dedicated by the United Daughters of
the Confederacy. It is the tallest cast concrete structure
in the United States, and until one gets up close, it looks
just like the Washington Monument here in Washington, D.C.
I was present at the 1924 dedication ceremony of the
Davis Monument, being nine years old. My hometown,
Hopkinsville, is just ten miles to the west.
Construction of the Davis Monument began in April,
1917. Due to World War I, work was stopped in September,
1918. In January, 1922 work resumed. The cost of the
monument was $200,000.
On December 8, 1923 two unknown and unmasked men,
representing the Ku Klux Klan, presented the contractor
with a cash donation of $10.25 for monument construction,
and a letter requesting permission to burn a 20-ft.-high
cross atop the monument, which then stood at 270 ft. The
request was granted.
The Davis Monument has an electric elevator, and,
although it's 200 feet shorter, resembles the Washington
Monument in the nation's capital very closely from a
distance. But up close, you can see the joints in the
concrete, since the concrete was poured one foot at a time.
**THE LINCOLNlAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991
**LINCOLN
NEWS**LINCOLN
NEWS**LINCOLN
NEWS**LINCOLN
*************************************************
LINCOLN NEWS: LOCAL AND NATIONAL
*************************************************
* * Sat., Sept. 7. A one-hour slide presentation and
discussion of John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's
assassin, and his escape from Ford's Theatre 126 years ago
will take place 10 a.m. at Ford's Theatre, 511lOth St.,
N.W., in Washington. Reservations are required. Mike
Kauffman, an assassination expert and Surratt Society
narrator, will outline Booth's escape route through
Maryland and Virginia which led to his shooting death.
For reservations, call Tim Good: 202-426-6924.
** "Lincoln and His Contemporaries: Photographs by Matthew
Brady From the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection" continues
as a featured exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery,
F St., N.W. between 7th and 9th Streets. Some 55 modern
albumen prints from original Matthew Brady negatives in the
Gallery's Meserve collection are exhibited, including
photos of Lincoln, Mary Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Stephen
Douglas, and generals McClellan, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan
and Burnside. The exhibition continues for another year,
until July 12, 1992.
** Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's touching Nov., 1963 Chicago
drawing of the Lincoln Memorial's' Lincoln
grieving from his seated position with his head in his
hands, capturing the nation's anguish at President
Kennedy's assassination, is on display with other cartoon
works at the National Archives in Washington 10 to 9 daily
through August, 1992. (Closes 5:30 after Labor Day.)
Sun-Times
** The Lincoln Legal Papers Project announced earlier this
year in its newsletter Lincoln Legal Briefs that a threepage set of two previously unknown legal depositions in
Lincoln's own hand have been discovered in Morgan County,
Ill. The depositions were both signed by Lincoln, and they
date from the very beginning of his law practice, when he
was still living in New Salem. Lincoln prepared the two
documents for one Robert Davidson, who was suing Isham
Reavis for fraud in a farmland sale. This summer, the
Project is acquiring all remaining file records of
Lincoln's more than 355 Illinois Supreme Court cases.
** Another, even earlier document in Lincoln's hand--the
earliest one known, in fact--brought $143,000 at a recent
auction house sale. The manuscript jewel is a leaf from
Abraham Lincoln's c.1826 school "sum book," containing,
besides arithmetic, the doggerel verse mischievously
written by the future president: Abraham Lincoln is my name
/ and with my pen I wrote the same / I wrote lit] in both
hast]e J and speed / and left it there for fools to read /
1826. Lincoln penned these words at age 17 while residing
with his parents ncar Gentryville, Ind.
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991
NEWS**LINCOLN
NEWS"
* * Speaking of Lincoln's southern Indiana roots, the
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln City, Ind.
notes that 1991 is a year of anniversaries in Lincoln lore:
175 years ago, Indiana became a state, just when the
Lincolns entered the Hoosier domain; 50 years ago, the
Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial Building was dedicated "to
preserve the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln"; and 25 years
ago, the visitor center at Lincoln Boyhood was opened.
1991 is also the diamond anniversary (75th) of the National
Park Service, which owns and operates the Memorial.
** Veteran radio and TV comedy writer Mort Lewis, known in
Hollywood as something of an authority on Lincoln's humor,
died May 21 in Santa Monica, Cal. He was 82.
** Earlier this year, Arlington National Cemetery, the
Civil War's premier national military burying ground--and
the final resting place of Lincoln's son Robert Todd
Lincoln--became the raison d'etre of the newly founded
Arlington National Cemetery Historical Society. The new
historical society, which has among its many objectives
"the fostering of greater understanding of the National
Cemetery's heritage" was founded by former U.S. congressman
Fred Schwengel (president of the U.S. Capitol Historical
Society) and the Hon. James D. "Mike" McKevitt (a former
member of Congress now in business in Washington).
McKevitt has been elected the society's president, and
persons wishing further information on research plans and .
membership may contact him at: The McKevitt Group, 1101
16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036; 202-822-0604. Once
the plantation home of Robert E. Lee, Union Civil War dead
were buried at Arlington Cemetery beginning in 1864, and
subsequently many Civil War veterans, and veterans and
casualties of later American conflicts were buried there.
** A Civil War memorial unknown to most Americans is
Confederate Memorial Hall, located in the heart of
Washington, D.C., eight blocks from the White House.
Informally called "the Confederate Embassy," the Victorian
structure became a home for Confederate veterans when it
was purchased by the Confederate Memorial Association. In
1919 the mansion was converted into a convention hall,
library and museum of Confederate southern culture. Oil
paintings of Confederate heroes such as Lee, Davis,
Stonewall Jackson and Joseph Johnston line its walls. A
few months ago a Ladies' Parlor was completed featuring
portraits of Varina Davis and Mary Jackson. Recently the
Hall's memorial association criticized Ken Burns' Civil War
television documentary, saying, "What the series lacked was
a balanced historic]all perspective." For more information
contact the Confederate Memorial Hall, 1322 Vermont Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005; 202-483-5700.
* * Abraham Lincoln has not been usurped by Zachary Taylor
as the first assassinated president, a June 26 exhumation
of the 12th president to check for arsenic poisoning shows.
PAGE FIVE
** M E M B E R S'
P A G E**
***************************************************
**MEMBERS:NEW AND IN THE NEWS**
**********~****************************************
The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia has five
new members to announce. First, John P. Warner
of Alexandria, Va. joined recently, but somehow
we didn't get him into the last issue. Welcome, John!
The Connection article also highlighted Velma's top
priority when it comes to Lincoln: Cherwek said Lincoln the
mall is what interests her the most. "The more you read,
the more you study him, you think you know him but you
don't. His background was so vague. You don't know where
he got his intelligence and was able to handle the things
he did," she said. Congratulations,
Velma!
**************************************************
The other new members include Lowell V. Hammer
and his wife Elizabeth B. Hammer of Potomac, Md.
Lowell is national Commander-in-Chief
of the Military
Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. The
devotees of one Commander-in-Chief
welcome another!
The Lincolnian's brassy challenge to Brian Pohanka
in our last issue to wait no longer, don his Zouave uniform
and "join up" has paid off. We are proud to welcome Civil
War author-consultant -preservationist -reenactor Brian into
our membership ranks. Brian was our speaker in May. Now
we need to coax in the lady-relative of dashing Col. Elmer
Ellsworth who was introduced to us at that dinner program!
Our fifth new LGDC member is Patricia Thompson,
who joins our detachment of half-a-dozen members living in
Springfield, Va. It's only natural that Lincoln
enthusiasts should gravitate toward a location with a name
fabled in Lincoln biography.
Finally, the Civil War Society of Berryville, Va.
now subscribes to The Lincolnian.
***************************************************
Speaking of Springfield, Velma Cherwek made
the cover story of the June 19 issue of the Virginia
suburban newspaper The Springfield Connection for her very
active involvement with The Lincoln Group. Connection
writer Ian Zack devoted the first ten-and-one-half column
inches of his feature on Springfield hobbyists to our
corresponding secretary of 18 years. "Hobbies come in all
shapes and sizes--just ask Springfield resident Velma
Cherwek, " the article began. ''Hers is tall and gaunt, has
a beard and is often seen wearing a top hat. "
The article focuses on Velma's dedication to both Abraham
Lincoln and the Lincoln Group--and devotes several
paragraphs to explaining the purpose of our Group, its
meeting place, and its activities.
Velma explains in the article how she got hooked on the
16th president in a touching anecdote many Lincoln Group
members have not heard. It dates back to the time when she
was a fifth-grader in Oxford, Mich.: ''I went to a country
school, and we were having a debate on who was the greater
president-Washington
or Lincoln," Cherwek said. ''I was
assigned Lincoln." That's all it took.
PAGE SIX
LGDC Board Chairman Fred Schwengel's 85th
birthday bash on Capitol Hill May 29 was a smashing success
attended by hundreds of friends, colleagues and well
wishers. The former Iowa congressman's staff at the u.S.
Capitol Historical Society conducted the event, held in the
Society'S offices on Maryland Ave., and many Lincoln Group
members joined in to enjoy the food and frolic.
Congratulations, Fred, and many more!
Arthur Loux of Kansas narrated
a videotape
.
tour of Civil War era Washington sites April 7 for the
Lincoln Club of Topeka. Locations associated with
Lincoln's assassination were featured,
'Harold Holzer, Ed Bearss and I were the
only LGDC members in evidence at the recent lectures at
Gettysburg College," reports Roy Licari concerning
the college's annual Civil War Institute, held this year
June 23-29 on the subject "Why the South Lost the Civil
War." "I had a nice visit and nice one-on-one talks with
Gabor BoriH," Roy adds. Gabor, a member of
LGDC's board of governors on Gettysburg College's faculty,
organized and hosted the ninth annual event. Harold, now
president of the Lincoln Group of New York, spoke on
The Lincoln Family Album, the volume on previously unknown
Lincoln family photographs he co-authored with LGDC
honorary member Mark E. Neely, Jr.
Richard Sloan of Seaford, New York and Prof. Joseph
to the
April Surratt Courier. Richard contributed the text of the
April 19, 1865 letter of Willie Clark, whose room at the
Petersen House became the setting for Lincoln's death.
Joseph contributed the text of a 1901 Washington Post
article detailing John Brophy's efforts to save Mary E.
Surratt's life from execution as a Lincoln assassination
conspirator. Likewise, Paul Kallina
contributed an 1897 tribute to William Withers, Jr. to the
May Courier, and Prof. Terry Alford's article
"Mary Ann Holmes Booth--Actress?" appeared in the same
issue. For info. on Courier subscriptions: Ellen Watson,
editor, Surratt House and Tavern, P.O. Box 427, Clinton, MD
20735.
George, Jr. of Villanova University each contributed
Louis P. Mallow, Jr. presented his new
audiovisual production titled "The Life of Mary Todd
Lincoln" June 15 at Illinois Benedictine College. At the
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991
**MORE MEMBERS' NEWS**
same Lincoln Group of Illinois event Max and
Donna Daniels portrayed Abe and Mary Lincoln.
Georgetown University alumnus Ed Bearss was
profiled and photographed with a wooly winter cap rakishly
pulled over one eye in the Spring '91 edition of
Georgetown, au's alumni magazine. The article called Ed
"The Civil War's Top-Ranked Raconteur." "The Civil War
makes the United States," he was quotedas saying. Ed also
made the papers in June when he gave a tour of the Antietam
battlefield to squinting Sunbelt Caucus congressional
staffers. While Ed was pointing north, they were looking
south, the photo seems to suggest.
Honorary member Dr. Mark E. Neely Jr.'s
illustrated essay "Rattling Lincoln's Bones" in a recent
edition of his Lincoln Museum's bulletin Lincoln Lore
provided excellent commentary and a healthy antidote to
the view of some genetics researchers that the 16th
president may have had Marfan's Syndrome. Mark ably
documents that Lincoln in reality enjoyed excellent health,
had a robust physical constitution, and was able to
accomplish the crushing responsibilities of the Civil War
presidency with remarkable stamina. Mark ended his essay
by calling speculation over Lincoln's ill-health
"unfruitful and misleading." To get the monthly Lincoln
Lore (the last we heard, it was still free of charge) write
Mark at: Lincoln Lore, Lincoln National Life Insurance Co.,
Ft. Wayne, IN 46801.
***************************************************
Finally, Lincolnian editor Paul Verduin was
contacted out of the blue recently by national radio
personality Bob Edwards, host of National Public Radio's
"Morning Edition" news program. Bob was claiming he was a
descendant of Lincoln's notorious grandmother Lucey Hanks,
a distinction that would place him among some of the
closest living relatives of the 16th president. After
another letter was received, Paul met with "Colonel Bob" at
NPR's studio, and pored over the evidence cited in the
genealogical research Bob has conducted over the past year.
Sure enough, Bob's evidence dovetails perfectly with
research Paul has done of the subject over the past four
years in the archives and court-houses of half-a-dozen
states. Bob is a genuine direct descendant of Polly
Sparrow, the oldest daughter of Lucey Hanks and her
eventual husband Henry Sparrow. Lincoln's mother Nancy
Hanks Lincoln was an older half-sister of Colonel Bob's
ancestor Polly.
Like his distant relative Abe, Bob is a Kentucky native,
tall and athletic-looking, likes sports, and has a wry
sense of humor. Like Lincoln, he probably works too hard.
For the past 12 years, he's had to be at work by 2:30 a.m.!
To that we say with baseball commentator Red Barber, whom
Bob interviews every Friday, "Good luck, Colonel Bob!"
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991
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PAGE SEVEN
**PICNIC
FUN RECAP**
FIF1Y-FIVE LINCOLN GROUP MEMBERS
ENJOY ANNUAL PICNIC AMID CIVIL WAR
SITES IN CASHTOWN, GE17YSBURG, PA.
by Paul H. Verduin
In the heat of late July, it's great to look back to
last month's perfect-day annual picnic outing held June 8
by the Lincoln Group of D.C. in Cashtown and Gettysburg,
Pa. Fifty-five LGDC'ers remember the day.
The affair was hosted by Carolyn Quadarella and Paul
Kallina near Pennsylvania's prime Civil War sites, where
Abraham Lincoln's "few appropriate words" in Gettysburg
rang out and echoed through history.
The sky in tiny, rural Cashtown was mostly sunny, with
beautiful white cumulus clouds drifting east in a gentle
breeze. The temperature was ambient. The picnic setting
was bucolic. Lincoln Groupers spread their picnic lunches
out on blankets on Carolyn and Paul's big backyard lawn-with their country home on one side and an orchard of
ripening apples on the other. Pennsylvania's sylvan hills
caressed the horizon. Ah!
Loathe to rise from their luncheon repast and the
babble of pleasant conversation with both old friends and
new acquaintances, the 55 or so Lincoln Group members shook
off their languor, roused themselves with reminders of the
day's schedule, and hiked the quarter-mile to Cashtown Inn.
Cashtown Became Rebel Headquarters
Historic Cashtown Inn, built in 1797, is today again a
quiet bed and breakfast establishment.
But
the end of
June in 1863, Cashtown's tranquility was shattered by the
thudding sound of thousands of Confederate boots and
cavalry horses coming over the mountain and down the road
leading into town and toward Gettysburg, whose church
steeples were in view a mere eight miles away. It was the
mighty divisions of rebel general A.P. Hill.
Gen. Hill made Cashtown Inn his headquarters before
and during the fateful Gettysburg campaign, innkeeper Chuck
Buckley proudly explained to LGDC'ers gathered on the red
brick structure's broad front porch. Then Mr. Buckley
invited curious members inside to view the inn's rustic
interior grandeur, and especially the mural-sized oil
paintings depictinge Confederate generals and their troops
marching into town in front of the inn. The canvasses'
romantic cast belied the horror awaiting the troops, far
from home, on the ridges outside of Gettysburg.
at
Civil War Institute a Highlight
Then it was into the cars, over to Gettysburg, and up
the steps of the federal-style house that of late has
served as the headquarters of Gettysburg College's Civil
War Institute. The Institute's director Gabor S. Boritt,
who is Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at
Gettysburg College and an LGDC board member, personally
showed Lincoln Group members about, and in friendly,
engaging tones talked about the College and the work of his
institute. Prof. Boritt apologized that the College's
PAGE EIGHT
annual week-long summer Civil War Institute has gotten so
popular that spaces are usually filled many weeks before
the sessions begin.
Now firmly in a touring mode, the contingent trekked
on to an unexpected outdoor pleasure, the Coster Avenue
Memorial. Dedicated just three summers ago, the colorful
mural, 80 feet long and perhaps ten feet high, was created
by Providence, R.I. artist Mark H. Dunkelman as a memorial
to the 563 casualties of Col. Charles R. Coster's Union
brigade, and the 208 casualties of Gen. Harry T. Hayes' and
Col. Isaac E. Avery's Confederate brigades who met their
demise on the spot July 1, 1863. Former Lin coin ian coeditor Paul Kallina planted himself on the grassy approach
to the mural and ably told the story of why and how the
engagement occurred, amplifying the mural's life-size
portrayal of Coster's forces defending their position from
Confederates advancing on the left and right, leaping a
rail fence in a smoking hail of rifle bullets.
Lincoln Pew Seen at Church
Next, at the Gettysburg Presbyterian Church, senior
pastor Daniel T. Hans gave a 15-minute talk on how the
church's former sanctuary was used as an improvised
hospital after the Gettysburg slaughter, and how President
Lincoln attended a patriotic service there the day he
delivered his Gettysburg Address. The pew where Lincoln
seated himself was on display in the new sanctuary.
The Lincoln Group's final stop was the Wills House on
Lincoln Square in Gettysburg'S town center. Judge David
Wills had President Lincoln stay in his house after
Lincoln's arrival by train from Washington the evening
before the Gettysburg Address was given. The house is now
a little museum featuring a few curious items of Lincoln
memorabilia. The upstairs room where Lincoln reposed is
the museum's slightly hokey holy-of-holies. LGDC'ers were
ushered in, in groups of eight, the door was shut, and
they were treated to an audio presentation and a life-size,
but not very life-like manikin of Lincoln, seated with pen
in hand, putting his final touches on you-know-what.
Now feeling flushed from all the activity and mental
stimulation, and a bit foot-weary, the frolicking Lincoln
Group of D.C. members thanked Paul and Carolyn for a
wonderfully planned and executed day, and filed out of the
Wills House to find their cars, head for home, and reflect
on the fun and friendship they experienced that day.
***************************************************
THE LINCOLN GROUP OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA'S ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS:*
(All include a subscription to The Lincolnian)
Families/Couples:
$22.50; Individuals: $15
Full-time Students: $8
Lincolnian Subscription Only (for those living
outside the greater Washington area): $10
"New members
cordially invited.
Checks payable to LGDC.
***************************************************
**THE LINCOLNIAN**
JULY-AUGUST
1991