THE
GREAT REBELLION;
A HISTORY OF THE
Civil War in the United States.
By J. T. HEADLEY,
AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS," "WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERAS," "SACRED MOUNTAINS," ETC., ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS FINE STEEL ENGRAVINGS.
In Two Volumes:
Volume I.
Hartford, Conn.
HURLBUT, WILLIAMS & COMPANY.
E. B. & R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL.
SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.
1863.
X A. Lincoln Washington DC Library
X William H Seward Washington DC.
X M Blair Washington DC
Edwin Booth Grossman Avenue Farm Fishkill, New York April 3/56
Dear Mr. Lenthall -
Thank you for your letter which I do not consider in any way an effrontery as you put it. I only wish that I could grant your request + furnish you with the photographs you ask for. Unfortunately I have with me here only family photographs which I would not care to give or loan; I am sure you will understand my feelings. Most of the material relating to my family I have had to put into storage + would be impossible to get at. - I would indeed enjoy hearing you lecture on April 9th which will be my birthday! - Again I am so sorry not to be able to help you out in this matter. Sincerely yours Edwin Booth Grossman
Fishkill April 4 [6 - PM?] 1956 N.Y.
Mr. Franklin Lenthall 118 West 87th St. New York 24 New York
Edwin Booth Grossman Avenue Farm Fishkill, New York
Avenue Farm
Fishkill, N. Y.
Edwin Booth Grossman
Dec. 4/55
Dear Mr. Lenthal -
Please forgive my delay in replying to your letter which I enjoyed reading and did not in any way consider a "breaking in" on my privacy, especialy as it contained so much of interest regarding my family and your collection of Booth mementos. By this time you have no doubt visited The Players with the friend you speak of and I am sure it was a thrilling experience to a young actor who can write as you did, about my grandfather It is a long time since I visited the Club, and in fact I have not
been in New York for a number of years. Let us hope that one of these days my health will permit my going there. I was very interested to learn that from time to time you are giving lectures on the life of my grandfather and that there has been so much interest aroused. I fervently hope that you will soon be able to fill your glass hanging wall cases. During her lifetime my mother donated many costumes etc. belonging to her father to The Players. My own collection is thus small + intimate. I am wondering what is the small photograph of my mother you have acquired? Thank you for writing me such a friendly letter, and the best of luck to you.
Very sincerely
Edwin Booth Grossmann
Fishkill Dec 5 [illegible] 1955 N.Y.
UNITED STATES POSTAGE THREE 3 CENTS
Mr. Franklyn Lenthal 118 West 87th St. New York 24 New York.
E.B. Grossmann Avenue Farm Fishkill N.Y.
-5- with them and if I was misleading it was only my own enthusiasm, you see I am not a good judge of valuables, but I treasure things like this the way one treasures poetry, it's mostly a personal response. - But we are still sending to you all that we have, with the exception of two fan letters which we had framed. Peter said these may mean little to your collection as they are not to Booth directly but of his family. But I do hope that you will find even part of the enjoyment which we have derived from them and I do hope they will add to your collection somehow. You asked how Peter found them? - Well, ahem, ahem - this may sound like we are terrible thieves and you may never allow us near your theatre - But in truth he found them in an old deserted house in Fishkill where the grandson and his wife must have
-6- provenance lived. They were in a musty old box in the cellar, the rest of the house was completely empty. Well, Peter and I have an incorrigible love for finding old houses and antiques and there's nothing more dramatic and exciting than to find a marvelous old, deserted house and to walk through it with remnants of the people here'n there (and spirits too!) And Peter did not really steal these - but they were there, unloved and unappreciated and he felt we should give them a home And now if they can add to your collection they'll truly be at home and belong there with you, much more than in a forgotten old musty box in a damp rain-filled cellar. So, dear Mr. Lenthal we are sending them on their way and hope that they will make you happy and that we shall meet one day in the near future. Most sincerely, Ann
1205 Linden Avenue Baltimore 17, Maryland
Mr Gerard J. Buchman
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr Buchman,
Perhaps the enclosed letter to Samuel Bland Arnold may be of some value as my brother found it among the things which had belonged to the above. He had been a prisoner on the "Dry Tortugas," as was thought to have some connection with Booth, which was not the case. however, as a letter from him to the latter was found in Booth's things he was arrested and cent to Fort Jefferson
After he was released & pardoned the sister of a school friend, in Anne Arundel Co-invited him to take charge of her place, where he remained until shortly before his death. As you will see from the enclosed letter, he wrote a history for the "Baltimore American" of his incarceration & treatment while in Fort Jefferson- My brother was a frequent visitor to the home of the friend with whom Mr Arnold lived and was well acquainted with the latter and came in possession with the place & contents so found this letter. we have the articles written by Mr Arnold. Very truly Mary L. Hooff
Willie Lincoln gave Johnny Roll his dag
when his Dad took him to Washington.
Springfield Ill. 1/5-1943
Mr. J.C. Boos
Albany NY.
My Dear Mr. Boos:
I am mailing herewith a copy of the Grace Bedell story which I thought you might like to add to your Lincoln collection, they are photostats from newspaper clippings. I have many reproductions, many of which are from the originals. The walls and tables in my Den are completely coverd with pictures of or related to Lincoln Lore (my hobby) but it is comming to be quite a burden in caring for it and entertaining the many callers and correspondents.
Respectfully
John Linden Roll
Christmas day marked my 88 1/2 birth. I am thinking of dispossing of my entire collection.
274 Clinton Street Brooklyn, N.Y. May 6, 1941
Dear Mr. Grossman:
Your show last January at the Maria Harriman Galleries impressed me greatly. I found in your paintings and watercolors a vast understanding of nature, a mature richness that has never been surpassed. There was in them a true vision, the vision of a talent that step by step came to a truly universal approach. Your paintings, Mr. Grossman, have something ripe and majestic and earthy. Because I so appreciate your work I would like to buy a canvass of yours. Is there perhaps something I may purchase that is not too expensive? Please let me know. Yours, respectfully Tania Nadel (Mrs. Michael Nadel)
T. Nadel 274 Clinton St. Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. Edwin Booth Grossman Fishkill, Dutchess County New York
R.52
FROM: MARIE HARRIMAN GALLERY 61-63 East 57th Street New York City Tel. Wi.2-0686 January 6th 1941
Paintings by Edwin Booth Grossmann January 13 - Feb. 1, 1941
The first exhibition in many years of paintings by Edwin Booth Grossman, one of America's unadvertised artists, will be held at the Marie Harriman Gallery, 61 East 57th Street, New York, beginning January 13. The one-man show, comprising 16 landscapes and still lifes in oil and a small group of watercolors, will continue for three weeks, through February 1.
Grandson of the late Edwin Booth, who founded The Players and who was probably the greatest figure in the making of the American theatre, Grossmann chose a career as a painter despite enviable opportunities and connections with the stage. He studied art at the old Chase Art School and later in Paris where his work was accepted one year by the Paris Salon. Minor exhibitions of his work were held in two New York galleries in 1920 and in 1928. More than a dozen years ago Grossmann withdrew entirely from the exhibiting field in order rigorously to perfect a mature style of painting completely expressive of himself. He has destroyed much of his own work, constantly editing his production to retain only the clearest statements.
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Most of the present group of landscapes are views of the hilly country near Avenue Farm, Fishkill, New York, where the artist has lived for the past five years. There are also marine studies and landscapes from the Maine coast. Derived structurally from the art of Cezanne, the paintings are marked for a highly dramatic use of sunlight, which is thrown against the hills and valleys with a climactic force that reveals the artist's joy in capturing the fleeting moments in nature. The placid lake surfaces, rolling terrain, rising hill-tops, rows of trees, elemental rocks and other forms of the earth's surface are built into pictures that have a strong underlying armature of abstract design.
Nature has always been the first interest in Grossmann's life. As a youth he learned taxidermy in order to form a large collection of stuffed birds and animals which he shot himself. Since that time, however, he has given up hunting, and several of the still lifes of dead game in the present exhibition carry a tragic note of regret for the destruction of wild life.
Grossmann was born in Boston in 1887, the son of a Hungarian-born New York banker and Edwina Booth, the only child of Edwin Booth. Grossmann's father came to America when he was very young and grew up in the Brahmin literary environment of New England where he lived with Celia Thaxter's family on the Isles of Shoals, near Portsmouth, N. H. Grossmann traveled extensively through Europe with his family, and from the age of
-3-
twelve he spent much time in the zoos of New York and Europe sketching all types of animals. His first contact with modernism came through his acquaintance with Alfred Maurer in Paris before the war, but it was not until after Grossmann had returned to American that he fully grasped its significance and began applying its principles to his own work. The paintings in his present exhibition represent a selection of the artist's most recent and mature state of development. Paul Bird, assistant editor of The Art Digest, has contributed a foreword to the catalogue of the Grossmann exhibition.
THE STORY OF THE ROLLS
In the spring of 1828, William Roll, his brother, Jacob and the latter's son, Pierson Roll, arrived in Sangamon Town from New Jersey. William Roll became a farmer, his brother, Jacob, was the owner of a store, a grist mill and the Sangamon Town Postmaster, and Pierson Roll became an extensive land owner. Two years later, John Roll, followed his father, William Roll to Sangamon Town with the balance of the Roll family. It was here that the younger Roll met Abraham Lincoln for the first time early in 1831 when he helped the latter build the flat boat that later became lodged on the RutledgeDam at New Salem, Illinois. John made all the wooden pins for the boat, as in those days wodden pins were used in place of nails.
After Lincoln departed from Sangamon Town life once more became dull and John Roll, like his friend "Abe" left the village and made his home at Springfield, Illinois. It was at Springfield some years later that Mr. Lincoln made his first political promise, stating that when he became president he would give John Roll an office. This was long before Lincoln was thought of for the Presidency.
John Roll was one of the contractors on the Old State House in Springfield, while his brother-in-law, John F. Rague, was it's architect. As a contractor Roll made repairs at the Lincoln home in 1849 and in settlement for the work received "six walnut doors and cash." The doors were made into furniture and souvenirs, which presently are in the author's possession. In 1854 John Roll's son, William Vandyke Roll, was a school mate of Robert Lincoln at the Illinois State University. His two smaller children, Frank P. and John Linden Roll were playmates of Tad and Willie Lincoln. When the Lincolns departed for Washington, they presented their dog 'Fido' to the Roll boys.
When Mr. Lincoln made his House Divided Speech in the Old State House he said, [quotation on back] "There is my friend, John Roll, etc. etc...........". This friendship persisted to Lincoln's untimely death, after which John Roll until his death in 1901 lived in reveries of his beloved hero of the 'Flat Boat' building days.
The Rolls, with one exception, your author, have followed their friends the Lincoln to the Great Beyond. John Linden Roll is the last of those Rolls that were so intimately associated with the Lincolns. His fondest possessions are the hundreds of souvenirs, pictures, clippings and tokens dealing with Lincoln.
I hope this short biographical sketch gives you a small fraction of the pleasure that I derived in compiling it for you.
Sincerely, John Linden Roll JOHN LINDEN ROLL 825 Henrietta St. Springfield Ills
on page 12 VOL 2 Miss Tarbell's Life of Lincoln you will find illustrated an old sofa which my father bought of Lincoln before they left for Washington. On page 184 VOL 1 my father owned the building in Hoffmans Row where Stuart and Lincoln had their first office in Springfield. On 59 to 63 VOL 1 my father's story of the building of the flat-boat wich got lodged on the New Salem dam.
When Lincoln made his famous "House divided Speech" in the State House, he said "There is my old friend John Roll," (referring to my father.) He used to be a slave but he made himself free and I used to be a slave and now I am so free they let me practice law."
My father, Leon P. Hopkins was just a little boy when Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield but remembers seeing Lincoln talking to his father, Caleb Hopkins, who was then State Custodian of Arms and was later a Captain in the Civil War. These memories precede Lincoln's election as president.
Later in 1887 and in 1901, my father opened Lincoln's casket at the monument in Springfield, Illinois when the body was identified before final interment. He has in his possession the sheet
of metal cut from over the face of Lincoln from the original casket.
I will have my father autograph this below.
Ellen Hopkins December 31, 1940. Leon P. Hopkins
81
Anne Rutledge Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music; "With malice toward none, with charity for all." Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions, and the beneficent face of a nation Shining with justice and truth. I am Anne Rutledge who sleeps beneath these weeds, Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation, Bloom forever, O Republic, From the dust of my bosom! Edgar Lee Masters October 2 1939 N.Y.C.
Top of sheet for Binding
I saw Mr Lincoln first at Freeport Ill, when 9 1/2 years old with my Father in his 2nd debate with Douglas 1858
Edwin J. Foster Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic
I am going to tell you something now, that no, othel liveing man in this country can. John Wilks Booth shot Abreham Lincon in Fords Theater I think it was Aprill 13th 1865 by the side of his wife and then jumped on to the stage and so doing brook his leg the young folks of to think it was done on the impulse of the moment it was not So I can prove it to you in 1864 May 11th I working for Lord and Ross on the old Colony [paper torn away] at South Boston. I stade abord the pile driver all aloone [paper torn away] Sunday Monday morning I had orders to meet them at the Eastern Depot, with a rope, and a cart hook I got abord the horse car for the Eastern Depot I did not leike to go inside of the car with my old clothes and rops so I got on with the driver I had not been on it 1 minet & Mnsen got on with us that brout us all to togethee 1 of them was the best looking and best dresst man I ever laid my eyes on I will tell you how he was dressed he had on a tall hat a white (paper torn) with gold charm, (paper torn) it, blue coat blue pants
he had a smoth face with a hevy mustash black eyes-the other man was comenly dresset But both bank Coperheads ar cusing our govermint he was planning to put a ball through some one but no names caled the other man sed I think John I think it would be a resky job Booth sead why it can be done as easy as the roling of a log take him when he is cming down Sutch A Avenew step up and Put a ball through Him and skaale down Sutch Avenew I thought at the time they belong (paper torn) Boston but when he did put the ball through him I soon found out who thoese men was that I heard in Boston 11 months before he done it
This was written by my father, Philip Lord Kimball around 1929 when he was 90 yrs old. He left school (from choice) at 12 yrs of age to work from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Spurwich Mass Cotton Mill (ineligible as paper is torn away)
ISHAM, LINCOLN & BEALE, COUNSELORS AT LAW 72 West Adams Street Chicago, Ill M-TM
Edward S. Isham
(Deceased)
Robert T. Lincoln
(Deceased)
William G. Beale
(Deceased)
Gilbert E. Porter Buell McKeever Waldo F. Tobey Harry J. Dunbaugh John E. Wing Cyrus H. Adams
December 12, 1928
My dear Mrs. Isham:
As we always try to close as many accounts as possible every year during December and as the estate matters in Chicago are practically closed, and I understand there will be no further disbursements here, I take the liberty of sending you the enclosed memorandum. I hope that everything has been satisfactory. Very truly yours, George C. Madison as Cashier
Mrs. Laura M. Isham, 1349 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
-Enclosure-
Webster Hall "America's Finest Club Residence" Detroit Pittsburg
March 25, 1927 My dear Mrs Skeel: Your letter brings me great satisfaction. I was expecting a pleasant reply to my inquiry, but you say a number of things that give me special pleasure.
I am here in Detroit for a few weeks, serving as Minister ad Interim in the First Congregational Church, and I am revising a book manuscript for the press. I am a vagrant from the last of November till June 1 - a month as chaplain of the Lake Placid Club, a month as lecturer on Abraham Lincoln, and so on, while keeping three or four kinds of thing going in the papers and magazines and all the time working on some book.
Last summer I wrote a Life of Abraham Lincoln for young people. It was called "The Great Good Man" and ran in eight issues of the Youths Companion. It went fairly well and is now just out in an attractive volume, so far as type and cover go, and it may sell. Both the editor of the Youths Companion and the publishers of my books want me to follow it next summer with a companion book on Washington. The time is opportune. We are approaching the 200th anniversary of his birth. So I have promised to do it and have been assembling material.
But I have no such knowledge of Washington as I have of Lincoln. I have been reading some of the Washington biographies by way of background, and I waken to the fact that with all his manifest and manifold faults, Parson Weems was intereating, and knew human values, and could tell a story.
In N.Y. I made use of the collection which your father and brothers made, and Mr. Nichols, my good friend, gave me your address and told me what you were doing. I was tempted to write but hesitated. In Boston I went to the N. Eng. Hist. library where I am no stranger, and when your brother there repeated the suggestion, I hesitated no more.
2 And now behold the juxtaposition of our interests. First, that I come at the eleventh hour to a meager share in what you are doing and what your brother Paul did in his Washington, and to your affection for Parson Weems.
And then, the Plimpton Press is my neighbor. For my summer home (now, alas, my only domicile) is a Foxbore and the Plimptons are my neighbors and visitors. Mr. Plimpton would have real pleasure, I think, in carrying out for me any request of yours.
And Martha's Vineyard is so situated that when you go to Boston via New Bedford you pass very near my summer home.
And now I am sorry that we shall not meet as you return home. I am a delegate (Convener of the Congregational Delegation) to the World Conference of Faith and Order to assemble in Lausanne August 1, and am sailing July 16, and returning about September 8 Otherwise I could hope that on some trip to Boston you could stop at Mansfield and taxi to my door and see my Lincoln collection at Foxboro and let me learn from you about Parson Weems and Washington.
Since November 1925 I have been alone. My dear little wife after forty beautiful years with me died then. But I keep my home, and have a housekeeper in summer, and my friends come to me. My children have summer homes adjacent. My son Bruce who writes "The Man Nobody Knows" and other best-sellers is across the road from me; my other children close at hand
I am giving more autobiography than may be essential.
I am hoping that this boys' Life of Washington will be finished before I sail and begin to appear in the Youths Companion in the first issue in November, and appear in book form about the middle of January. The Companonn cuts about half, and I think
3 it would be rather more than certain that nothing I might purloin from you could be used there, even if I wished. And probably in this book nothing that you are disposed to guard would have appropriate place.
But I am greatly in the mood to learn. If you were to feel quite sure that your volumes would be out in or before October, it might possibly be that next June when I am in Foxboro you would be willing that your nephew should loan me a set of the proof sheets. And if you were to instruct him to withhold any chapters or pages, I would understand that. Or, if you were to say to me that matter relating to any particular group of topics you wished particularly to guard, your confidence in me would be justified, I think.
But if the volumes are so nearly out as that I could have a set in the summer that would be ideal.
I do not know what I shall do with Washington. I have not quite reached the end of my Lindoln work, having still chips to work up into literature of sorts. But I am gathering more material that I can use in a boys' Life of Washington, and there is time still for a more ambitious work about him than what I have now begun to write. I have a dream of doing that possibly in 1928 or 1928, in ample time to get established before 1932 and before too much competition. This however is on the lap of the gods.
I am telling you much more than you care for about my plans. But this has a relation on the one hand to your generous offer to assist me, and on the other to your very proper wish to guard those discoveries that you and your
4 brother have made. Now let me felicitate you on your near approach to the completion of your labor of love. I can imagine what a solemn joy it is to you to have brought this to pass. And you must have had a lot of fun out of it.
Who knows that I may not myself do what I was hoping you had done, and, after I have done my little bit toward Washington, write a little biography of Weems and his times and his books? You would seem to have assembled just the material that would temp a man as frail as I. When, since Eve, did any woman offer such fruit of the tree of knowledge as you in your Bibliography and Letters with notes and comments? But better, why not do it yourself? Who could do it so well?
This is four times as long a letter as I intended to write, and I am busy. I am telling the story of Abraham Lincoln in good sane language against a background of women-his grandmothers, mother, stepmother, sister, step-sisters, sweet-hearts and wife. No easy task. And THE WOMEN LINCOLN LOVED are scattered about me in their final revision. Early in April the printer gets them, and I shall be so fondly glad to bid them goodbye. I return to them now, with sincerest thanks for your letter. And do not, I beg of you, lend me anything you would rather not. But I should like to show you my Lincoln things at Foxboro and learn from you about Washington and Weems. How late are you at the Vineyard?
Sincerely yours, William E. Barton If you have the slightest inclination to write a life of Weems - I shall nere do so
3014 N Street Washington, D.C. March 12, 1925 Mrs. Stuart Mosby Coleman The Wyoming, Washington, D.C. My dear Mrs. Coleman: I am in receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, from which I note that you are a daughter of Colonel John S. Mosby, who I remember very pleasantly. I note also that you plan to write an article in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Surrender at Appomattox (at which I was personally present) and that you wish the names of my children and grandchildren to be used in this connection. I have two living daughters, - Mrs. Mary Isham and Mrs. Jessie Johnson. Mrs. Isham has but one son, Lincoln Isham; while Mrs. Johnson has two children, Robert Lincoln Beckwith and
-2- Mary Lincoln Beckwith. I am sorry to say, however, that I cannot comply with your request in regard to a photograph of my children and grandchildren, as I have none here which I can send to you. Believe me, Very truly yours, Robert Lincoln
Greencastle, Ind. Feby, 11 24
Mr JE Boos Albany, N.Y.
Dear Sir: The man referred to in my last letter has just sent me two papers one in the hand of Lincoln's first partner Stuart and the other written and signed by Logan. He says items of that kind are hard to find and asks four dollars each for them but finally intimated that he would accept seven dollars for both. Before I closed up with him I decided to forward them to you. I therefore enclose them herewith. Please acknowledge their receipt so that I may know promptly whether they have reached you safely.
The man I wrote to said he had nothing written by Herndon. Meanwhile I wish you would indicate if you still want something in Herndon's hand. If you do I will try to put you on the track of it. I have in mind a man who once showed me a paper written by Herndon. It was about the size of the Stuart document which I am sending you. I shall make him no offer till I hear from you; and besides he many not have it still.
The significant thing about the Logan paper is the file mark endorsed by the clerk on the back of the sheet "June 17 1853." The name J. H. Matheney clerk was written by a man I knew well when I was in Springfield. Later he was County Judge. He was Lincoln's best man at the marriage with Mary Todd.
The name "E. Douglas" in the Stuart paper is that of a Springfield lawyer and should not be confounded with "Stephen A. Douglas" altho the latter was also a lawyer.
Hartily Jesse W. Weik
Greencastle Jan 24 1130 AM 1924 IND United States Postage 2 cents
After 5 days, return to J. W. Weik Greencastle Telephone Co., 15 South Indiana St. Greencastle, Indiana
Mr. J. E. Boos 10 Lexington Ave Albany New York
ans.
A penciled note in the lower left hand corner of a pencil drawing of a balding man with a mustache reads: "Caricature of me by Massenguer made at Cafe Gallant Dec. 24, 1923." The drawing is thought to be of Edwin Booth Grossman. On the reverse side of the drawing is another caricature on "Club Gallant, Washington Sq. So. At MacDougal New York" paper.
Springfield Ill
715 So. Douglas Ave
Sept 22 1922
My Dear Neice
I have decided not to send the letter, the rough draft of which you read last night, to Mr. John W. Starr Jr.. Relations of our family and the Herndon's have been and still are too close to permit me to write as fully as the subject requires. As I read Mr. Starr's letters to you he is anxious to know the truth about the circumstances and environments of the compilation of Herndon's Life of Lincoln. The close relationship between your father and myself and my personal knowledge of
Mr. W. H. Herndon during the latter days of his life are well know to you. Mr. Herndon practiced law until the dissolution of his partnership with your father in 1877. It is from 1877 to the close of his life that I feel a delicacy in telling. Wm. H. Herndon was a son of Archer G. Herndon, who was born in Culpeper Co Va Feb. 13 1795 and when about ten years of age was taken to Green Co. Ky, where in 1816 he was married to Mrs Rebecca (Day) Johnson. Archer G. Herndon had one child, Wm H, born in Green Co. Ky.; Dec 25, 1818, who came with his father to Madison Co Ill. Subsequently they came to Sangamon county in the Spring of 1821. They settled five miles N.E. of Springfield on what became known as German Prairie. Wm. H. Herndon eldest son of Archer
was married Mar 26 1840, to Mary J. Maxey who was born July 27 1822. They had six children; James N.; Annie M., Beverly P, Elizabeth R., Leigh W, and Mary N..
Mrs Mary (Maxey) Herndon died Aug 18 1860 and Wm H. Herndon was married (second wife) July 31 1861 to Anna Miles. Two children were born to this second union; Nina Belle and William M.
Archer G Herndon was engaged in merchantile pursuits in Springfield from 1825 to 1836, during which time he erected the first tavern in Springfield. He was one of the famous 'Long Nine from Sangamon' that were largely instrumental in securing the removal of the State Capital to Springfield, having been elected to the State Senate in 1836. He served as Receiver of Public Moneys from 1842 to 1849 in Springfield. Archer G. Herndon died Jan 3 1867 and his widow survived until Aug 19th 1875. Both buried at Springfield
From Paul Selby's & Newton Bateman's Encyclo. Hist of Ill & Sangamon Co I copy this further article from page 230. "Herndon-William H., Lawyer was born at Greensburg Ky., Dec 25 1818; brought to Illinois by his father, Archer G. Herndon, in 1820, and to Sangamon Co in 1821; entered Illinois College in 1836, but remained only one year on account of his father's hostility to the supposed abolition influences prevailing at that institution; spent several years as a clerk in a store at Springfield, studied law two years with the firm of Logan and Lincoln (1842-1844), was admitted to the bar and became the partner of Mr. Lincoln, so continuing until the election of the latter to the Presidency. Mr. Herndon was a radical opponent of slavery and labored zealously to promote the advancement of his distinguished partner. The offices he held were those of City Attorney, Mayor and Bank Commissioner under three Governors. Some years before his death he in conjunction with Jesse W. Wilk published a Life of Abraham Lincoln in three volumns afterwards revised in a two volumn edition by D. Appleton, New York. He died near Springfield Mar 18 1891."
In the History of Sangamon County page 116 published by the Interstate Pub. Co. and mostly edited by James Powers is a sketch of Wm H. Herndon but it is not accurate. It places the date of his retirement from practice as 1867. Judge Creighton gives it properly as 1877. After the departure of Lincoln from Springfield, Feb. 11 1861, Herndon at Lincoln's insistent request kept the sign of Lincoln & Herndon swinging at his office stairway until after the death of the President.
His first partner was Chas S. Zane Spring 1861 who had married Miss Margaret Maxey in 1859. The firm name was Zam & Herndon. In 1867 Alfred Orendorff entered the office as junior partner. Upon the election of C. S. Zane to the bench the firm name was shortened to Herndon & Orendorff. In 1877 Herndon retired to his farm and James Creighton became the junior member of the firm of Orendorff & Creighton. Upon the election of Creighton to the bench
Robert H Patton became the junior member of Orendorff and Patton. and this continued until the death of Gen. Orendorff. Patton is the leader of the Prohibition party in Illinois and is one of the most successful lawyers in Springfield, being noted for his success as a jury trial attorney. This brief of the life and times of Wm H. Herndon brings us to 1877. My sketch brought the tale of the why and wherefore that led up to "Herndon's Life of Lincoln." Herndon lived a full life. A life that should be written by a truly friendly pen. His was a wonderfully comprehensive mind. He was an omniverous reader and thoroughly digested his books. His strength of character is shown by his standing by his guns on the question of slavery. A boy of 18 he stood out against his family
and anyone who stood up in opposition to Archer Herndon was a brave man. William Herndon came home and was virtually put out of the family circle, in fact he was actually put out.
He did not flinch from his punishment but took a job in a general store. The hours were not limited. From daylight in the morning until around 9 p.m. were customary hours of work in those days. But Herndon did not give up his studies and in 5 years he had saved up enough from his meagre salary to enable him to enter the law office of Logan & Lincoln, this was in 1842 and in 1844 Herndon was admitted to the bar. Let us take a glance backward and see how rapidly history was being shaped, it seems by the hand of providence.
Lincoln roomed with Maj Stuart at Vandalia in 1834 when both
were members of the Legislature. Major Stuart was attracted to Lincoln and as his mentor and teacher led Lincoln to the law. 1837 saw Lincoln a full fledged member of the bar of Sangamon Co. In 1837 Herndon had been yanked out of college and put on his own resources. Mar 13 1837 Lincoln left New Salem on a small pony borrowed from Bowling Green, his long legs nearly reaching the ground. Lincoln became a partner in the firm of Stuart & Lincoln in 1837 and Herndon was a clerk in a store. The Stuart Lincoln partnership ended in 1841 when Stuart went to Congress. Judge Logan snapped up Lincoln for a partner the same year 1841 and this partnership ended in 1843 because both partners were aspirants for Congress but during these years Herndon had entered the office as a student and upon the ending of the Logan and Lincoln, Herndon was asked
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by Lincoln to form a partnership. Seven years had made changes in Herndon. The boy barely past 18 who had taken his fate and his fortune into his own hands rather than yield an iota of his honest convictions was a partner of the most promising lawyer in Sangamon. Surely there must have been great natural powers in Herndon to have brought him so far forward in so short a time. Until the election of Lincoln in 1860 this firm forged steadily ahead. It was a priviledge to be taken into this office as a student, and the chance to read law under the tutelage of Lincoln and Herndon was eagerly sought. Herndon lacked the supreme effectiveness in the pleading of cases that was an outstanding characteristic of the Great American. Even here he was an important cog in
the machine by his natural ability as a reader and researcher. Herndon was a man of great vision. He could read between the lines and understand the undercurrents of events. He lived in an intense age. Passions were excited in an extreme degree and they found vent in the climax of 1861-1865.
The calm, farseeing statesmanship of Lincoln curbed Herndon during their close companionship, when the guiding brain was stilled forever there was no truer mourner than Herndon. Herndon had formed a partnership with C. S. Zane but it was to be merely a stop gap. When the assissins bullet ended the firm of Lincoln and Herndon it was a blow that the junior partner never recovered from.
I verily believe that the bullet that struck down Lincoln killed the amition of Herndon. He had lived with and for Lincoln for twenty of the best years of his life. And in a moment; in the twinkling of an eye, this great man whose fortunes he had followed so faithfully and so ably left him stranded an alone. This man of vision; this man of studious life and also of active endeavors; this man whom you might almost call a dreamer -- some called him fanatic; this man of many virtues and only few vices; this man in the prime of his powers and usefulness was dealt such a wound that he never recovered his former powers.
He had the trancendant bravery of sacrifice. He had that far reaching virtue of being true
to his friends and to his principles. Brave and true! Can we say more for any living man.
The life of Wm H. Herndon was slowing in its course from 1865-1877. Hail and Farewell. In 1891 they laid you to rest in Oak Ridge. I cannot end better than by quoting from an address of Herndon's last partner, Gen Alfred Orendorff. "May we not all be sustained by a comforting hope that the good night here will be followed in some fairer better clime by a welcome good morning: and may we not be uphild by an unfaltering trust that since God is just, that somehow, somewhere meet we must."
I am withholding my first and perhaps fuller sketch. If this will aid Mr Starr he is welcome. I am at his service to the extent of my knowledge.
Your as ever
Geo. Williams