Signatures of the Conspirators Revived

[Joe Gleason]

Thanks Laurie,
The name Spencer reminded me of a statement by Louis Wiechmann regarding Augustus Spencer Howell.

                                                               "This man fears the name Spencer very much. I know not why."

[Joe Gleason]

Thanks. Just curious.   

[Barry Cauchon]

Hey Dave and everyone: Forgive me for doing what I do best but I was looking at all these great signatures and noticed a considerable difference between the first two Mary Surratt signatures (the top one and the one from Blaine) and the third one noted as "From Mary's letter to John Nothey". The first two are a clear match but the Nothey version is just not the same signature. Thoughts!
Barry

[Thomas Thorne]

     I read that Sarah Slater died c. 1880.    I therefore don't understand the notarized last will of 1920.   Please enlighten  me. 
           Tom

[John Stanton]

Tom - so glad you asked. This is the kind of an error that I think should go into a suggested "Assassination Facts  Post". (See April 9)

In 1881, Sarah's husband, Rowan Slater, wrote a letter to his brother, James A. Slater, and said that he had heard "that Sarah had died" and wanted to know the details. This has led many people to believe that she did die, with no more proof than that.

Recent research that I put into an article for the "Surratt Courier"explains the whole story.  It came out in two issues last year. If you haven't seen it, Laurie can work something out for you, or I can provide the information privately. I am reluctant to put it here because this Forum is now available on Google. Even though the material is copyrighted, I don't want it put on a billboard.

However, briefly,  Sarah lived beyond 1880. She divorced Rowan, and Married again. That husband died, and she married again to a Spencer. She lived the remainder of her life as Spencer. This is all well supported with court records, and not a bit of hear-say and is available to you as a member here.

[Barry Cauchon]

Hi Laurie: Great thought about the Nothey letter. Assuming Weichmann did write and sign Mary Surratt's name to it, does anyone have a signature of Weichmann that we can compare it to. Makes for a fun little project. Nothing heavy! Barry
B

[Dave Taylor]

Ask and you shall receive, Barry.  Here is Louis Weichmann's signature:



I think both you and Laurie are absolutely correct about the Nothey letter being written by Weichmann.  Here is the Nothey letter signature again, along with a part of a letter Weichmann wrote to Col. Burnett while he was imprisoned.  In the letter he writes additional facts that he wishes to attach to his previous statements.  He wrote "Mrs. Surratt" many times in this letter:

Nothey letter:

Weichmann letter to Burnett:


These two look like the same hand to me.  Good catch, Barry.

I also think one of the signatures I put up for John Surratt Jr. is probably the signature of a secretary at the Baltimore Steam Packet company instead.  Blaine provided a bold handwritten letter and signature from 1901, which is quite at odds with the 1908 signature at the end of a typed letter that I previously found.

1901:

1908:


I don't think the 1908 one is genuine.

[Jim Page]

Amazing, Dave.

I do think, though, that both the Surratt sigs are from the same hand; the difference is in the pen nib. Look at the "urratt" and see if they don't look the same to you.

--Jim

[rich smyth]

http://www.fold3.com/annotations_name/peter/421_440/

Signatures at Fold3

[Dave Taylor]

I get practically all of my signatures from Fold3, but I make sure they come from items actually written by that person.  This Fold3 user has done a great job identifying and digitizing the names, but most of these are not written by the person identified.

For example, on the first page of the link there are two Louis Weichmann signatures, but neither of them were actually written by Weichmann.  Rather, they were written by the people taking his statement or in random lists of prisoners.  Helpful, but you have to look at the source document to see if it was actually written and signed by the person.

[rich smyth]

I guess that is why they are listed under annotations instead of signatures.