Why Was Lincoln Murdered? by Otto Eisenschiml

Author:Otto Eisenschiml [Eisenschiml, Otto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781528760942
Google: CdUREAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Published: 2020-12-01T01:01:38+00:00

CHAPTER XXII

The Woman in the Case

THE center of interest in the trial was, of course, the woman in the case—Mrs. Mary E. Surratt. At that time this lady was about forty-five years of age. Newspaper reporters of the day described her according to their moods and affiliations, either as a handsome brunette, verging on obesity, or as a rather stupid-looking female with feline eyes that darted furtively from point to point.1 Her husband, John Harrison Surratt, at one time had made some money as a contractor and had bought a little farm ten miles south of Washington, where he had built a tavern. The tiny settlement of which Mr. Surratt became postmaster was named for him. Long before the war broke out, family troubles had arisen, and Mrs. Surratt became much concerned about the fate of her three children, Isaac, John and Anna. In a letter to her parish priest, written from Surrattsville, January 17, 1858, she said:

As Mr. Surratt will not send Isaac to [s]chool and I have sent him as long as I have any means I must now put him to doing of something to get his liveing and it seams imposible to get him a place in Washington. . . . O I hope Dear Father you will try and get him something to do as it will be so much better for him . . . O, I could not tell you what a time I see on this earth. I try to keep it all from the world on account of my poor Children. I have not had the pleasure of going to Church on Sunday for more than a year. I hope I shall be able to send John to [s]chool next year . . . 2

In 1862, John Harrison Surratt died. The slaves began to scatter after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Soldiers tore down fences and stole the livestock, and the widow decided to move to Washington and open a boardinghouse. She rented her farm and tavern to a man by the name of John M. Lloyd, who, several years before, had been a constable in Washington, but who by this time had degenerated into an inveterate drunkard.

After strenuous efforts through personal solicitation and newspaper advertisements, Mrs. Surratt succeeded in filling her boardinghouse fairly well. One of her earliest and steadiest boarders was a former theological student named Louis J. Wiechmann. He was a college mate of John Harrison Surratt, Jr., and a favorite with all the family, except possibly with Anna who on one occasion had seen fit to slap his face. According to Wiechmann’s own admission, Mrs. Surratt had treated him like her own son, and the two young men shared both room and bed. The Surratts were devout Catholics, and Wiechmann often accompanied Mrs. Surratt to church services. The uncontradicted testimony of all witnesses showed that Mrs. Surratt was a pious, industrious housewife, a devoted mother and a capable business woman.

John Surratt, Jr. was an avowed Secessionist and a dispatch bearer for the Confederate government.

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