From Out of the Top Hat: A Blog from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum

To only a handful of individuals interested in the Lincoln assassination, the name of Nathan Simms evokes quizzical looks.  Simms is one of several individuals who claimed to have held the reins of John Wilkes Booth’s horse on the night of April 14, 1865.  Dr. Edward Steers ably demonstrates the problems with Simms’s claims and credits John “Peanut” Burroughs as the rightful holder of Booth’s horse on that fateful night.  But if Simms was mistaken about his role on April 14, 1865, it might be premature to dismiss his connection to the assassination.

A letter by architect Walter F. Price to President Herbert Hoover suggests that Simms — misspelled as “Sims” throughout the letter — worked for Mary Surratt.  Beyond the new information on Simms, Mr. Price also enclosed three photographs to provide additional visual reference of this obscure individual.  The text of the February 3, 1931, letter follows:

“Some weeks ago I went to Marshalton, Chester County, Pa., to visit an old Meeting House; the aged care-taker as I was leaving pointed to a frame House in the edge of the village.  He said ‘in that house lived a colored man named Nathan Sims; when he was about seventeen he held a horse for J. Wilkes Booth while he went into the theatre to assassinate President Lincoln.’

Nathan Simms, in Pennsylvania, 1931 – Mary Surratt’s former slave?

“On the 9^th of January last I went again to Marshalton about four miles west of West Chester and called at his house.  A mulatto woman came to the door and said she was Mrs. Nathan Sims, then added that her husband was in the village getting slop.  On my inquiry as to how I should know him, she said he will be carrying two buckets.  Within five minutes I met him with his buckets; he admitted he was the Nathan Sims who held the horse for Booth.  I turned to walk back with him to his house.  He seemed shy and taciturn.  To my question as to whether he was the slave of Mrs. Surratt, he said he had been, but later in our short talk, he referred as to having been her bond servant.  Of Mrs. Surratt he said only, the soldiers came and bundled her up and took her away.  I don’t know what became of her.  Near his house I had him stand for his picture by his pump.  I took a second picture, trying to secure a little better light on his face.

“I went again on the 25^th of January and took a promised picture.  In the town I asked for an old and reliable citizen, and was referred to a Mr. Peterson, who said relative to N. Sims’ veracity, that from his knowledge of the man, he felt sure we could depend on anything he might say.  Just as I reached the house he came around the corner and I gave him the picture and asked more questions.  For example; who are his parents?  He replied they were slaves of Dr. Gunton of Maryland.  There were several boys in the family and as he was not needed, he was bound over by his master to Mrs. Surratt, and that he worked for her on her ‘big’ farm at Surrattville, where she had much property.  He finished by saying that he had lived in Marshalton thirty-six years.”

Nathan Simms may not have held Booth’s horse but he clearly seems to be connected to Mary Surratt.  To this extent, he is worth knowing more about as an historical actor.

Springfield eagerly anticipated the presidential visit by Herbert Hoover to rededicate the remodeled Lincoln Tomb on June 17, 1931.  In advance of the visit, Hoover received an unusual request from famed Lincoln collector Oliver R. Barrett proposing an offer that he hoped the president could not refuse.  Writing on June 2, 1931, Barrett declared:

“I have the door plate which, during Mr. Lincoln’s residence in Springfield, was on the front door of his home.  Enclosed you will find a photostat of the contemporaneous description of the door plate with the print of the Lincoln Home.  A similar description has appeared in one of the Bulletins of The Lincoln Centennial Association.

“I have been requested to permit a reproduction to be made and replaced upon the door.  I think, however, it would be more fitting to have the original plate restored to its old place upon the door of the Lincoln home by you on the occasion of your visit to Springfield.

In the 1930s, gentlemen traded around the door plate of this self-made gentleman.

“I have always made it a rule that nothing should go out of my Lincoln collection unless in exchange for some other desirable item which might be added to it.  If you would be willing to write your answer to this letter in longhand and send also an appreciation of Lincoln written and signed in longhand, I would be glad to give you the door plate in exchange and when restored by you, it would be unnecessary to make any reference to its former ownership.

“If you have a short appreciation of Lincoln already written, it will serve.  If not, I would prefer to have you write on one of the enclosed sheets (the other you may retain if you wish).  You will note the former ownership of these sheets by holding to the light to observe the water-mark.

“If you choose to write some thought or excerpt from your address which is to be delivered at the Lincoln Monument, it will not be necessary for you to send the appreciation to me until after the address has been delivered.

“I am sure that Mr. Logan Hay of The Lincoln Centennial Association, Springfield, Illinois, will be very glad to have the door prepared to receive the plate before your arrival.

“In the event of your answer to my letter, I would like to have you address it to my son, Roger Watson Barrett, who, although only fifteen years of age, is, in reality, the owner of the plate which I have brought together.”

Although Barrett’s offer was “very much appreciated,” Hoover, through his secretary Lawrence Richey, respectfully declined the offer.  What happened next to the door plate is murky.  The Illinois State Historical Library (now called the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) received it from Jesse Jay Ricks, another Chicago collector, in 1938 but without fanfare.  Paul Angle, director of the Library, placed a note on the box indicating that the Library was not to admit owning the original unless the copy on the door of the Lincoln Home was stolen.  Ricks was a prominent collector in his own right and perhaps made a swap with Barrett that placed the door plate into his possession.

Barrett’s son, Roger, later went on to a prominent legal career of his own, first as one of the legal team at the Nuremberg Trials and later with the prominent Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown & Platt.

Although Abraham Lincoln predates Sigmund Freud, the Illinois lawyer did write to famed Cincinnati physician Dr. Daniel Drake for help during his emotional crisis of  “the hypo” in 1841.  If Drake replied to Lincoln’s letter, it has never surfaced.  Since then, both professionals and amateurs have tried to explain Lincoln’s personality.  One particular incident led a number of individuals to lobby President Herbert Hoover to intervene.  The incident is instructive because of both the prominent persons involved and Hoover’s response.

In life, Lincoln was deemed 'crazy' mainly by secessionists; in death, mainly by psychiatrists. This now-reupholstered couch was on his funeral train.

Dr. Abraham Arden Brill (1874-1948) announced that he planned to deliver a paper at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in Toronto, Canada, on June 5, 1931, in which he would characterize Abraham Lincoln as a “schizoid-manic personality.”  Brill was hardly a quack.  Rather, he provided the first English translations of Sigmund Freud’s work, introducing into the American lexicon such Freudian concepts as transference, repression, displacement, and unconscious.  Brill founded the New York Psychoanalytic Society and served for a time as head of the psychiatry clinic at Columbia University before going into private practice.  He is widely known for advising famous public relations guru Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995) on how to overcome the stigma that surrounded women smoking cigarettes.  Brill suggested that cigarettes be viewed as “torches of freedom.”  Bernays hired a number of young models to march in the 1929 New York City Easter Parade, and on his cue they each lit a Lucky Strike in front of a group of photographers he had assembled.  The women’s “torches of freedom” were lit as a protest against male domination, but also to help Bernays’s sponsor, the American Tobacco Company, promote its most popular cigarette brand to a new audience — women.

Brill’s characterization of Lincoln as a “schizoid-manic personality” immediately drew the ire of fellow psychiatrist Dr. Edward Everett Hicks, senior physician of the psychopathic department of Kings County (i.e., Brooklyn) Hospital, New York.  Hicks was an avid history buff and a member of both the Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of Mayflower Descendants.  He made a formal protest to the American Psychiatric Association regarding Brill’s intended paper and received the assistance of F. Walter Mueller, Eastern Division Sales Manager for the Continental Lithograph Corporation.  It was Mueller who took it upon himself to write to Lawrence Richey, Secretary to President Hoover, seeking to obtain a Presidential request to suppress Brill’s paper from being delivered in Canada.

The media enjoyed the brief controversy because it provided entertaining copy.  An unidentified instructor of psychology declared: “Some of our psychiatrists and psychologists seem to get so saturated with abnormal in their practice that they lost the normal point of view.  They then get a compulsion to pigeonhole all persons, and especially eminent men in the routine psychiatric categories.”  One less-kind reaction goaded Hicks: “I hope you hit the illustrious gentleman [Brill] in the solar plexus, and once for me too.”  Hicks offered the following assessment of Brill to the press:  “I understand Dr. Brill is an alien.  If he was not born here and was permitted to become a citizen, it seems very bad taste for him to criticize a man of the caliber of Lincoln.  If psychiatrists would modify some of their fantastic theories and apply more common sense, the American public would have greater respect for them.  Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts ought to be analyzed themselves and classified as to the types they belong to.”  Hicks was reminded by the reporter that “you’re a psychiatrist too.”  Hicks replied with a laconic “yes” — and smiled.

President Hoover idolized Abraham Lincoln but wanted no part in the controversy.  Lawrence Richey replied to F. Walter Mueller’s letter, indicating that “The matter of an address before a scientific association in another country is not, it seems to me, within the purview of the President’s duties.”  Brill delivered his paper on Lincoln, one which people have since little noted nor long remembered.

In the mid-19^th century the mass production of prints and images allowed average citizens to own scenes and portraits that might serve as sources of inspiration.  One such example is the Alexander H. Ritchie print of Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s painting of First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet.  The print was wildly popular.  Although sales figures are lacking for this period, the number of prints that can be found today online and at flea markets shows that it was widely disseminated.

One individual who purchased a copy was Herbert Hoover’s grandfather Eli.  The following narrative was written by the 31^st President (who served from 1929 to 1933) and attached to the back of the framed print that now hangs in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum in West Branch, Iowa.  The reader should note that duringHoover’s term as president, the print hung above the very fireplace depicted within the print.

Inspiration: from Lincoln to Carpenter to Ritchie to Hoover to …

“This print is from the Carpenter painting which hangs in the House of Representatives in Washington.  The painting was made from life.  The scene is Lincoln’s study in the White House.  The fireplace in the background is the same today and is easily identified.  The figures in the painting were sketched in by Carpenter in the study but he did the detailed portrait work in the East Room.  The prints were a part of every Midwest household for years after the Civil War.

“This copy was given to my father Jessie Hoover by his father Eli Hoover soon after my father was married and set up housekeeping in the little cottage at West Branch in about 1871.  Thereafter this picture was probably there when I was born.  After my mother’s death in 1879, the print was kept by an uncle Allan Hoover until his death in about 1922 when it went to his brother Davis Hoover.  Uncle Davis gave it to me with the above history in 1927.  It hung in my study at 2300 S Street, Washington, D.C., until 1929, when Mrs. Hoover removed it to the White House where it hung over the same mantel which appears in the picture.  It remained there for four years until 1933.  It was then removed to Palo Alto, and was brought back to my apartment in Waldorf Towers [on Park Avenue in New York] in 1945.  Thus its history seems clear for about 75 years!”

Long before Jackie Kennedy refurbished the White House in the early 1960s, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover extensively documented the White House rooms and furnishings in photographs.  She and President Hoover also converted the Lincoln Bedroom back into the original study and cabinet room as depicted in Ritchie’s print. Hoover used this as his private study and spent numerous hours in it conducting the affairs of state.  In a search for the original furnishings, a number of items turned up, only to be eliminated after careful research.  Four side chairs were the only items that could be reasonably ascertained as coming from the Lincoln presidency.  Undoubtedly, Abraham Lincoln remained Hoover’s inspiration for presidential leadership.

The first part of the post was published on May 30, 2011.

In April 1865 everyone knew that temporary quarters were needed for the immediate housing of Lincoln’s remains along with those of his departed sons Willie and Eddie. Willie’s casket accompanied Lincoln’s back to Springfield from Washington and was carried out to Oak Ridge Cemetery with Lincoln’s on May 4, 1865, both being placed in the temporary receiving vault in the cemetery.

Edward Baker Lincoln had been buried in Hutchinson Cemetery in 1850. This was a six-acre area immediately west of the old four-acre city graveyard. As Springfield grew, Hutchinson Cemetery was no longer sufficient, having become surrounded by town development. In 1856 the original portion of it was closed to further burials, and by 1866 all burials in these grounds were closed and all the bodies were removed to Oak Ridge.

At Oak Ridge what began as a modest 28 acres in the late 1850s eventually encompassed 115 acres of scenic rolling hills. City officials followed the national trend of placing cemeteries in bucolic rural settings outside of the noise and commotion of daily life. Cemeteries became places where people could commune with nature and see that life, like nature, was cyclical.

The pastoral setting chosen by Mary Lincoln; far from the hubbub of 2nd Street and Jackson

The formal dedication of Oak Ridge occurred on May 24, 1860, and was a major public event that Abraham and Mary Lincoln likely attended. Mary vividly recalled a conversation with her husband shortly before his death as they were taking a carriage ride. Approaching an old country graveyard, Lincoln turned to her and said: “Mary, you are younger than I. You will survive me. When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet place like this.” This memory of Lincoln’s burial preference became the source of controversy between Mrs. Lincoln and the National Lincoln Monument Association in 1865.

The Association began negotiations to acquire property in the Mather block, a site near Springfield’s public square and visible from the Chicago and Alton Railroad tracks. A temporary receiving vault was begun with the intent that Lincoln’s remains would reside there, not at Oak Ridge. Mrs. Lincoln objected, and her cousin John Todd Stuart consented to her immediate wishes that Abraham and Willie Lincoln’s bodies reside in the temporary vault at Oak Ridge. Most Association members continued to push for the construction of the permanent monument on the Mather property and hoped to persuade Mrs. Lincoln of the merits of their position.

She refused to meet with them and gave the Association an ultimatum: either build the permanent tomb in Oak Ridge, or else she would have her husband’s remains removed to Chicago or to George Washington’s crypt in the United States Capitol. While there had been some talk immediately following Lincoln’s death that his remains should be placed in Washington’s crypt, nothing was done. The overwhelming indicators had favored Springfield. But now it appeared that the dispute between Mary Lincoln and the Association might identify the memory of Lincoln with someplace other than Springfield. Jesse Fell, one of Lincoln’s closest associates, warned the Association that they should defer to Mrs. Lincoln on the subject lest their efforts be seen as tending “more to the enhanced value of town lots than to the dictates of patriotism.”

On June 14, 1865, a vote of the board of directors decided to concede to Mrs. Lincoln’s wishes that the monument be built in Oak Ridge. This vote passed by a slim margin of 8 to 7. The City of Springfield donated the land, and a temporary receiving vault was completed by December to free up the space in the cemetery’s public receiving vault. The remains of Abraham, Willie, and Eddie were all placed in the private temporary vault that month. Mary had carried out her husband’s wishes for “a quiet place.”

Recently, the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site resurrected the Lincoln Monument Association to serve as a support group for the Lincoln Tomb as well as the War Memorials within Oak Ridge Cemetery.  In referencing the original National Lincoln Monument Association, it is worth reviewing the goals and purposes of the founding organization.

According to her certificate, Susan Torrence became one of thousands who contributed 50 cents to help build the Monument.

Planning that had been undertaken by committee required something more permanent for addressing the long-term issues of designing, funding, constructing, and maintaining an appropriate memorial to Abraham Lincoln.  While committees continued to address the immediate needs of Lincoln’s funeral arrangements, a group of 13 which later expanded to 15 members drew up articles of incorporation.  On May 11, 1865, The National Lincoln Monument Association came into existence as a voluntary society.  Their mission was “to construct a Monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, in the city of Springfield, State of Illinois.”  A board of directors was created who would serve a term of 20 years.

The board elected four officers to direct the affairs of the Association.  Governor Richard J. Oglesby was the clear favorite for President.  Jesse K. Dubois, who was a neighbor of Lincoln’s and long-time political associate, became Vice President.  Clinton L. Conkling, a friend of Robert Todd Lincoln and son of James C. Conkling, was elected secretary but not a member of the Association board.  He stepped down at the end of 1865 and was replaced by O. M. Hatch.  James H. Beveridge, who served as the Illinois State Treasurer under Governor Oglesby, became treasurer for the National Lincoln Monument Association.

More than elections occurred at the May 11^th meeting.  Bylaws were approved to govern the Association, “agents appointed to collect funds, agricultural and horticultural societies called on to contribute, and the Treasurer directed to invest funds — which were already beginning to reach the treasury — in United States securities.”  A great deal of progress had been made in a very short period of time.  But just as things appeared to be in good order, an incident occurred that threatened to undo the entire project.  (To be continued.)

THE NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Oglesby was a political associate of Lincoln’s.  He gained honor and distinction for his service in the Civil War, returning to Illinois to be elected Governor in 1864.

Orlin H. Miner served as Illinois State Auditor under Governor Oglesby.

John Todd Stuart served in the Illinois legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, and was a leading lawyer in Illinois.

Jesse K. Dubois served in the Illinois legislature, was receiver of the U.S. Land Office, then Auditor for the State of Illinois, and was a close associate of Lincoln.

James C. Conkling served as mayor of Springfield, in the Illinois legislature, and was a leading lawyer and businessman in the city.

John Williams was a banker.

Jacob Bunn was a banker and eventually became Mrs. Lincoln’s conservator.

Sharon Tyndale served as Illinois Secretary of State under Governor Oglesby.

Newton Bateman was Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois and was a friend of Abraham Lincoln.

Samuel H. Treat served as a Judge of the U.S. Court for Illinois.

Ozias Mather Hatch served as Illinois Secretary of State and was a close political confidant and ally to Abraham Lincoln.

S. H. Melvin was a prominent merchant, banker, and railroad man.

James H. Beveridge served as Illinois Treasurer for Governor Oglesby.

Thomas J. Dennis was mayor of Springfield and an accomplished architect.

David L. Phillips served as the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Illinois.

Everyone loves a winner, which may account for the continuous battle over who owns the Lincoln story.  Three states — Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois — claim to have been crucial influences upon Abraham Lincoln during his formative years.  The Illinois General Assembly wisely adopted the slogan “Land of Lincoln” in 1955 and had it placed on license plates, ensuring its wide promotion.  To make certain that no other state would infringe on the claim, Congress passed a special act that same year giving Illinois the exclusive use to the phrase “Land of Lincoln.” 

Writers have also been territorial about the Sixteenth President.  John G. Nicolay, Lincoln’s private secretary, was incensed at Ida Tarbell in the 1890s when he discovered that she intended to write a popular biography of Abraham Lincoln.  Nicolay, having recently finished a 10-volume Lincoln biography with John Hay, protested to Tarbell that “you are invading my field.”  His real concern was that a competing Lincoln biography diminishes “the value of my property.”

Not the same old Lincoln story for a new book and movie, opening June 2012.

Perhaps only a handful of Lincoln books have made the kind of sales that give one pause.  Carl Sandburg, David Herbert Donald, and Doris Kearns Goodwin come immediately to mind.  The recent announcements that two feature-length films are now in production — Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, a loosely based adaptation of the Goodwin bestseller — recalls an earlier era when two other Lincoln films were in production at the same time.

 Starring Raymond Massey, Robert Sherwood’s play Abe Lincoln in Illinois was a Broadway hit in the fall of 1938.  New York critics and audiences applauded Massey’s dramatic interpretation of a young Abraham Lincoln.  Hollywood frequently took Broadway hits and quickly turned them into motion pictures.  RKO Pictures wasted no time in purchasing the film rights and began production.  Little did they know that screenwriter Howard Estabrook had written a screenplay in 1935 for Fox Film Corporation entitled Young Lincoln.  But production ceased when Fox merged with Twentieth Century to become Twentieth Century-Fox.  Screenwriter Lamar Trotti, who had finished production of a biopic on Alexander Graham Bell in November 1938, then began rewriting Estabrook’s script, which had taken on the new title Lawyer of the West.  Darryl Zanuck, the producer of the film, changed the name of the film to Young Mr. Lincoln.

The competing Lincoln films resulted in a lawsuit in which Robert Sherwood sued Twentieth Century-Fox.  Sherwood claimed that the Twentieth Century-Fox film was a blatant facsimile of Sherwood’s play, using the same plot elements, a similar title, and similar promotional campaign, and drawing upon the popularity of Lincoln created by Sherwood’s play.  Sherwood said that “there was little public interest in any portion of the life of Lincoln” until his play generated a widespread public awareness.  In many respects, Sherwood’s assertions were similar to those of John G. Nicolay: “you are invading my field” and diminishing “the value of my property.”

Twentieth Century-Fox countered with the obvious fact that Lincoln’s historical life was in the public domain.  All of the facts and events relating to Lincoln’s life would be similar in any biographical film.  Moreover, the claim that Lincoln was unknown to the larger public until Sherwood’s play appeared was easily dismissed with an abridged listing of films and major plays and books published on Lincoln from 1900 to 1939.  Among those dealing with Lincoln’s early life were Carl Sandburg’s 2-volume work The Prairie Years (1926), D. W. Griffith’s 1930 film Abraham Lincoln, and John Drinkwater’s 1919 hit play Abraham Lincoln.  The court sided with Twentieth Century-Fox, allowing the John Ford film that starred Henry Fonda to move toward release a year before Abe Lincoln in Illinois.  And Sherwood need not have worried, since both films were eagerly embraced by audiences.

The February 1994 cover of Scientific American showed a publicity photograph of Marilyn Monroe, from the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, arm and arm with an 1863 image of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner.  The purpose of the cover was to show how digital photography could create photographic images for events that never happened.  Lacking a film negative as reference, digital images make it impossible to distinguish between a scene that reflects an actual event and one that digitally creates a mythical event.

Although Marilyn Monroe never met Abraham Lincoln as depicted on the cover of Scientific American, she did admire him and on at least four occasions was photographed with images of Lincoln or with the greatest popularizer of Lincoln, Carl Sandburg.  The number of biographies of her pales in comparison with those devoted to Abraham Lincoln, but a theme common in most is that she looked upon Lincoln as the father she never knew in childhood.  During a visit to Bryant Cottage in Bement, Illinois, in August 1955, Marilyn Monroe told a reporter, “I have honored and admired Mr. Lincoln since I first heard about him.  As a child, he represented sort of a father to me.  But then I guess he does for everyone in the U.S.”   Her appearance generated a crowd of 10,000 curious onlookers.  Bringing in tow her own photographer, Eve Arnold, Monroe had her visit documented at the house museum where legend, not historical documentation, claims that Lincoln and Douglas met to establish the schedule for debates in 1858.

Bust of Carl Sandburg by Joseph Konzal, ca. 1955. Previously owned by Marilyn Monroe. Part of the Taper Collection now owned by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The earliest image of Monroe and Lincoln was taken in 1954 by the famed photographer Milton H. Greene.  It shows Monroe standing in a Cadillac convertible holding up a framed photograph of Abraham Lincoln.  The car was a gift from Jack Benny for Monroe’s appearance on his television show The Jack Benny Program.  Milton’s son, Joshua, created a limited edition of 500 copies of this famous photograph that were each stamped, numbered, and signed.  He presented one such copy in 2007 to the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Len Steckler, a New York City photographer, took a series of three images of Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sandburg in his apartment in December 1961.  Steckler had studied photography with, among others, Edward Steichen, Carl Sandburg’s brother-in-law.  As a photographer, Steckler was called upon to capture images of many celebrities, and he soon formed a friendship with Sandburg.  Steckler also became acquainted with Marilyn Monroe.  These professional relationships led to the meeting between the 35-year-old Monroe and the 83-year-old Sandburg. 

The last meeting between Monroe and Sandburg took place in January 1962 in Hollywood.  Arnold Newman, the legendary New York photographer, was at the small gathering that included Monroe and Sandburg.  Seven images from that evening survive, including one that shows Sandburg teaching Monroe breathing exercises, although most people would conclude that they are dancing.  Monroe had trouble sleeping, and, according to Sandburg, breathing properly would help.

An interesting reference to Lincoln is found in the 1960 George Cukor film Let’s Make Love, starring Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand.  The basic plot has a playboy billionaire businessman, played by Montand, attending a rehearsal in Greenwich Village of the independent Let’s Make Love musical theater company.  The director/producer of the show mistakenly thinks Montand is an actor look-alike of the billionaire who wants a part in the show.  Montand pretends to be an actor to woo Marilyn Monroe, only to find it difficult at the end of the film to prove his true identity.  Worried that Montand is delusional, Monroe provides the following bit of advice:

“There used to be an actor, he played Abraham Lincoln for so many years.  He grew his own beard.  He went around in a shawl.  And you know what they used to say?

He looks like Lincoln, talks like Lincoln.  But he won’t be satisfied until he gets shot.”

It would be interesting to know if Monroe had a hand in adding this reference to the script.  Certainly she was one of Lincoln’s biggest fans.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln employed a number of hired servants over the almost two decades at their Springfield residence.  Among the many individuals who served them was a black house servant named Epsy Smith.  Her association with the Lincoln family undoubtedly accounts for this lengthy obituary that appeared in the
(Springfield) Illinois State Journal, on Tuesday, May 10, 1892, p. 1, col. 6:

                                        SHE WORKED FOR LINCOLN

                                        Death of a Negress Who Knew
                                        Much About Father Abraham.
                                        Aunt Epsy Smith Passes Away in a Rick-
                                        etty Tenement House in Chicago –
                                        Her Eventful History.

“It was in one of the dilapidated old frame tenement houses on Dearborn St. near Sixteenth, Chicago, where the rattle and roar of constantly passing trains never cease, and where such a thing as a garbage cart or street sweeper is unknown, that “Aunt” Epsy Smith died.  It was near 1 o’clock Sunday morning that she breathed her last.  She was of African descent and unknown, so to speak, in the great metropolis, but she had an eventful life — one of almost historic interest.

The 1835 indenture for Hepsey, a mulatto girl who worked for the Ninian W. Edwards family and, she explained, for the Lincoln family.

Away back in 1827 she was a protégé of Ninian Edwards, at the time governor of Illinois.  She was present at the wedding of Abraham and Mary Todd, and after the wedding was a servant in Lincoln’s home.  She nursed Robert T. Lincoln, the present minister to the court of St. James, when he was a baby.  Her death was caused by the grip, from which she had been suffering since last March.  Her exact age is not known, for she was born a slave and no record of birth was made.  But as near as could be told she was about 72 years old.

Epsy Arnsby Smith was her name in full and she was born on the plantation of Arnold Spear, near Shelbyville, Ky.  The Spears were old friends of Ninian Edwards and shortly after his election as governor Mrs. Spears visited the family and brought Epsy, who was at that time 7 or 8 years old, along as a waiting maid.  She was bright and active and the governor took a liking to her, and when Mrs. Spears was getting ready to return home, she gave the child to him.

When Epsy was a miss, Miss Mary Todd, Mrs. Edwards’ sister, came from Kentucky to live with the governor’s family.  About this time Abraham Lincoln became a frequent visitor at the governor’s mansion and he generally asked for Miss Todd.  It was Epsy’s duty to answer the call and in after years she used to tell her children and grandchildren how she used to usher “Massa Linkum” into the house when he was “a cortin’ Mistus Mary.”

She witnessed the wedding ceremony when Lincoln was married, and during the first few years of his married life she was his house servant.  Then she became engaged to Robert Smith, a colored man living in Vandalia.  Shortly before her wedding she came back to live with the family of Governor Edwards and was married at his house by the minister who performed the ceremony for Lincoln.  And the dress she wore on that occasion, a black brocaded silk, was a present from Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln.

Years rolled by: Lincoln was elected president; the war came and the slaves of the south were freed.  Among the first negroes to come north was “Aunt” Epsy’s father, and the proudest day of his life was when his daughter told him that she had worked for the man who had set him free.

 In 1861 her husband died and then she sold her little home and moved to Greenville, where she lived with her daughter Mrs. Julia Barbee, until last March, when she went to Chicago to live with another daughter, Mrs. Catherine Jackson, 1630 Dearborn street.  Mrs. Jakie Smith, also her daughter, went with her.  She had been there but a few days when she became ill with the grip.  Enfeebled by old age she lingered along until Sunday morning, when she was taken with a spasm and died.  As there was no physician in attendance at the time of her death the matter was reported to Lieutenant Gallagher of the armory, who notified the coroner.

After relating the story of her mother’s life Sunday night Mrs. Smith spoke of the anxiety the poor old “mammie” felt lest she should not be buried by the side of her dead husband in the old graveyard at Vandalia. “But we are too poor to send the body there,” she continued, “and I am afraid her dying request cannot be granted.  I know if Massa Robert Lincoln were here he would help us.  But then he is so far away we can’t let him know

 The funeral will be held today from the dingy tenement house where the old woman died.”

The question arises, Was Epsy Smith the same person as an indentured mulatto girl named Hepsey?  Indentures were contractual relationships in which minors were taught employable skills in return for having their basic needs provided.  Ninian Wirt Edwards, who would become Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law, signed an indenture of apprenticeship on October 29, 1835, for Hepsey, who was described as “a mulatto girl aged eleven years …having no parent or guardian.”  Edwards agreed to provide her “good holesome (sic) and sufficient meat drink washing lodging and apparel suitable and proper for such an apprentice and needful medical attention in care of sickness and will cause her to be instructed in the best way and most approved manner of domestic housewifery and will cause her to be taught to read and at the expiration of her term of service will give unto her a new bible and two new suits of clothes suitable and proper for summer and winter wear.”  This arrangement lasted until Hepsey’s 18^th birthday. 

Most leading families in Springfield used hired help.  Indentures from the period of the 1830s and 1840s showed that blacks and “mulattos” were the source of this hired help.  If Edwards was using a phonetic spelling for Hepsey, there is little difference between Hepsey and Epsy.  (The same is true with early Lincoln campaign biographies that confused Abram with Abraham.)  That Epsy was clearly part of the Edwards household and witnessed the Lincoln marriage suggests that Elizabeth sent Hepsey to work for her sister Mary after her service ended with the Edwards family.  In fact, Hepsey and Epsy were undoubtedly one and the same.

If Abraham and Mary Lincoln were largely responsible for destroying their own family papers before leaving for Washington, D.C., in 1861, then what did Robert T. Lincoln burn in later years?  Fortunately for historians he wrote down a listing of destroyed documents, in a volume sold as Burr’s Library Index.  His index was created to navigate through his extensive retained correspondence files.  Near the end of the volume there is an entry with the cryptic heading “Papers burned in 1895 and after.”  It is worth transcribing the entire contents of that list, in order to give insight into Robert Lincoln’s behavior.

Robert Lincoln’s list of ‘Papers burned in 1895 & after’

Papers burned in 1895 and after

All my family letters
All M.L. letters of 1875-6
Cheques, 1869-87 incl. 88-89-90-91 & 92
Rects [receipts] 1870-87 incl. 88-89
Washington House lease and papers
Old S&L Docket
All M.H.L. Cheques

Dec 98  All Cash books and ledgers except those current
Dec 00  Old Telephone & Gas Company papers
Dec 03  1897 Res [residential] repair and alterations receipts
Nov 03  Letters to R.T.L. 1877/1879
May 1911  Letters to R.T.L. Since to now—except 10 cases sifted letters kept
May 1911  All Receipts except my late ones
Oct 1913  All Hildene building correspondence
Oct 10-14  All but half a dozen old letters to R.T.L. while attor(?) from Chicago
Oct 10-14  All cheques up to 1905

The list clearly shows that Robert destroyed not his father’s papers, but his own.  It was a common practice to destroy personal letters of a private nature, which accounts for burning the correspondence between himself and his wife.  The period of 1875-6 follows his mother’s confinement and conservatorship, which was undoubtedly a difficult period for both mother and son.  But Robert did not destroy all of these letters, as is evident from the materials that comprise “the insanity file” he kept as a separate folder (the basis for a book published in 1986).  Everything else were things he no longer needed, such as old cancelled checks and business correspondence, materials that most people today put through a shredder rather than burn.

It is likely that Robert lost some of his father’s papers in the 1871 Chicago Fire, or at least he used that fire as an excuse.  In response to one autograph seeker, Robert responded: “I am not the possessor of any autograph letter of my father.  Everything of that kind owned by me was burned in the Chicago Fire.”  When thieves broke into the stable adjoining Robert’s Chicago mansion, he dismissed the matter, claiming the items were “a great many old odds and ends such as books, possibly letters, and that class of things which a man hardly knows what to do with, and yet is very averse to destroying.”

Nicolas Murray Butler’s claim, after Robert’s death, that he prevented Robert from destroying his father’s letters feeds a popular notion of Robert as cold, calculating, and secretive.  Those who knew Robert found him much like his father, and certainly no son did more to patiently deal with the endless requests for a document signed by Abraham Lincoln, endorse a book or painting about Abraham Lincoln, or satisfy the curiosity of the general public who wanted to know his father’s likes and dislikes.  Too much of Abraham Lincoln’s life was already on display for public consumption to be altered by a conspiracy to burn his papers.  The most damning accusations were not contained in Lincoln’s letters but in the published recollections of his associates and friends that lack any independent verification.  It is time to let this conspiracy charge go up in smoke.