The Macabre Saga of Ogarita Booth Henderson
Show on mapBy J.T. Colfax
Stone Opera House Stage Door: Where Ogarita Booth Henderson and her husband, Al, worked with the Floy Crowell troupe.
Editor’s Note: What follows is what will hopefully become a series of articles from Mr. J.T. Colfax, resident of Binghamton, New York. In late 2006, J.T. found an entrance to a tunnel in his backyard. Since then, he has followed the path of the tunnel, from the top of Mt. Prospect, to the bowels of downtown Binghamton. The incredible stories tell about a place little-seen by Binghamton residents, but which includes a history of prohibition-era rum-running, mysterious deaths, and … as you will see in this article … the transplantation of an entire cemetery. Think of this as an early Halloween treat. Enjoy.
Bubbling forth now is the story of two cemeteries. One, the Binghamton City Cemetery, obliterated by commerce over 100 years ago; the other, Glenwood Cemetery, with a history of neglect stretching equally as long. They were five miles apart, but in 1907, their stories joined together when 1,330 bodies were evicted from the City Cemetery and carted by a team of drays through the freezing winter streets of Binghamton to rest at Glenwood Cemetery.
Mixed within this grisly drama, we give a heavy spotlight to the story of Ogarita Booth Henderson, a resident of Glenwood Cemetery since 1892. Her story will be accorded and afforded the star power to out-shadow the stories of hallowed, forgotten, and neglected lands.
The cemetery stories will follow in more precision and in keeping with this site’s emphasis on LAND. She is an inmate in a beautiful hilltop cemetery on a low-key mountain named Prospect.
The Rita Booth material that follows will be short on words for this reason. There just isn’t enough good information available. Her story will be interpreted here in the merest of nutshells. You will be soon bombarded with photographic depictions of articles related to her death in Binghamton, and you will see that none of them allow you to fully settle in to an understanding of her claim to be the daughter of Lincoln’s “assassinator.”
For now, go into the digital world of factoid presentation. What follows, in a series of photographs of articles, probably constitutes the best collection online of items relating to her story — and that is a shame, for it is not through hyperbole that I make the claim “best collection”; rather, it is through endless hours of searching online, and on microfilm in the Binghamton Library that makes me aware that this collection is both MEAGER and the “best.” I fully hope that someone makes me eat the claim.
Descendants of Ogarita Booth Henderson can be found to this day online seeking more information to prove their point. One can find endless references to people possessing THIS or THAT, which proves some point, but although they have the ability to troll ancestry sites, they seem averse to using the internet to SHOW any documentation.
And, with that rap on the knuckles out of the way, let’s proceed to rove through her story in this photo-voluminous manner, in which you will interpret the story your own way. I point out one more time, though, that Rita Booth rests in Glenwood Cemetery, which received 1,330 bodies in a disruption from the “old” cemetery in 1907. The story of that follows her story, and it is, as Twain would say, “no slouch.”
Because Ogarita Booth Henderson’s story gurgles online in such a way as to truly be a waste of time at this point (Oct. ’09), here is a lump sum nutshell of the story of Rita Booth.
Ogarita Booth Henderson claimed to be the product of a secret marriage between her mother and John Wilkes Booth. Below you will see death notices that include that claim, and also an article from 1885 which does not elaborate on its reason for existing, but includes a mention of her as John Wilkes Booth’s daughter.
Before the presentation of these materials it is expediant to provide a link to a wiki about the situation.
Click to Learn More
The above was not done out of sloth…but it provides the basic gist of her story and leaves us unencumbered to present the following unfiltered material, some of which probably contributed to that story.
Here is a small vault of information from its proper time:
A 1924 Binghamton Press article about Glenwood Cemetery’s history sums up her story like this:
“Mrs. Ogarita Henderson, daughter of John Wilkes Booth, assassinator of Abraham Lincoln was a pretty young actress when she visited Binghamton 35 years ago, while playing her first real character role with a show troupe. She suffered an attack of acute indigestion while here and died suddenly in the Crandall Hotel. She was hurriedly buried in Glenwood Cemetery and her show troupe moved on to the next stand. Her grave, marked only by a small pine tree has been almost forgotten.”
IN this way we can see that the three foot tombstone currently on her grave was not there for at least the first 32 years of her residency in Glenwood Cemetery. As for the remark that the acting troupe immediately moved on, I have found a notice in the April 6th, 1892 Binghamton Herald Republican that the troop actually extended their planned stay by one day, and at the discounted price of 10 cents per ticket. This extension appears in adverts and in a column mention.
Here is how the Binghamton Herald Republican presented the announcement of her April 12th 1892 death in their April 13th 1892 edition:
And here is how the New York Times presented it in their April 15th 1892 edition:
As for Ogarita Booth being shown to claim relation to John Wilkes Booth before her death, there is this, which is from seven years before her death in Binghamton. This is from the New York Times in 1885, and though the meaning of the thrust behind the article is not explained, this article does show that she was able to present herself without apparent question as the daughter of John Wilkes Booth to at least one New York Times reporter.
She was 26 years old at this time:
Below you will see an advertisement for the Floy Crowell troupe from April 5th 1892. Although Rita and her husband Al Henderson are not mentioned, they were among the 19 players in the production of revolving plays that promised, “NO DULL MOMENTS.”
And in every issue of the Binghamton Herald Republican during this period when the Floy Crowell troupe was in town, often only inches away from the show’s advert about their Opera House appearances, and including the issue that announced her death…there was also this advertisement for the cemetery that soon received her corpse. I have spent a lot of time on looking at Binghamton microfilm papers and I am not familiar with any other period in which the Glenwood Cemetery advertised so blatantly, expensively, or at all. The photo below is of an advert that was running daily during this period. This is shown at the end of the Rita Booth portion of this essay, but, those who intend to continue on to the coming information about the digging up of 1,330 bodies and their trek through town, should take note of the name HULBERT at the bottom of the advert. That is Hulbert SENIOR,..and we will meet his son at an elderly age when we take the bright lights off Miss Booth, and return to discussing both the missing and existing cemetery.
(Note: In the space of 24 hours hours we have received two new articles about Rita Booth. Those and any subsquent materials will be added under the cemetery story below):
An article in the Binghamton Herald Republican (which is too obscured for photos) during the week of Rita’s troupe arrival in Binghamton details the Binghamton City Alderman attempting to pass legislation to abandon the City Cemetery and turn it into residential lots.
The City Cemetery was not only in disrepair, but was also in the way of progess. There were other graveyards, and all were cheaper than City Cemetery. But only Glenwood was taking out expensive advertisements at the time.
Eldredge street, where the "Old City Cemetery" was located.
The last sentence in Superintendant HULBERT’s advertisement for Glenwood Cemetery (above) is conspicous: “All orders for removing bodies will be promptly and carefully performed.” This is not in keeping with the usual mention of what undertaker took charge of a fresh body. Although it is in the realm of conjecture, this sentence is probably inserted into the advertisement to encourage those with means to transfer loved ones from that decaying cemetery with a threatened future to Glenwood Cemetery. Two of the most famous and prosperous families in town had already done so in previous decades (Whitney and Dickinson). Items up for discussion in town council meetings were often publicized well in advance…sometimes by bulletin board…and so it is assured by the large article (not shown), that it was well known the Binghamton City Cemetery was in a period of crisis; was probably not even accepting more burials; was under threat of condemnation; and was a long known place of disrepair. This was just plain “in the news” as Ogarita Booth Henderson, her husband Al, and the rest of the Floy Crowell troupe were in town.
Rita’s husband, Al Henderson, must be assumed to be the one to make the funeral decisions. All the early notices bear his name — and so do the articles about them signing together for various gigs. He would have probably seen the notices of the show, in the 4 days it was supposed to be in town, and also the suddenly added 5th day with a matinee and evening show. Some of these would have been interesting to him as a person involved in the show and how it was advertised. The advertisement for Glenwood Cemetery was always only a few inches away from any mention of the Floy Crowell show. If he and a non-ill Rita looked at the adverts as they arrived in town, they would have had within their vision adverts for Glenwood Cemetery, never knowing they would soon need the services of such. And if they followed the papers, they would also have seen the roots of the eventual abandonment of the City Cemetery, argued not for the first, nor the last time in print, but squarely in their time in Binghamton.
Lengthy articles can be found in Binghamton papers for a seventeen-year period showing much angst and controversy over the attempts to close the Old City Cemetery. Finally, on July 16th 1906, the council got their measure passed, and relatives or friends were told to have descendant bodies removed by December 1st. The city allowed the less-than-generous sum of ten dollars in expenses to families wishing to do this privately. Remaining bodies or bones would be removed to Glenwood Cemetery.
The enclosed photograph of an article about City Engineer Giles, and his task of staking out residential lots at the site is from January 1st 1907 (Binghamton Press).
Eight days later, F. B Hulbert, the supervisor of Glenwood Cemetery, and the son of the previous supervisor began the morbid task of moving 1,330 bodies across five densely populated miles — right through the business district.
Hulbert’s hired laborers had to cut through four feet of penetrating frost before the digging got easier. The remains were placed in pine boxes, and then stacked “with geometric precision” on carts drawn by a team of drays.
A January 29th, 1950 Press article depicts an elderly Mr. Hulbert standing over a collapsed tombstone recounting the story. The contract Mr. Hulbert signed with the City Of Binghamton stated that he was to be paid $8.50 per body. He was to remove the remains from the Old City Cemetery; place them in a three foot pine box; transport them to Glenwood; rebury them; and place a new marker if an old one didn’t exist.
Mr. Hulbert found that the Old City Cemetery had been “poorly administrated” [sic], and would end up seeing his work described the same way for decades. Records, “were missing and confused. Bodies were buried so indiscriminately that it became necessary to excavate almost the entire cemetery,” the Press reported. Later, when contractors began to build on the site, more bodies were found.
“Because of the inept method by which records were kept, hundreds of bodies were never identified,” the 1950 Press recounting says, “Graves were opened and bodies were found missing. Tombstones were found over empty graves.”
A city inspector named George A. Lincoln was assigned to oversee the exodus to Glenwood Cemetery. He kept a diary of the goings-on. His March 6th entry is peculiar:
“Partial body of adult. Remains were wrapped in a carpet and only about 18 inches below the surface. Reported to coroner and by him ordered to be interred as usual.” Mr. Hulbert recalled the incident 43 years later, remembering that a monkey wrench and a hatchet were found with the cut up body. Still, the coroner wanted this graveyard secret put back under the ground, albeit 5 miles away.
Eight days later, Mr. Lincoln wrote: “Body of adult–not identified (A clay pipe and rusty razor had been buried with this body.)”
Mr. Hulbert tells the story of finding 66 bodies in a common pit. These were determined to have been pulled from the Potter’s Field portion of the Old Cemetery years earlier to make way for Liberty Street to be built. For nearly two decades the City had been publicly debating the abandonment of the Cemetery, and yet, they had been quietly doing it all along.
Mr Hulbert told the Press that the City refused to pay the agreed upon $8.50 per corpse for these cases. He was finally instructed to place these remains three to a box, at the $8.50 rate. For the completed job, Mr. Hulbert was paid about $12,000 dollars.
Mr. Hulbert received many complaints for the state of Glenwood Cemetery. As part of his contract for the City Cemetery removals he was required to “set out in the corners of the lots trees and shrubs of value not less than $100.” Mr. Hulbert says this was done, but some of these plants were killed in a dry summer, and others were strangled by weeds.
“We’ve taken it standing up for many years,” Mr. Hulbert said of the complaints, “we don’t want to shirk any responsibility, but since the bodies were reburied the City of Binghamton never has paid a penny for their upkeep. For the price we received we hardly could be expected to maintain the plot.”
Mr. Hulbert, and many of his family members, including his father, who is probably the man who placed Ogarita Booth Henderson in her grave, are all buried on a steep ravine in Glenwood Cemetery. Their plots are a stones throw from her grave. Random pieces of tombstones can be seen dotting the ravine, some of them working their way into a brook, washing away into a storm drain.
(NOTE: Above are two articles sent in generously by Author Ron Franscell, “The Dark Night.” Click on the thumbnail to view the larger version).
The stage where Rita did her last performances.
Editors Note: Over time, newly found items about Ogarita Booth Henderson will be whispered in the comments below, where several updates already exist.
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October 20th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I am a coworker of the author of the above article, and his computer is deader than Ogarita all the sudden. He asked me to add these later-found facts as a missing reel from another Binghamton paper has turned up at the library.
1) The Binghamton LEADER reports on OHB’s death in much the same fashion as articles above but on April 15, 1892 it reports that it was not known who she was when buried. It reports that her husband Al Henderson was not working with the Floy Troupe and that he rushed to Binghamton from NYC, arriving just in time to be at the death bed.
2) The Leader reports that Al Henderson and the couple’s young daughter were the only two people to follow the hearse to Glenwood Cemetary. She went on in 1937 to write “This One Mad Act” as seen in the Wiki link.
3) The Leader says that “Rita” did complete all the performances scheduled at the Opera House, playing a variety of small parts.
4) A who’s who from the 1910′s credits Al Henderson with bringing the Mikado to American stages for the first time.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
My thanks to Katrina for posting the above while my computer was down. For expediency I will continue with newly found items here…whispering add on’s in the comment box. Here are some happenings:
I asked the New York Post’s longtime gossip columnist Cindy Adams to throw some limelight on Ogarita for her 150th birthday, and it was very amusing to find out that she did “do” her in her October 28th 2009 column. I can’t help but feel that a showbiz gossip column is exactly where Rita would have liked to be.
In more serious Rita news, here are some Old items I have found:
ST. Paul Daily Globe/Monday June 16th 1890
Wilkes Booth’s Daughter
“At the Globe theatre with the Boston Comic Opera Company is an actress whose name and family connection impart a great degree of interest in the general public. Her maiden name was Rita Booth but she is now the wife of Mr. Henderson, the director of the company.
Mrs. Booth Henderson says she is the daughter of John Wilkes Booth. She remembers her father distinctly, although but 8 years old at the time of his death. She was asked concerning the truth or falsity of the recently published statement of some woman living in the South to the effect that her father was not dead, but that another man had been shot on that eventful morning more than 25 years ago. She emphatically affirmed that her father was dead, that he was shot at the time, and that SHE SAW HIS BODY A NUMBER OF TIMES before the burial. (emphasis added). She says she has a diary containing much important memoranda of her father’s life, and papers of his, and sometime she will make them public.”
And now: here is a bad review, which seems rare for her:
ST. Paul Daily Globe/ Friday Feb. 15th 1889:
(when acting in a play called the Leader at Hennipin Avenue Theatre ):
“Miss Rita Booth as “Camille” was badly handicapped but managed to live through the performance.”
NOTE: One would be wise to note the difference in the story concerning the idea that Rita’s Mother saw John Wilkes Booth’s body, and now, in this June 1890 Globe article it is Rita who saw it as well, and “numerous times.”
November 13th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Incidental NOTE: If you look at the 7th original photo shown, the one which is introduced with this:
“Below you will see an advertisement for the Floy Crowell troupe from April 5th 1892″, you will see the word “GREAT” in the bottom right hand corner. Just above that, you will see blurry print that speaks of the tickets for the Opera House being on sale at QUIRKS drug store. I thought it should be mentioned that Mr. Quirk lived until at least 1917, and that he had, so he said, in various old papers, participated in the Battle of The Light Brigade, and was personally nursed by none other that FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE in the CRIMEAN WAR.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
(Keep in mind that the Binghamton papers are unindexed in the library: hence the disconnection in finding new (old) materials.)
A lengthy article in the Binghamton Press from 10-29-1972 yields the following info:
1) states that Rita collapsed ON the stage at the Stone Opera House on opening night.
2) the tombstone on her grave was placed in October or November 1972 by Rita’s grand daughter, Rita Shepard of Ft. Lauderdale FL. The monument was built by the Bares Monument Company. (My search of an old directory shows the Emmerich J. Bares was an attendant at the Binghamton State Hospital in the 1940′s, and opened his monument company by the 1960′s.)
3) The Crandall House was located at 127 Court Street, which is around the corner from the Opera House, and it specialized in housing theatrical troupes. (they would have been able to walk down the alley from hotel to opera house).
4)Rita’s daughter, who was the only other attendee at her funeral besides Mr. Henderson, was named Beatrice, and she is the mother of Mrs. Shepard who ordered the grave stone.
December 28th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
It is true that John Wilkes Booth was not shot and killed in Garrett’s Barn in Caroline County, Virginia. The man killed in the barn was an unknown Confederate soldier, shot and killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett under direct instructions from the NDP under Colonel Baker and Officer Conger (later promoted to Lt. Colonel for delivering the soldier’s out of date diary (1864) to Baker in Washington).
John Booth disappeared when he knew about President Lincoln being shot in the theatre. Booth was at the Ford theatre the same night but had reneged in his plan to kidnap Lincoln. He was effectively framed by the NDP who had been informed of the kidnap plan by Captain Gleason from Louis Weichmann (a government clerk and friend of John Surratt).
The assination plot involved right wing elements of the government and the army. The backers were the banker’s that also included elements of industry and the press.
Booth lived on but I have no confirmation of when he died. It is said he died in 1903 having escaped abroad but their are many differing accounts. Ogarita could not have seen her father’s body with his head decapitated. However in the post mortem of the Unknown soldier by the Surgeon General Willam Barnes, he performed an autopsy in the neck. This is said to have ‘turned into a decapitation’ when it was buried by Colonel Baker in the old prison Arsenal on the Potomac in 1865, (now Fort MacNair). In 1896 it was dug up and buried in Greenmont Cemetery, Baltimore and supposedly witnessed by John’s brother, Edwin Booth and family.
I do believe however that Ogarita may well have been the daughter of John Booth and born in 1859, from later evidence and the writings of Izola Forrester, a brilliant author.
December 28th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
For the complete re-construction of Licoln’s assassination and the escape of the ‘supposed assassins’ read ‘Our American Hero’ by JK Ronayne.
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Thanks for the article, an interesting compilation of information about Ogarita Booth-Henderson. In case Mr Colfax or others are interested in more info, go to http://www.iffp.com/
In the Scanned Document Archive there is a lot of material regarding Ogarita and her family. It probably contains a lot of “treasures”.
Regards from an Ogarita descendant.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Thank you very much for the link, Ostrem. I had an older computer when I wrote the article and I could not get anything from the site you mention to open at that time. I see it now, and very much enjoyed the materials.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
I am the contact person at iffp.com (see bottom line of front page); send me an email if you’d like to discuss Ogarita further. Unfortunately, the documents on the site are not well organized, and no one – as far as I know – has gone through all the material that’s there, we just scanned it and didn’t have time to read it all; you might discover something new.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Errata: In Line 12 it should read Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes not William Barnes.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
There is an interesting account by Charles B. Huppert titled ‘How Our Best Known Assassin Became A Hoosier’ on the Webb. Inside, it relates a story from an interview with John C. Shaffer supposed Editor of the ‘Terre Haute Star’ with Izola Martha Mills at ‘her home in Indianapolis’ but never published.
This is the story of how Izola (mother of Ogarita) had received a letter (circa 1st June 1865)from John Booth, about 6 weeks after Abe’s assassination. He asked her to meet him in Central Park (NYC) and she did; and both then went to Montreal. They spent only two weeks together there, awaiting his mail to arrive. ‘During this time he executed a Power of Attorney which gave powers to proceed with litigation in regard to some oil property he owned in western Pennsylvania.’ After this they parted and she never saw him again.
I would have to take this story with a pinch of salt even though I know for certain that John Booth (publically known as John Wilkes Booth) was not killed in Virginia. However Izola’s story is quite possible for the following reasons and circumstances:
a) I believe John’s mother lived in New York city with her older son Edwin who was also very rich and famous as an actor. They never arrested Edwin but did keep a close eye on him (should John return). This NYC home I get from John Surratt when he mentions (in his lectures)that he visited Booth’s home in New York, on the 4th or 5th April 1865. The servant said that ‘he’ John, (or did he mean Edwin? or both?) had left for a theatre engagement in Boston. However it is likely that it was Edwin because he was to perform in Boston at this time. There is also a letter from the theatre manager Henry C. Jarrett at Parker House (dated Sat. 15th April; 7 am) to Edwin saying he was closing the Boston theatre till further notice, temporarily stopping his engagements with Edwin.
b)There is a parallel with John Surratt who had escaped to Montreal(staying at the St. Lawrence Hotel) and disguising himself as a fashionable gentleman ‘with an Oxford cut jacket and a round top hat, peculiar to Canada at that time.’ A week later he left Montreal in a hack and disguised himself as a huntsman, crossing the St. Lawrence to stay in a village 9 miles south of Montreal.
The parallel I draw is that John Booth was the consumate actor (and also a blockade runner), with the cheek of the devil and could easily have disguised himself by shaving his famous moustache off and cutting his long hair. He had many rich and powerful friends (including Andy Johnson) and a large maternal family and could have gotten around easily just like Surratt did. In fact I suspect Lucy Hale (Senator John P. Hale’s daughter: the man who’s statue in Washington states he was a powerful Abolitionist and also stopped the flogging of navy men but also their rum ration) may have helped him; because it was reported (but unconfirmed) that John met Lucy at the front of the Ford theatre at the intermission, before Abe was shot.
And c) John had every reason to sort out his liquid assetts, stocks, land and property before disappearing altogether. He left a will for his mother (including his Boston land, later transferred to Joseph)and brothers (including stock in an oil well for Junius) and his sister Rosalie; except Asia was not included. She ‘wrote’ that it was a good thing because ‘the government would use it as a whip’ against her. I also find this surprising because John was very close to Asia.
So although this supposed story from Izola is possibly true there is no strong supporting evidence for it, except there is indeed very weak circumstantial evidence. I also find it difficult to appreciate that John was carrying on with two relationships at near enough the same time, but of course, he needed all the friends he could trust especially those he was passinately involved with. And indeed John above all else was a passionate man.
January 8th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Errata: Last line- passinately should read passionately.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:52 am
Mr. Roynayne,
I found what might be dubbed “historic joy” in reading the piece; and appreciated the photos of the old articles to back it up. I thought it was sort of made clear that no sides would be taken (perhaps it was subtle) but though I think you are serious and mean well, you are polluting the pool. Your long comments seem to have no substantial back-up, whereas it seems like in the article an effort was made to show proof.
January 14th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Thursday 14th Jan. 2010.
S.Jones.
I am not sure if your statement of ” historic joy” includes my article or not (smile).
However you are correct, my statements are presented as one would in any discussion. You would have to read the book ‘Our American Hero’ to find all the proofs you need , if you had a mind to.
The book provides un-deniable photographic evidence in the final chapter supporting all of the general and specific proofs relating to John Booth and the other kidnap cospirators; that confirms all of 22 chapters, including 70 illustrations including a full appendix from the witness statements in the trial of the conspirators; of which needs to be fully assessed along with the the whole and it’s not desired or required, at this juncture.
Having said this I realise the dilemma you might have by intimating ‘pool pollution’. Non the less I think you might allow that it could be justified under the general category of Ogarita Booth. If only to highlight other sources of information about her ‘father’.
However I trust my ‘pollution’ will not outlaw me from this excellent site, for I have already found some rich gems in this pool.
I am happy that my input gives further insight into the question of whether Ogarita really was the daughter of John W.Booth the actor. Up till now I just had second hand accounts on this particular subject that tended to favour Ogarita’s claim.
But the statement from the newspaper article (NY Times. Dec 6th 1885) saying she had seen her father’s body with his head decapitated leads me now to throw much doubt on this story. This is from my own certain knowledge of what did not happen to John Booth, deduced from the proofs in my book.
Of course this statement in itself is not a proof (to others)- just another step in the direction in the search for and revelation of a continuing series of objective proofs.
This does not mean to say I question Ogarita herself – just the accuracy of the press article. We all know how the press can build up a story around any statement depending on their requirements for readership. And in this case there may also be a strong political reason.
However, I must admit that it is pretty hard to get away from her implied claim that she had seen a deceased body at the morgue whom she believed was her real father and his name was John W. Booth, the famous actor.
Ogarita would have been 5 years and 6 months at the time of John’s political death in Virginia on April 26th 1865.
And come on- the most handsome man in America with gold teeth at 27 and in the flower of his youth ?
And in any case ‘Booth’s’ body was kept under close guard on the Montauk on the Potomac in Washington by the authorites, before being buried in total secrecy in the Old Arsenal nearby.
And ‘he’ was not dug up from Fort McNair (the Old Arsenal) till 1869… 4 years after Ogarita had sadly passed away.
.
But thankyou for your reply since it helps to have a good discussion and livens the mind into further work on the subject. In my futher work, I am now pursuing the subject of where John really disappeared to after leaving the Ford theatre that terrible night. And whether he left with Lucy Hale or not; as one witness said she saw them in the front of the theatre together at the intermission, just before Abe was shot.
I am as yet unaware of any certain proof of this sighting however.
Know ye the tree.
By its fruit. (The Bible).
January 15th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Correction: Line 29 should read ’till 1896….4 years after Ogarita had sadly passed away.’
January 18th, 2010 at 2:00 am
I agree with Jones wholeheartedly. This article provides insight into the sidelines of history. THe point of view is one seldom encountered in historical writing.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Errata: Line 29 is still un-correct.
It should read ……(the Old Arsenal)till 1869 when it was transferred to Baltimore…..Ogarita would have been about nine or ten years old by then.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I love your stories very often because they are published in an understandable perspicuous. So I can study them although I come from Germany and have any problems to understand English articles.
July 16th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Hello!
I am interested in learning more about the “Booth” women. It seems very unusual that there is so little history about their lives after JWB. I want to know more about Izola Mills Booth’s life after her daughter Ogaritha was born and what happened to her. Plus I am anxious to see what happened to the daughter and grand-daughter.
If you can direct me to more information about this family, I’ll appreciate the help. Thank-you for your help in advance.
Sincerely,
Fernand Ocetek
July 17th, 2010 at 1:27 am
Thanks for your comment. The information I have presented is part of an involved research project about a buried river that runs under my yard (see my other story here at Bearings). That river is very close to Ogarita’s grave, and so, the extent of my interest in the subject is basically only about Ogarita, and her unfortunate burial here. Luckily, one of her descendants has responded in these comments with a very useful link. You will find a treasure trove there. It was posted by OSTREM…and is the Number 7 post in these comments. Hope that helps…JT.