Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-08-04
Aged Woman Tells Of
Shooting And Death of
President Abe Lincoln
Cleveland Star.

Cleveland Star.
Last February II, Mrs. Nelson
Todd, one of the last survivors
who was in the theatre when Alb
raham Lincoln was assas.inated
April IA, 1855 made a talk over
the radio telling of the incidents
Of that night. Mrs. Todd is now
80 years old. Dorothy Ormsby, Of
Rockingham, listened in on Mrs.
Todd's broadcast and wrote her
for a copy of her address. Mrs.
Todd ent it 70 Dorothey and auto
sraphed it. Here is the address:
What a wonderful storehouse,
the mind! Here an l, feeling like
a comparatively young woman,
and if | live seven years more, I
shall be a hundred years old. ne
ty-three years old! And how many
things | have seen in those years.
My earliest recollection dates from
the age of three. When l was nine
/ heard Jenny Lind sing at the old
Castle Garden.
ri have shaken hands with every
President, also Henry Clay, Daniel
Webster and Kossuth. | have
known many splendid people, and
of all l have known there was not
a finer than John Wilkes Booth, a
fine looking mannerly chap about
my W age. l had heard that he
had fallen into bad company. We
all know that his sympathies were
with the southern states and we
learned later that he was a member
of a set of young fellows-radicals
we would call them today-who
drew lots to see which should kill
Lincoln. 1t happened that the lot
fell on Booth.
II shall never forget the first
time | saw Lincoln nor the last.
The first time was just a little be-
fore his second Inauguration, when
he passed through Newark by
train. | was horseback riding and
rode through side streets SO that
saw Lincoln not once but many
times on the rear platform. My
persistence u have attracted
President Lincoln's attention
William Courier, a friend of my
father, and conductor of the train,
told me later that the President
pointed me out and said: That
young lady there is a fine horse
woman That was the first time I
saw Lincoln. Now | must tell you
of the last.
II was married in 1858. The
war, as you know, followed a
couple of years later. Those were
awful times. What a relief when
it ended on the ninth of April,
1865.
Immediately upon learning OF
Lees surrender my husband plan
ned a trip to Washington. The
day after he arrived was Good
Friday, April 18th. l remember
because we went to church. My
husband was active in Trinity
church Sunday school, Newark. |
was amazed when later in the dav
he said, we are going to the thea
tire tonight To the theatre on
Good Friday!" | said. He explain
ed that the President was to attend
a benefit performance Of Laura
Keen in Our American Cousin at
the Ford theatre and becoming a
gala occasion and our only oppor-
tunity, probably, of seeing Presi-
dent Lincoln, we might waive cur
religious scruples.
Theatres began earlier in those
days. We were in our places or
the center aisle just a few rows
back from the stage at 1880 wher
the curtain rose. There was a flag
drapped box on the right for the
President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Har-
his and Major Rathborne. They
"a. in rhe second box.
The curtain had gone upon the
second act when there was a shot
At the same instance | was amaz-
ed to see John Wilkes Booth, whom
| had known so we'll, half jump
and fall from the first box to the
stage II feet below. His spul
had caught in the drapery on th'
box so that his leap turned out to
be a bad fall.
For an instant no one realized