Month: July 2021

Letter from James O. Hall

In 2000, right around the time I discovered the Alonzo Chappel painting that confirmed Elizabeth Dixon’s friendship with Mary Lincoln, I found this letter sent to my father in 1978 from James O. Hall.

Hall’s inquiry took me down rabbit hole but am glad I was able to connect with Dr. Hall shortly before he died. This letter was written two years after the film, Lincoln Conspiracy was released.

1978 letter from James O. Hall to Wm Welling page 1
James O. Hall letter page 1
1978 letter from James O. Hall to Wm Welling page 2 and note
James O. Hall letter page 2 and note

Notes:

May 15, 2000, I spoke by phone with James O. Hall, who was, as it turned out, the authoritative expert on the Lincoln assassination. He suggested I go to the Washingtonia Room at the Martin Luther King Library to find the National Intelligencer papers or the Library of Congress Reading Room. Also, see Michael Musick at the National Archives regarding WW Corcoran’s clandestine trip to Europe in 1865. He wondered if James C. Welling was mentioned. Locations etc. He said check Civil War Times editorials regarding Neff fabrication. Jack Davis, William C. Davis is the editor that collaborated with him on articles and research. Hall had a friend named Alan Weber who has the Chappel file, about to sell for big $$$. He said Neff’s fabrication, “Lincoln Conspiracy”, he was a professor at Indiana, and had a falling out and is now a private detective. Hall said; “He is a good liar.” He sent an article he wrote for the 1993 Surratt Courier, as a follow up. It was very interesting.

At the end of our conversation I asked James O. Hall; “What do you think James Clarke Welling would have done if he was given Booth’s letter?”

He replied; “I think he was a good journalist and would have given it to Stanton.”

Over the last 20 years, I have thought back on our talk and continue to wonder, why would someone like Neff and Lynch intentionally lead people to believe in a hoax? “6,000 letters?” Who has such a collection and why the secrecy? No answers today, tomorrow or perhaps never. Just makes me wonder…

A Granddaughter’s Recollection

In the evening of April 15, 2021, the 156th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln the Arts Club of Washington commemorated his life and legacy with the virtual program, “Lincoln’s Last Breath”.

The program explored Civil War friendship of Mrs. Elizabeth L. C. Dixon, wife of Senator James Dixon of Connecticut and Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln.

Elizabeth Dixon, was my great great grandmother, and she left us a trove of letters and relics that allow us to retrace her foot prints and friendship with the Lincoln‘s from their first days in Washington until their last.

Elizabeth and her junior congressman husband, James Dixon of Connecticut had first come to Washington in November 1845, during the Polk administration. During these years she kept a journal, a diary, that described those first years in Washington. It had been partially transcribed in the 1970s by my great aunt Elsa, before she donated it to the Connecticut Historical Society, where it remained virtually forgotten.

Elizabeth Dixon was my grandfather’s grandmother. She was my great, great grandmother. This diary, she had dedicated to her daughters Bessie and Clementine. Clementine awas my great grandmother, Mrs. Clementine L.D. Welling.

Journal written during a residence in Washington during the
29th Congress commencing first of Dec, 1845
Dedicated to my daughters
Bessie in Clementine
by their mother,
Elizabeth L. C. Dixon

From 2009-2012 I took on the arduous task and transcribed her 50 page handwritten diary and submitted this transcription to the White House Historical Association, who published; The Diary of Elizabeth Dixon in

White House History, Issue 33.

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/introduction-to-the-transcription-of-the-washington-diary-of-elizabeth-l-c-dixon

During Covid, I have been transcribing another of Elizabeth Dixon‘s diary, the Dixon’s 1840-41 Honeymoon Grand Tour through Europe. Watch for future posts. Until then, Caroline