Where
Was Booth Fed?
It's interesting to
compare the various accounts of Booth's visit to Cleydael and
speculate on where he might have been fed and how and which parts of
the house he was actually in, assuming he was in the main house at
all and not in an outbuilding instead.
The options offered in
various references are:
1. Barn? Slave
Cabin? Outbuilding?
George Alfred Townsend ("Gath"), the first to uncover Booth's
escape route, ("How Wilkes Booth Crossed the Potomac", Century
Magazine, 1884) says that Booth was fed in either the barn or a
slave cabin or some other kind of outbuilding "The men were not
invited into the house, but were sent to an out-building of some
kind, either the negro quarters or the barn." It's possible that,
because the Lucases were tenants of the Stuart's and this is where
Booth and Herold actually stayed the night, this is what Gath had in
mind. However, "Gath" also gets his facts slightly wrong and says
that they spent Sunday night at Bryant's house and arrived at Dr.
Stuart's on Monday morning, which contradicts Dr. Stuart's testimony
and statements of Mr. Lucas.
2. Barn?
Thomas Jones, in whose boat Booth had crossed the Potomac,
says in his 1890's book says that they were fed or accommodated in
Dr. Stuart's barn. However, he was not there and his account may have
been influenced by Gath, with whom he had talked extensively. Other
accounts say that he was fed in the kitchen, which would indeed have
been an outbuilding.
3. Kitchen?
Philip Van Doren Stern, in his mid 20th century account, "The
Man Who Shot Lincoln" describes them as being fed in the kitchen. The
kitchen at Cleydael in 1865 was a "summer kitchen", a separate
outbuilding. It would have been the most sensible place to feed
someone a quick meal unless there was food already in the house, and
would certainly have reinforced the sense of being slighted and
snubbed which Booth's note shows he felt at Dr. Stuart's
hands.
4. Dining Room?
However, the phrasing of Dr. Stuart's own testimony suggests
that they were fed in the house itself. "On returning (from running
after Bryant and telling him to take the men away) I went into the
house and the men had finished their meal." He does not say where
they were actually fed. He also says they were only in the house
about 15 minutes. Therefore, food must have already been laid out in
the house, as it would have taken longer than this to select food
from the kitchen, bring it into the house and serve it.
As it was around 8 pm by
Dr. Stuart's own account and the family had just finished tea, there
are several possibilities. "Tea" may have been defined as a fairly
heavy meal, in the English context of the word, expecially
considering how late in the day it was served. It might therefore
have been laid out either on the dining room table or buffet. The
family having just finished and withdrawn into the parlour or hall or
their own rooms, it is possible that the food from their "tea" hadn't
yet been cleared and Booth and Herold were simply shown into the
dining room and encouraged to help themselves to the leftovers. If
so, it was apparently something more substantial than tea and little
cakes, as Dr. Stuart refers to Booth and Herold having "supper." If
they had entered the house through the doctor's office this room has
a connecting door with what we suspect was the dining room, assuming
the chair rails are original) so this might indeed have been their
route. This might also have been why Stuart fed them despite being
quite eager to get them off the premises as quickly as possible. If
this interconnecting door was open and the time and the hungry men
could see the table or buffet laden with food, it would have been
harder to refuse them than in other circumstances.
5. Parlour?
On the other hand, the Stuart family's "tea" might have been a
lighter meal, traditionally served in the parlour. Were Booth and
Herold escorted in there, or food brought to them in the dining room?
The fact that at least one other member of the family say them at
supper, suggests that it was probably in the house, as Dr. Stuart's
testimony indicates. Stanley Kimmell, in his The Mad Booth's of
Maryland, also asserts this was the case and visited Cleydael to
pick up any local lore he could from the then-owners, the
Richardsons.
Who Served Them their
Food?
Victor Louis Mason in his
1901 article in The Century magazine, ("Four Lincoln
Conspiracies") says that Booth and Herold were served dinner in the
dining room by the ladies of the house but does not cite a source for
this information. His is also the only written account that describes
Booth and Herold as having been intoxicated at the time.
The idea of the ladies of
the family waiting on two mud-bespattered and potentially intoxicated
desparadoes does not seem plausible, especially as Dr. Stuart himself
was not in the house, having gone down the road to induce Bryant to
come back and relieve him of his unwanted guests. However,
possibly they were protected by the other men of the household. Dr.
Stuart, in his testimony says, "My family in the house consisted of
myself & wife, 3 daughters, all grown, two married; my
son-in-law, S.T. Stewart (sic); he only saw them while they were at
supper."
Local tradition has it
that Junius and Patsy Dixon, house servants at Cleydael, were the
actual ones to wait on Booth and Herold. This was repeated in the
King George County section of the WPA guidebook to Virginia (1940).
This seems infinitely more probable. The Stuarts were persons of
considerable wealth and owned a number of servants. For the ladies of
the house personally to wait on guests when there were servants
available was a high compliment - not one likely to be given
unwelcome guests fed in haste.
Which Door Did they Really
Knock On?
Tradition holds that it
was the door to the Doctor's office and this information has been
passed on from successive owner or tenant of the house to the next
inhabitant. However, nowhere in Dr. Stuart's testimony does it say by
which route they entered the house, nor have I seen any written
documentation that says specifically this was the door. The most
persuasive case for this being their route into the house is a
notation that Dr. Stuart kept a lantern lit outside his office door
so that patients could find their way in the dark. According to Dr.
Stuart's testminony it was about 8 o'clock and already dark when
Booth and Herold showed up, therefore this might have been the most
logical entrance to approach, particularly as they were seeking
medical attention for Booth's leg.
On the other hand, they
might have simple come up to the first entrance they encountered on
their route into the house, which depending on the route they took,
could have been either the present front door or (if they came
through a woodland trail) the present back door. Booth was a prideful
man, a national celebrity, and not the sort who would automatically
gravitate to a "tradesman's entrance" when approaching the house of a
stranger. On the other hand, before Cleydael was subdivided, they
were two entrances from what is now Rt 206. Coming from the direction
of Mrs. Quesenberry's, the first entrance they encountered would
actuall have taken them to the door of the doctor's office
first.
To summarize, based on the
above information, my best guess is that they entered via the
Doctor's Office Door, at dinner in the Dining Room, and were waited
on by house servants (the Dixons), not by the Stuart ladies. I am
still unsure of how they got to Cleydael, whether down today's Rt 206
or thruogh some back route. Furthermore, what route did Charlie Lucas
take when conveying them to Port Conway by wagon? Was the
present -day Rt 611, which cuts over to Rt. 301 in existence in 1865,
or was there another cross route to the road to Port Conway, perhaps
a wagon track that went through the extensive Cleydael
property?
