Marilyn-- You might be interested to know that there is, in fact, a Lincoln/Colby connection, albeit a rather indirect one. According to an 1881 History of Sangamon County, Illinois (pp. 134-137), William Henry COLBY (1849-1904) was a partner in the law firm of William Francis HERNDON in Springfield. The two of them had been schoolmates and law students together. This William Francis HERNDON was a nephew of William Henry HERNDON, Lincoln's law partner and biographer. William Henry COLBY later became a judge in Springfield. My family's COLBY plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield is on the brow of a hill directly behind the Lincoln tomb. Guy I. Colby IV Irving, TX ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marilyn Colby" <macolby@videotron.ca> To: <roccos1023@sbcglobal.net>; <colby@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 6:39 PM Subject: Re: [COLBY] Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch > bob, > interesting.thanks, bob.one of my relatives was supposed to have been > a secretary to abraham lincoln's son , robert. > don't think it was a colby. > marilyn > On 10-Mar-09, at 6:43 PM, RC Colby wrote: > >> >> Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch >> >> By Neely Tucker >> Washington Post Staff Writer >> Tuesday, March 10, 2009; 5:40 PM >> >> For nearly 150 years, Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch has been >> rumored to carry a secret message, supposedly written by an Irish >> immigrant and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon. >> >> Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family >> members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing >> Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in >> South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil War. >> >> Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for >> the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and >> scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first >> gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at >> least will try." >> >> He then closed it up and sent it back to the White House. Lincoln >> never knew of the message. Dillon died in 1907. >> >> The watch, meanwhile, was handed down and eventually given to the >> Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It didn't run anymore. No one had >> pried open the inner workings in ages. The old watchmaker's tale was >> just that. >> >> And then Douglas Stiles, Dillon's great-great grandson, alerted >> Smithsonian officials to the family legend last month. He was a real- >> estate attorney in Waukegan, Ill., he explained. He'd heard the >> legend around the dinner table as a kid, but had just discovered a >> New York Times article from 1906, quoting Dillon as telling the >> story himself. >> >> Truth? Lore? >> >> Read the rest of the story at: >> >> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031001449.html?hpid=topnews >> >> Bob Colby

thanks, guy. small world. marilyn On 11-Mar-09, at 2:37 AM, Guy I. Colby IV wrote: > Marilyn-- > > You might be interested to know that there is, in fact, a Lincoln/ > Colby connection, albeit a rather indirect one. According to an > 1881 History of Sangamon County, Illinois (pp. 134-137), William > Henry COLBY (1849-1904) was a partner in the law firm of William > Francis HERNDON in Springfield. The two of them had been > schoolmates and law students together. This William Francis HERNDON > was a nephew of William Henry HERNDON, Lincoln's law partner and > biographer. William Henry COLBY later became a judge in Springfield. > > My family's COLBY plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield is on > the brow of a hill directly behind the Lincoln tomb. > > Guy I. Colby IV > Irving, TX > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Marilyn Colby" <macolby@videotron.ca> > To: <roccos1023@sbcglobal.net>; <colby@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 6:39 PM > Subject: Re: [COLBY] Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch > > >> bob, >> interesting.thanks, bob.one of my relatives was supposed to have been >> a secretary to abraham lincoln's son , robert. >> don't think it was a colby. >> marilyn >> On 10-Mar-09, at 6:43 PM, RC Colby wrote: >> >>> >>> Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch >>> >>> By Neely Tucker >>> Washington Post Staff Writer >>> Tuesday, March 10, 2009; 5:40 PM >>> >>> For nearly 150 years, Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch has been >>> rumored to carry a secret message, supposedly written by an Irish >>> immigrant and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon. >>> >>> Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family >>> members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing >>> Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in >>> South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil >>> War. >>> >>> Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for >>> the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and >>> scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first >>> gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at >>> least will try." >>> >>> He then closed it up and sent it back to the White House. Lincoln >>> never knew of the message. Dillon died in 1907. >>> >>> The watch, meanwhile, was handed down and eventually given to the >>> Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It didn't run anymore. No one had >>> pried open the inner workings in ages. The old watchmaker's tale was >>> just that. >>> >>> And then Douglas Stiles, Dillon's great-great grandson, alerted >>> Smithsonian officials to the family legend last month. He was a >>> real- >>> estate attorney in Waukegan, Ill., he explained. He'd heard the >>> legend around the dinner table as a kid, but had just discovered a >>> New York Times article from 1906, quoting Dillon as telling the >>> story himself. >>> >>> Truth? Lore? >>> >>> Read the rest of the story at: >>> >>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031001449.html?hpid=topnews >>> >>> Bob Colby > > > ============================= > Colby list archives: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/COLBY/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COLBY-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message