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

Also in NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/arts/design/11linc.html?_r=1 Todd R. Nelson toddnelson@hughes.net On Mar 10, 2009, at 11:43 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