Washington Whirlwind #10: President's Block by Elsie Ridgley
Her long-expressed refrain that no one suffered more than she was just a prelude to the disaster that would have traumatized anybody. Her dying husband was moved to a boarding house bedroom across the street from the theater where he was shot. The Petersen House at 516 East 10th Street became the site of an overnight death watch.
The Petersen House was a museum in 1925
as it is today, part of the Ford's Theater National Historic Site.
Imaginary deathbed scene with Cabinet members in attendance
The spool bed and striped wallpaper were accurate.
Dr. Charles Sabin Taft (1835-1900)
the situation was hopeless. His father recorded in his journal: "When Chas reached the Box the President was lying upon the floor. Water and stimulants were used immediately but without avail in attempts to revive him."
President's Block by Elsie Ridgley
The 30-year-old doctor was among those who carried Lincoln to the house across the street and stayed with him until he died in the early morning. Sister Julia Taft remembered that her older brother associated that terrible night with the lilacs blooming in Washington and as long as he lived "the scent of lilacs would turn him sick and faint."
Petersen's small back bedroom expanded to accommodate 20 onlookers in this Leslie's Illustrated representation. Despite his actual absence from the scene, Tad is pictured near the foot of the bed, Mary sobbing in the background. Charles Taft's father Horatio Taft recalled that Mary rejected the idea of calling in her youngest son. "Do not send for him, his violent grief would disturb the House." Tad remained at the White House.
Mary Jane was born the same year as Mary Todd Lincoln and gave birth to 9 children. Six of her young children died before the Civil War. She was Mary Lincoln's friend and often offered consolation for the Lincoln's losses, but the First Lady would not be consoled. Mary Jane may have waited with Mary at the Petersen House.
Gideon Welles, recognizable with his white beard (in the right side in the drawing above) wrote in his diary:
President's Block by Becky Brown
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles & Mary Jane Hale Welles
"The giant sufferer lay extended diagonally across the bed, which was not long enough for him. He had been stripped of his clothes. His large arms, which were occasionally exposed, were of a size which one would scarce have expected from his spare appearance. His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking. I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there."
President's Block by Jeanne Arnieri
Photographers Julius Uhlke and his brother Henry boarded at Petersen's.
After a night supplying hot water to the doctors Julius recorded the room
where Lincoln had died. The bed is now in the Chicago Historical Society.
The woven coverlet was often pictured with some artistic license.
Diarist Benjamin Brown French (1800-1872)
Washington, April 19th, 1865
A Mourning Cockade
Funeral preparations included clipping locks of hair,
this one for Mary McCormick Cameron, a senator's wife.
The Block
President's Block: the name from the Chicago Tribune's
Nancy Cabot quilt column in the 1930s.
Jeanne's top with 11 & 12 missing.
Two more patterns to go.
