Norman Gasbarro | January 26, 2012
William Thompson of Tower City was born about 1839 or 1840 in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the son of Alexander Thompson (1805-1873), an immigrant from Scotland who emigrated to America in 1828 to engage in various pursuits including flour milling, lumbering and mining. William Thompson‘s mother was the first wife of Alexander, Isabella Stoddart Pennman (1816-1851). […]
Norman Gasbarro | January 25, 2012
ALEXANDER F. THOMPSON, senator and attorney-at-law. He was born at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pa., December 7, 1845. He is a son of Alexander and Isabella (Pennman) Thompson, both paternal and maternal sides of the family being of Scottish ancestry. The father, Alexander Thompson, was born in Dalkeith, Scotland, in 1808, and spent the first twenty […]
Norman Gasbarro | January 24, 2012
For the past two days this blog has dealt with the question of whether the story of Laura Keene (1826-1873) at the Lincoln assassination was true, was a hoax, or was a legend. Many writers about the Lincoln assassination tell that Keene, after the fatal shot was fired, made her way to the state box […]
Norman Gasbarro | January 23, 2012
For the purpose of determining whether it was possible for Laura Keene to move through a crowded theatre on the night of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and get to the State Box, actual architectural renderings of the theatre were located and examined. In 1963, in conjunction with a major restoration of the theatre, […]
Norman Gasbarro | January 22, 2012
The story of Laura Keene and the bloody dress from the Lincoln assassination has been told many times. Consider these recent versions: There are three doctors, a half dozen soldiers, and a small army of theater patrons who have battled their way into the box. And then, almost absurdly, the actress Laura Keene forces her […]
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