All Summer Long...

I have wanted to watch the movie about Abraham Lincoln..

 Now I have even more interest in doing so as I came across a story on my family tree that connects to it!

No! I did not find out I was related to President Lincoln but yes, I have an ancestor through marriage that witnessed the assassination for himself when he was five years old.

Samuel James Seymour
1860-1956

Samuel J. Seymour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel J. Seymour
Born	Samuel James Seymour March 28, 1860 Maryland, U.S.
Died	April 12, 1956 (aged 96) Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Resting place	Loudon Park National Cemetery Baltimore, Maryland 39°16′49″N 76°40′31″W
Known for	Last surviving person to witness the assassination of U.S. President Lincoln

Samuel James Seymour (March 28, 1860 – April 12, 1956) was the last surviving person who had been present in Ford's Theater the night of the assassination of U.S. PresidentAbraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. He was from Maryland and lived in Arlington, Virginiain his later years.

At age five, Seymour's godmother, Mrs. George S. Goldsboro, took him to see Our American Cousin. He claimed the two sat in the balcony on the side opposite Lincoln's box. Seymour reported that "I complained tearfully that I couldn't get out of the coach because my shirt was torn—anything to delay the dread moment—but Sarah (nurse Sarah Cook) dug into her bag and found a big safety pin. I shook so hard from fright, it caused Sarah to accidentally stab me with the pin. I hollered 'I've been shot! I've been shot!'"^[1]

Once in the theater, Seymour settled down. He saw the President across the balcony as he was waving and smiling at people. Seymour said "I began to get over the scared feeling I'd had ever since we arrived in Washington, but that was something I never should have done. All of a sudden a shot rang out—a shot that always will be remembered—and someone in the President's box screamed. I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat."^[1]Seymour did not actually see the assassination but did witness Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth jump off the balcony. In fact, he revealed that because he did not know Lincoln was shot or that Booth had shot him, his real concern was for Booth.^[1]

Just two months before his death, at age 95, he appeared on the February 9, 1956 episode of the CBS TV quiz show I've Got a Secretas a mystery subject, in an episode in which Lucille Ball made an unusual appearance as a guest panelist. Seymour incorrectly gave his age on the show as 96, although his 96th birthday was actually not until March 28, several weeks later. Seymour died at the home of Mrs. Irene (Horn) Hendley, his daughter in Arlington, Va. He had been in failing health since February when he fell in a New York City hotel while preparing to appear on "I've Got A Secret". He came on the show with his left eye swollen. Garry Moore had suggested he not appear, but Seymour insisted. In the episode, he was initially questioned by Bill Cullen but it was Jayne Meadows who guessed Seymour's claim to fame. Moore generously awarded Seymour the $80.00 he would have won had he stumped the panel, and a can of Prince Albert pipe tobacco rather than the usual prize of a carton of Winston cigarettes (Winston was the show's sponsor, but Seymour did not smoke cigarettes).

Samuel J. Seymour, who made his home in Baltimore, MD, for many decades, where he worked as a carpenter and contractor, was survived by five children, 13 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren. He was interred at Loudon Park Cemetery, in Baltimore, MD.

Seymour died 15 days after his 96th birthday, two days shy of the 91st anniversary of the Lincoln assassination, and 63 days after his appearance on I've Got A Secret.

Here is my connection...

Jean Gordon Muir

1882-1961

Jean was my 3rd cousin 2x removed grand daughter of John Muir and Sarah Craig

I wrote about them and their family back in March of this year.

Yesterday I found the pictures of Jean and her husband

.

Silas Martin Amrein

1876-1941

Jean and Silas

Stay with me almost there! Silas had a brother and sister in law..

Rudolph Junius Adolphus Amrein 1884-1910

Florence Louisa Seymour 1891-

Florence was the daughter of Samuel James Seymour

So it is a very distant connection but I enjoyed reading about it.

 My Craig/ Muir Line is amazing me on how many descendants came from them
 and how much information and how many photographs I have been able to add to my Tree.

More about Mary...

Along with the previous pictures of my cousin Mary Craig was this one showing five generations of the Muir/Craig family.   This photograph shows Mary holding her great grandson on her lap, his name was Richard Earl Meagher.  Richard was born in 1906 and looks like he could be around a year old here so I would date this as being taken around 1907/1908.  His lovely Mother is Jeanette Pearl Miller Meagher standing behind with her arm leaning on the chair dressed all in white.

Jeanette's (or Jennie as she was called) ...

1889-1981

daughter of Margaret Bell Muir Miller...

1873-1950

Margaret Bell Muir is the daughter Jeanette Margaret Telford Muir...

1853-1918

Jeanette Margaret Telford was the wife of Mary Craig Muir's eldest son Micheal who was born in Dreghorn,  Ayrshire, Scotland in 1847 and died in Maryland in 1901. No photo of him and his burial plot does not have a headstone. The lady in black is Jeanette Wilson Muir Bradburn eldest daughter of Mary Craig Muir...

1849-1939

Richard Earl Meagher

1906-1970

son of Charles Meagher and Jennie Pearl Miller had a sister born in 1909 and a brother born in 1911.  His father Charles  died in a Mine accident in 1911.  The newspaper reports he left a widow and two children with no mention of the child his widow would give birth to 5 months after his death.

Jennie Pearl Miller Meaghan married again around 1917 to James Francis Ryan and had seven more children. She died in Morgantown , West Virginia in 1981.

There is a lot of information on the Internet about the history  of the Lonaconing area in Maryland at the time my ancestors lived in the area.  To think they were there during the Civil War and the selling of Slaves makes me wonder how they coped with it all.

My Favorite Things...

Yes, I think I like most of these things! But my favorite thing by far this week were all the wonderful old photographs I found for my Family Tree.  And out of all of them the following won pictures of the week.

John Muir and Mary Craig

Mary Craig 1823-1916

Mary is my 1st cousin 4x removed. The daughter of William Craig my 3rd Great Grand Uncle and his wife Janet Jamieson. Born on the Holms of Glengavel Farm in Ayrshire Scotland.

Mary married John Muir in 1847 and they had three children before emigrating to the United States around 1852.  They settled in Lonoconing, Maryland where John worked at the Eckhart Mines.  Six more children were born to them the last three were born the same time that Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States.

List of Children...

Micheal Muir 1847-1901

Jeanette Wilson Muir 1849-1939

William Craig Muir 1851-1933

John Muir 1853-1913

Matthew Muir 1856-1924

Mary Craig Muir 1859-1907

Margaret Muir 1861-1951

David Muir- 1863-1951

Robert Craig Muir 1866-1947

Jeanette Wilson Muir

William Craig Muir and Elizabeth Robertson and their children.

Matthew Muir and Christina Schaidt and their children.

Margaret Muir with her husband Hugh Henry Atkinson and their children.

Whitehaven....

It seems I am always writing about my Family History and ancestors from the Lake District of England  reason being that many many of them  and their descendents lived and died there. Others moved to different and more exiting parts of the world.

My English Craig Line starts out in Harrington, Cumberland, England.  Robert Craig married Sarah Fearon  in 1808, where he came from before his marriage I do not know.  The Parish entry only states he was from Harrington at the time of their marriage.  They had four children, I am descended from their second child and daughter Sarah born in 1812.

Their fourth child a son  Joseph born in 1816  married Mary Hodgson in 1837,  Joseph was a Boot and Shoemaker like his father.  He moved his business and family to Whitehaven where they had seven children.

Whitehaven is a very quaint  and historic town built in Georgian times well known for it's architecture and the tall ships built there that would sail in and out of it's Harbor.

In 1676  their were 32 ships. By 1685 their were 46 and in 1689 their were 55 based there.

The main export was coal.  By the 1670's  tobacco was imported from Virginia then rum and sugar.  By 1670 the population was around 1000 by 1700 it reached 3000 and the present day it is over 25.000 . During the of   time of the American War of Independence a ship captained by John Paul Jones who was born in Scotland and trained in Whitehaven attacked the Port and 3 ships were sunk in the harbor.

And, if  Mildred Gale's son Augustine had not returned  to America after his mother passed away maybe George Washington would not have been our First President.

  Mildred Gale's second husband George Gale was a prominent merchant who forged trade links between Virginia and Whitehaven and moved his family there.     

By the time Joseph and Mary's sixth child Joseph was born in 1854 Whitehaven was a prosperous and bustling place.  This Joseph married a Mary Frazer and they had fourteen children. The Census Records show them living at a couple of different addresses by 1901 they lived over the hairdresser's and wig shop he owned. (Blue arrow below points down to it)

Recently I received pictures and information from   a cousin in Australia who is the Grandson of one of Joseph and Elizabeth's daughters.

May Craig was the   seventh child of Joseph Craig and Elizabeth Frazer born in 1890.

First Picture - May age 19 before sailing to Australia taken in Manchester,Lancashire, England.

May's Mother Elizabeth had taken several of her daughters to Manchester and opened a family business sewing shirts and men's suits before she moved back to Whitehaven.

Second Picture May with her husband John Blackburn and son John or Jack Blackburn.  Taken in Melbourne, Australia.

May travelled to Australia alone at age 24 to meet up with her  future husband who had gone on ahead 2 years earlier  arriving there in June of 1913 .

  Notes from her Grandson tell me she was an accomplished seamstress, men's suit tailor and a wigmaker.

I am thankful to her grandson Ray for sharing this and a lot more information with me on the rest of her brothers and sisters.

  It is so fun to be able to put faces with names.  May is my second cousin three times removed our common ancestors being Robert Craig and Sarah Fearon.