2 fascinating reasons why Wearside and Tyneside are forever linked to Abraham Lincoln and the day he died
It is incredible to think that both Sunderland and Jarrow had a part in one of the most famous events in US history.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln happened in 1865, but how many of you knew that Sunderland man Tom Taylor and South Tyneside man William H Hall were involved.
The President was at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, USA and was watching a play called Our American Cousin which was the work of Bishopwearmouth-born Tom Taylor who came from a wealthy family.
Taylor had an illustrious career. He was an English dramatist as well as editor of Punch magazine and was once a Professor at University College, London.
Fatally shot while watching a Wearside man’s play
His three-act play was a play about an American who claims a family estate in England.
But tragedy befell Lincoln while he was watching the play when John Wilkes Booth fatally shot him.
William H Hall was the man who had gone to the aid of US president Abraham Lincoln after he was mortally wounded.
Son of a Jarrow clergyman
William was later to receive retrospective recognition back in his home area of South Tyneside in 1952.
Mr Hall was son of a Jarrow clergyman. He swapped the South Shields area for the USA when he went to America as a young man and began a business in Memphis, Tennessee.
He served with the 12th Illinois Cavalry
When the American Civil War broke out he joined the Northern forces, and in 1861 served with the 12th Illinois Cavalry.
After being wounded, Mr Hall attended an army appointment in Washington in 1865 and found himself near President Lincoln’s box in the Ford Theatre when a shot rang out.
Shot by a crazed actor
He rushed in and found the president dying – he had been shot by a crazed actor – and helped carry him to a house nearby.
In 1952, and in recognition of the efforts of Mr Hall, who had died at the age of 89 a few years earlier, a wreath in his honour was sent from the American embassy in London.
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