# The Last Lincoln Assassination Witness?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 28, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258 "2012-04-28T19:03:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/1 "2012-04-28T19:03:20Z")
I’m new to this site,so please tell me if this is the wrong place for this thread.Anyway,this subject probably won’t be interesting to most of you,but I saw several “last person”-type threads up here,so I thought I’d raise a similar subject.Here is what I wanted to know:How sure are we,really,that Samuel Seymour was the last person who witnessed President Lincoln’s assassination?Don’t get me wrong,it is amazing that a person who was at Ford’s Theater lived until 1956.But who’s to say one of the witnesses didn’t live longer?After all,there were around 1700 people at the theater that night,probably at least a few dozen of them babies.Suppose that there were 25 babies and one lived 93 years.That would mean they lived until 1958,two years after Seymour died.Of course,a baby wouldn’t remember the event,but technically they’d still be a wittness.I’ll probably get a lot of ridicule for suggesting the idea,but I just thought it was an interesting possibility.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/2 "2012-04-28T19:20:33Z")
taking an infant to the theater is unlikely, but I’ll wager that one of the ladies there that night was pregnant, so that’s a witness whose clock hasn’t even started yet.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/3 "2012-04-28T19:21:47Z")
> [@JRyan35](#):
>
> How sure are we,really,that Samuel Seymour was the last person who witnessed President Lincoln’s assassination? Don’t get me wrong,it is amazing that a person who was at Ford’s Theater lived until 1956.
You answered yourself: pretty sure because many more people died before their 90s back then. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a few great grandparents got quizzed about their whereabouts on April 14, 1865 after that was broadcast.
> [@](#):
>
> But who’s to say one of the witnesses didn’t live longer?
I live outside Chicago, where Lincoln worked, and we’d both be surprised ANY witnesses survived, if you know what I mean. 😉
> [@](#):
>
> I’ll probably get a lot of ridicule for suggesting the idea,but I just thought it was an interesting possibility.
Ridicule? Here? But it IS an interesting possibility and we welcome interesting possibilities, as we welcome you.
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/4 "2012-04-28T19:43:12Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#):
>
> taking an infant to the theater is unlikely, but I’ll wager that one of the ladies there that night was pregnant, so that’s a witness whose clock hasn’t even started yet.
I agree that taking an infant to the theater doesn’t make much sense.but don’t some of the eyewitness accounts of the shooting mention crying babies?And wasn’t Samuel Seymour himself only about five at the time?I have to give you credit for the pregnant-ladies idea,though;I hadn’t even thought of that idea.One of those yet-to-be-born babies would have had to live "only"about 91 years to outlive Seymour,right?
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/5 "2012-04-28T19:46:28Z")
By the way,thanks for the reply,Dropzone,and for the welcome.My theory probably was fanciful,but I guess that’s the kind of thing you come up with when you have nothing to do.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/6 "2012-04-28T19:51:34Z")
Welcome to the board, **Ryan**. Yours was not at all a stupid question, so thank you for posing it. It might just start an interesting digression.
Or not. You take your chances around here.
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/7 "2012-04-28T20:00:31Z")
That was funny,Silenus,and thanks for the reassurance about the question;I was beginning to have doubts about my sanity.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/8 "2012-04-28T21:11:52Z")
Similar thread: [Video of Lincoln assassination eyewitness on "I've Got a Secret" 1956 - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=648407)
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### Author:  [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/9 "2012-04-28T21:15:01Z")
The thread made me want to post a recording of Benjamin Harrison’s voice, 1889.
I toured Warren Harding’s home here in Ohio before and they have a recording of his voice there they play for the visitors, he died in 1923.
Just think if Edison had invented his machine during Lincoln’s time, we might know what he sounded like. I have read a few sources that stated he had sort of a high pitched voice?
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/10 "2012-04-28T22:27:23Z")
> [@JRyan35](#):
>
> How sure are we,really,that Samuel Seymour was the last person who witnessed President Lincoln’s assassination?
We are absolutely sure that Samuel Seymour _wasn’t_ the last living person to have witnessed Lincoln’s assassination. He openly admitted that he did not witness it, but was merely present in the theatre when it happened.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/11 "2012-04-28T22:33:51Z")
> [@lawbuff](#):
>
> The thread made me want to post a recording of Benjamin Harrison’s voice, 1889.
>
> I toured Warren Harding’s home here in Ohio before and they have a recording of his voice there they play for the visitors, he died in 1923.
>
> Just think if Edison had invented his machine during Lincoln’s time, we might know what he sounded like. I have read a few sources that stated he had sort of a high pitched voice?
>
> [Benjamin Harrison Speech Excerpt - 1889 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](http://archive.org/details/harrison1889)
That was very cool. Thanks for sharing it!
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/12 "2012-04-28T23:14:33Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> We are absolutely sure that Samuel Seymour _wasn’t_ the last living person to have witnessed Lincoln’s assassination. He openly admitted that he did not witness it, but was merely present in the theatre when it happened.
It is true that he didn’t see the assassination itself,but he saw Booth escaping from the Presidential box,so he _was_
a witness of the event.
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### Author:  [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/13 "2012-04-28T23:15:14Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#):
>
> That was very cool. Thanks for sharing it!
You are most welcome.
I toured the R.B.Hayes museum before in Fremont and they have the actual house slippers Lincoln was wearing the night he died.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/14 "2012-04-28T23:32:36Z")
There was a young kid who saw Lincoln’s face (who was well preserved in fact) during an exhumation around the year 1900, making him the last person to gaze upon the visage of the Great Emancipator. Gave him nightmares for a nimber of years too.
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/15 "2012-04-28T23:43:11Z")
> [@lawbuff](#):
>
> You are most welcome.
>
> I toured the R.B.Hayes museum before in Fremont and they have the actual house slippers Lincoln was wearing the night he died.
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> There was a young kid who saw Lincoln’s face (who was well preserved in fact) during an exhumation around the year 1900, making him the last person to gaze upon the visage of the Great Emancipator. Gave him nightmares for a nimber of years too.
Lawbuff,
That’s interesting;why do they have President Lincoln’s slippers at the President Hayes museum?
John DiFool,
I think I’ve read about that guy.I hadn’t heard about the nightmares,though;I guess I’d have nightmares too if I had been him.Do you remember his name?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/16 "2012-04-28T23:52:09Z")
> [@JRyan35](#):
>
> I think I’ve read about that guy.I hadn’t heard about the nightmares,though;I guess I’d have nightmares too if I had been him.Do you remember his name?
I found this: [Abraham Lincoln's Body Exhumed](http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln13.html)
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/17 "2012-04-29T00:47:21Z")
Thanks for the link,Hajario.That was very interesting.I wonder if Fleetwood Lindley had any children who are still alive?That would mean there are still people living who are the children of a person who saw Abraham Lincoln.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/18 "2012-04-29T00:56:24Z")
Punctuation is not a replacement for spaces.
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/19 "2012-04-29T01:18:23Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Punctuation is not a replacement for spaces.
What.do,you;mean?
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-lincoln-assassination-witness/620258/20 "2012-04-29T01:26:19Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> We are absolutely sure that Samuel Seymour _wasn’t_ the last living person to have witnessed Lincoln’s assassination. He openly admitted that he did not witness it, but was merely present in the theatre when it happened.
That’s threading the needle at bit, isn’t it? If we use that standard, then only Mrs. Lincoln, Booth, Major Rathbone, and his date were the only witnesses. But, then again, they didn’t see anything under after the shot, so they really didn’t witness it either.
Was Seymour taking a leak at the time or doing something different than any other patron of the theater that makes him less of a witness than others there that night?
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