Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and, arguably, the most notable president in history due to his efforts in ending slavery, guiding the nation through the Civil War and his notorious demise, had one of the most spectacular funeral processions of any US leader.
While the funeral procession traveled 1,700 miles and lasted 20 days, his replica coffin was only in Bothell for one day – marking it’s momentary resting place at Life Celebrations on 103rd Street for Lincoln’s Birthday.
“It’s a great honor to have [the Lincoln coffin],” said Kevin Smith, funeral director and manager of Life Celerations by Washelli. “Most people don’t have the opportunity to have this piece of history in their facilities and we’re just so thankful that we had the opportunity.”
Along with displaying the coffin, historian and funeral expert, Jack Norvell, spoke about Lincoln to a small crowd of history enthusiasts.
Norvell went into little known facts about the Civil War, such as the war starting and ending with one Wilmer McLean, whose kitchen was artillery shelled at the First Battle of Bull Run and whose living room held the meeting where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
However, the bulk of the information was about the assassination plots, the hunt for the killer and his accomplices thereafter.
There were several people involved in the final assassination and four would be hung, including the first woman ever given lethal capital punishment in the US, Mary Surratt. The conspirator’s met at Surratt’s boarding house, John Wilkes Booth, George Atzerodt, Lewis Paine and David Herold met to plan the assassination of Lincoln.
Atzerodt chickened out of killing Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Paine and Herold were thwarted by a metal cast Secretary of State William Seward wore after a carriage accident. Unfortunately, Booth was successful in killing Lincoln
Around 10:15 p.m., during the comedy “Our American Cousin,” actor Harry Hawk stood alone onstage and spoke the last words “You ole’ sockdologizing mantrap.”
Booth, who had snuck into the Presidential box at the Ford Theater, let loose the sole shot in his derringer and then leapt to the stage to escape, fracturing his left tibia at the ankle, and then escaped while shouting, “Sic Semper Tyranis,” or “Thus always to tyrants,” taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Even with current medical technologies, Lincoln’s wound would still have proven fatal. Lincoln would succumb to his wounds the next morning.
Booth would go on the run, expecting to return to the south as a hero, but was soon cornered by the law. Rather than give up to federal troops, he shot himself in the neck. His accomplices would hang from the gallows around three months later.
Lincoln’s solid walnut coffin, a six-sided burial box, cost $1,500 in 1865, more than $20,000 in today’s money. The replica, though, is not made of the exact materials.
“I think it’s fantastic. I didn’t know there were replicas, so I think it’s wonderful it came here to Bothell,” said Bothell resident Janice Crosetti. “I think it’s wonderful that we have an opportunity here, in the PNW, to see a big part of our national history.”
A national history some may have to head back east, to Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Ill., or to Washington D.C., to see. The replica was on display for one day only at the Life Celebrations funeral home, however it was a fortuitous moment to have the replica on Lincoln’s birthday.
“The timing was perfect, we had it on Lincoln’s birthday,” Smith said. “The timing really worked out for us. We’re just glad that we can offer this to the community and bring this history closer to home.”
