A reader asks: “Is it Fate that picked this (most foul) year of our Lord 2009 to reveal this hidden message?”
Good point, considering the watch’s message and the signals we are getting from Washington, DC. –Ed.
For nearly 150 years, a story has circulated about a hidden Civil War message engraved inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. On Tuesday, museum curators confirmed it was true. A watchmaker used tiny tools to carefully pry open the antique watch at the National Museum of American History, and a descendant of the engraver read aloud the message from a metal plate underneath the watch face.
“Jonathan Dillon April 13 – 1861,” part of the inscription reads, “Fort Sumpter (sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date.” Another part reads, “Thank God we have a government.”
The words were etched intiny cursive handwriting and filled the the space between tiny screwsand gears that jutted through the metal plate. A magnifying glass wasrequired to read them.
Jonathan Dillon,then a watchmaker on Pennsylvania Avenue, had Lincoln’s watch in hishands when he heard the first shots of the Civil War had been fired inSouth Carolina. The Irish immigrant later recalled being the only Unionsympathizer working at the shop in a divided Washington.
Dillon’sstory was passed down among his family and friends, eventually reachinga New York Times reporter. In a 1906 article in the paper, an84-year-old Dillon said no one, including Lincoln, ever saw theinscription as far as he knew.
Dillon hada fuzzy recollection of what he had engraved. He told the newspaper hehad written: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God wehave a president who at least will try.”
For years the story went unconfirmed.
Thewatchmaker’s great-great grandson, Doug Stiles, first heard the tale ofthe engraving from his great uncle decades ago. He said the story hadreached extended family as far away as Ireland.
Afew months ago, he used Google to find the New York Times story, andlast month he passed the information along to Smithsonian curators, whoknew nothing about the engraving.
OnTuesday, watchmaker George Thomas, who volunteers at the museum, spentseveral minutes carefully opening the watch as an audience of reportersand museum workers watched on a video monitor.
“Themoment of truth has come. Is there or is there not an inscription?”Thomas said, teasing the audience, which gasped when he confirmed itwas there. He called Stiles up to read his ancestor’s words, drawingsmiles and a few sighs of relief.
“Like Pearl Harbor or 9/11, this was the reaction he had (to the Civil War,)” Stiles said of the inscription.
Later, Stiles said he felt closer to the 16th president.
“My gosh, that was Lincoln’s watch,” he said, “and my ancestor put graffiti on it!”
Lincoln’sfamily kept the watch until it was donated to the museum in 1958. Itwas Lincoln’s everyday pocket watch, one of the president’s onlyvaluable possessions he brought with him to the White House fromSpringfield, Ill., said Harry Rubenstein, curator of the museum’spolitics and reform division.
“I think itjust captures a bit of history that can transform you to another timeand place,” he said. “It captures the excitement, the hope of awatchmaker in Washington.”
The watch willgo back on display at the museum by Wednesday as part of the exhibit,”Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life.” It will have a new label totell Dillon’s story and a photo of the inscription.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,508624,00.html