It was high drama at the American History Museum Tuesday morning (March 10, 2009). We were on the edge of our seats. Word was out that a pocket watch that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln might have a secret message engraved inside of it.
The evidence, while not overwhelming, was enough to pique the museum’s interest. It began on Lincoln’s 200th birthday, February 12 of this year, when attorney Doug Stiles from Waukegan, Illinois, phoned curator Harry Rubenstein with an intriguing tale. Stiles said that his great, great grandfather Jonathan Dillon worked for a Washington, D.C., jeweler and that according family lore on the day that Fort Sumter was fired upon, Dillon was at work repairing Lincoln’s gold pocket watch. Dillon later retold the story to a New York Times reporter. Upon hearing the news that war had begun, the watch maker said that he unscrewed the dial and engraved an inscription into the brass underside of the movement: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.”
Stiles wanted to know if the museum would open the watch and see if his ancestor’s inscription was really there.
[Continue Reading at Secret Message Found Today in Lincoln's Watch.]
Amazing that it took 200 years for something as simple to be found. Makes me wonder what other gems could really be found if looked for.
