Editor's Note - While this remarkable story had its setting in an incident 21 years ago, it reveals a number of facts concerning the inspection of Abraham Lincoln's tomb hitherto not generally known.
One striking instance is the description of the almost perfect state of preservation in which the body was found by the investigators - after it had been interred for 36 years.
The leaden casket was pried open and the remains viewed. The face of the martyred president corresponded precisely to the pictures by which the present generation knows him; even to the faint smile on the lips.
The experience of B.D. Monroe, set forth in the accompanying article, probably never will fall to the lot of another man.
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By Harold D. Robinson,
International News Service Staff Correspondent
Springfield, Ill., Jan. 25 - The man who last saw Abraham Lincoln, B.D. Monroe, of this city, today recalled memories of the great emancipator's appearance when human eyes last looked upon him, twenty-one years ago today. Monroe was a member of the board of trustees of the Lincoln monument, who secretly opened the martyred president's coffin before it was sealed in a huge mass of steel and concrete beneath the shaft erected in his honor.
Before the trustees would certify that Lincoln's remains were actually in the casket, in the face of many rumors that the body had been removed, they determined to open the casket and make positive identification. A Lincoln guard of honor was gathered in secret in one of the rooms of the monument. It included B.D. Monroe, then Assistant Attorney-General of Illinois; Jacob Thompson, of Springfield; Mrs. Alfred Bayliss, of Kent, Ohio, then Miss Clara Kern; W.O. Williamson, of Gailsburg, Ill.; Joseph H. Freeman, of Aurora, Ill.; Ross Culver, of Springfield, and John H. Brenholt of Alton, Ill., then acting governor, all of whom are still alive, and Floyd K. Whittemore, James S. McCullough, George M. Black, Clinton L. Conkling, Joseph P. Lindley, Major Edward S. Johnson, Mrs. Edward S. Johnson and Jasper N. Reece, now dead.
Casket Opened
The sarcophagus was brought into the room and was opened. Inside was a cedar box and when this was opened by workmen a leaden casket was exposed. The casket was very long, very wide and very shallow. Three workmen with chisels began cutting an opening over the head and breast. When they had cut out and raised a section of the leaden lid the trustees gathered and beheld Lincoln.
"He looked just like the picture," said Monroe as he was reminiscing. "His features were extremely pallid and that faint, sweet smile of his rested upon his lips."
"His beard was plainly visible," Monroe continued. "Part of his hair had fallen out. His shirt front and his black silk steek were well preserved, but the rest of his clothing had begun to fall to pieces. He had been buried thirty-six years.
"I was standing closest to the casket as the workmen replaced the section they had cut from the lid. I watched the shadow of the lid fall across Lincoln's face as that face disappeared from mortal view forever."
Newspaper men were barred from the monument chamber during the opening of the casket. The official report of the proceeding was given out as follows:
"In the presence of several members of the Lincoln guard of honor the casket was opened and the remains viewed by persons present and fully identified. It was found that the remains were in a good state of preservation, after which the casket reached and consigned in our presence to the place prepared for the same in the monument.
Rumors Cause Action
The rumors that Lincoln's body no longer rested within its sarcophagus, which caused the opening of the casket, developed from an attempt to steal the body in 1876.
Benjamin Boyd, an engraver, had been given a penitentiary sentence after his conviction on a charge of counterfeiting. Terrence Mullens and Jack Hughes, who passed the counterfeit bills printed by Boyd were unable to operate with the engraver in prison. They conceived the plan of stealing Lincoln's body from its tomb at Springfield and holding it as hostage for Boyd's release.
The plot called for the taking of the body in a wagon to the Indiana sand dune and burying it between two trees where the shifting sands would quickly blot out all traces of recent digging. The counterfeiters were then to demand the pardon of their engraver and the payment of $200,000 for the return of the body.
Wind of the plot reached Captain P.D. Tyrrell, chief of the United States Secret Service in the Illinois district. He assigned Lewis G. Swegles to the case.
Master Body Snatcher
Swegles, posing as a master body snatcher who supplied medical schools with cadavers, inducted the conspirators to enlist his services. They took him into their confidence and on the night of November 7, 1876, the three went to the tomb equipped with saws, files, chisels, axes, and dark lanterns.
The padlock on the door of the tomb was cut away and they entered the chamber where Lincoln's body rested. The outer cover of the casket was pried off. The casket was pulled partly out of the sarcophagus and work was begun upon its lid. A signal from Swegles brought a squad of Secret Service men stationed in another room and the plotters were caught red handed. They received sentences of one year in prison.
The body was hidden in various parts of the monument following the attempted theft. It was moved seventeen times before it was sealed in its final resting place deep in the foundations of the monument.
Comment: Opening the casket and moving Lincoln's body to the monument happened September 26, 1901 (that info from genealogytrails.com). The above article, 21 years later, then, is from 1922 or 1923. I'm not sure why the article's dateline says January 25. The original source of the article is unknown. It was in a scrapbook. There's some more information on the exhumation at this link at genealogytrails.com.
Another witness, Moses O. Williamson, state treasurer of Illinois from 1901-03, said, "There was Lincoln looking just like his last pictures, seemingly asleep. His face was darker than yours or mine now. But that was to be expected. Otherwise there was scarcely a change. His features stood out as they had been engraved in my memory from pictures of him. It seemed as though we might have spoken to him and awakened him. He wore a black bow tie and one bow was slightly mildewed. But those were the only signs of decomposition we could observe. It was an impressive occasion. Then the casket was again sealed." (Source for quotes in this paragraph, The Bridgeport Telegram, Connecticut, Feb. 3, 1925, p. 4).
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