While doing research for my PowerPoint on Arkansas History, I was often distracted while reading through the microfilm copies of my local papers. I included some of those stories in my slideshow, since they qualified for my subject about unusual Arkansas history.
The following story was published in the Baxter Bulletin, the paper for Mountain Home, Arkansas. It is interesting to note that conspiracy theories about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln probably started with his death and were repeated well into the early part of the 20th century.
The Baxter Bulletin
May 13, 1927
Believes Booth Escaped
Some Think Lincoln’s Assassin Was Clerk of Stone County
“Old Pioneers of Mountain View do not believe that Wilkes Booth was captured, slain and buried in the sea after the assassination of President Lincoln, but that he and Julius E. Andrews, first elective clerk of Stone County were one and the same person. Andrews appeared in Stone County in 1774 (1874?), as a mysterious unknown. He was well educated and admitted he was an actor. Running for the office of County Clerk, he was elected. Shortly after his election, William Goodman, a citizen of the county, who knew Booth, identified Andrews as Booth, and shortly after this, Andrews left, after defrauding the county of some $2,000 of scrip. Bob Ginn of Mountain View still has two pieces of the scrip which he issued.”
Reprinted from Baxter Bulletin May 13, 1927
Microfilm reel Baxter Bulletin #6, Feb. 12, 1926 (Vol. 25, #7)- May 3, 1932 (Vol.31, #23) Baxter County Library, Mountain Home, Arkansas
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