The Untold Mysteries of History

The Untold Mysteries of History History remembers the facts. We investigate the questions. Exploring the greatest unsolved mysteries, hidden truths, and forgotten chapters of the past.

In David Hackett Fischer’s 1989 book Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, he examines how British folkways c...
05/12/2026

In David Hackett Fischer’s 1989 book Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, he examines how British folkways carried over into colonial America. One particularly interesting part of the book addresses baby naming patterns.
Fischer identifies four general Britain to America migration patterns: East Anglia to Massachusetts, the South of England to Virginia, Quaker migration to the Delaware Valley, and Ulster and the Borderlands migration to the Southern backcountry. In each case the settlers adopted and employed different naming patterns.
In New England, Biblical names were favored. Over 90% of all first names of New England-born babies were taken from the Bible. Over half the baby girls in New England were named Mary, Elizabeth, or Sarah. Likewise, for boys, John, Joseph, Samuel, and Josiah were the popular names. But some Biblical names were considered too bold and were rarely used—Moses, Adam, Abraham, and Solomon, for example. Emmanuel and Jesus were taboo, as were angel names such as Michael and Gabriel. Two-thirds of firstborn New England children were given their parent’s first name. Also interesting was the common use of “necronyms” (re-using the names of dead children). After a baby in New England died, 80% of the time the dead child’s name was re-used for the next child born of the same s*x.
In Virginia, Biblical names were much less common than in New England. For boys, Virginians favored the names of kings, knights, and heroes. William, Robert, Richard, Edward, George, and Charles were the most popular boys' names. For girls, Virginians generally chose traditional English names, some of which are Biblical but some being of saints who do not appear in the Bible. The most popular girls’ names were Margaret, Jane, Catherine, Frances, Alice, Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, and Sarah. First-born Virginia children tended to be named after their grandparents, with second children often being given their parent’s first names. Virginians did sometimes use necronyms, but far less frequently than New Englanders.
For boys, Quakers used a mix of Biblical and traditional English names such as John, Joseph, William, Thomas, Samuel, Francis, and George. For girls they favored the Biblical Mary, Elizabeth, and Sarah, while adding favorites like Phoebe, Grace, Mercy, Chastity, and Hannah. Quakers tended to follow a distinct pattern of naming: the oldest son was most often named after his maternal grandfather, the next son was named after his paternal grandfather, and the third son was named after his father; likewise, the first-born daughter was usually named after her paternal grandmother, the next daughter was named after her maternal grandmother, and the third daughter was usually named after her mother.
As for the backcountry settlers, Albion writes, “The onomastic customs of these people were unique. Favored forenames in the backcountry included a mixture of biblical names (John was the top choice), Teutonic names (such as Robert or Richard), and the names of border saints (especially Andrew, Patrick, David). This combination did not exist in any other English-speaking culture.” The saints’ names (Andrew, Patrick, and David), he notes, “were rare in the other regional cultures of British America. Davids were few and far between in New England and the Delaware Valley; Puritans and Quakers were not amused by King David’s biblical antics. Patricks were uncommon in Anglican Virginia and nearly unknown in Puritan New England. Harvard College did not admit a single undergraduate named Patrick in all the years from 1636 to 1820. But in Cumberland Country, Pennsylvania, Patrick was the fourth most popular name on military muster rolls during the eighteenth century.” As in Tidewater Virginia, the backcountry settlers named their eldest sons after their grandfathers and their second or third sons after their fathers.
While traces of these naming traditions remain, in time, of course, these cultural practices were generally lost as the population grew and cultures merged and were assimilated into broader society.
The painting is “Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and baby Mary,” painted in Boston in the 1670s.

In 1842, at age 33, Abraham Lincoln sent two letters to the local Springfield newspaper, criticizing a political opponen...
05/12/2026

In 1842, at age 33, Abraham Lincoln sent two letters to the local Springfield newspaper, criticizing a political opponent. Calling the man, among other things, a fool and a liar, he signed the letters “Rebecca.” Lincoln was courting Mary Todd at the time, and she was aware of Lincoln’s letters. Thinking such a thing to be great fun, Mary began sending her own “Rebecca” letters to the paper, poking fun at the man mercilessly and ridiculing him for being unmarried. In due course the man felt things had gone too far and he stormed into the newspaper office demanding to know if Abraham Lincoln was the author of the letters. When told that the letters had indeed come from Lincoln, the man challenged Lincoln to a duel.
The man Lincoln had been prodding was not a person to be trifled with. James Shields was a fiery-tempered Irishman, who was serving as the Illinois state auditor. He would go on to serve as a general in the Mexican American War (where he was twice wounded) and is the only man in American history to have been elected to the U.S. Senate from three different states. His challenge put Lincoln in a bind. He couldn’t admit to writing the letters Mary Todd had sent, but to pass the blame to a young woman would make him appear to be a coward. So, he reluctantly accepted Shields’s challenge.
As the challenged party, Lincoln got to choose the weapons and set the rules for the duel. Duels were normally fought with pistols, but Lincoln knew that he would likely be killed if he fought Shields with pistols. So instead, he chose broadswords as the weapons, and he set rules that assured he would win the fight. Under Lincoln’s rules, he and Shields were to stand on opposite sides of a board, ten feet from each other. If either man stepped closer than that, the penalty was death. Being seven inches taller than Shields, Lincoln’s rules assured that he would be able to reach Shields with his sword, but that Shields would be unable to touch Lincoln. While Lincoln’s conditions were unsporting, he was within his rights to set them.
Shields saw of course that Lincoln had set rules designed to make it impossible for Lincoln to lose the fight. But Shields was no coward and on the morning of the duel he arrived ready to go forward, whatever the consequences.
As was the norm in such affairs, the men the combatants had chosen as “seconds” tried to negotiate an honorable resolution before the duel began. Exactly why Shields relented is unclear. By some accounts, while the seconds were negotiating Lincoln reached up and lopped off a large branch of a tree in a single swipe, convincing Shields that he ought to compromise. By other accounts, Lincoln’s second intimated to Shields’s man that Lincoln had been forced into the duel to protect the honor of a young lady, causing Shields to be satisfied with a toned-down apology. Whatever the reason, Lincoln agreed to admit writing the first letter, adding that he never intended to harm Shields’s character, a sort-of apology that Shields accepted. The duel was called off before Lincoln’s long arms had to go into action.
Lincoln later told a confidant that he felt confident he could have disarmed Shields, and that he had no intention of killing him. He found the whole episode profoundly embarrassing and for the rest of his life refused to discuss it. When asked by an army officer years later if the rumor that he had once nearly dueled James Shields was true, Lincoln replied that he would not deny it, but that if the officer wished to remain his friend, he would never speak of it again.
Lincoln and Shields patched up their differences and had a cordial relationship afterwards. During the Civil War, Shields was a general in the Union army and his commander in chief was the man he once nearly fought with broadswords on an island in the Mississippi.
Abraham Lincoln and James Shields met on Bloody Island, Missouri on the morning of September 22, 1842, one hundred eighty-three years ago today, to fight a duel, which fortunately was averted.

On Christmas Day, 1848, a young planter from Georgia arrived in Philadelphia, accompanied by his enslaved male body serv...
05/12/2026

On Christmas Day, 1848, a young planter from Georgia arrived in Philadelphia, accompanied by his enslaved male body servant. There was nothing unusual about that. But in this case, things were not as they seemed.
The young planter was in fact a runaway slave named Ellen Craft, and her supposed body servant was her enslaved husband, William. On their arrival in Philadelphia the couple had pulled off one of the most creative and daring slave escapes in American history—a feat that would make them famous.
William Craft was a skilled cabinetmaker, whose owner allowed him to hire himself out and keep part of his earnings. With money he earned that way, William bought the suit of clothes that Ellen (who was of mixed race, light-skinned and able to pass as white) would wear during the escape. On their journey north, the couple traveled openly, by train and steamship. To avoid conversation, Ellen pretended to be ill. To avoid having to write (she was illiterate) she traveled with her right arm in a sling.
Once safely in Philadelphia Ellen and William made contact with the abolitionist community there, where they were welcomed as heroes. They settled in a free black neighborhood in Boston and began speaking on the abolitionist lecture circuit, to large and admiring audiences. But with bounty hunters pursuing them and with the tightening of the Fugitive Slave Act, it soon became clear that it wasn’t safe for the Crafts to remain in the United States. So, in 1851 they escaped to Canada and from there traveled to England, where they would live for the next 19 years. Five children were born to them there.
While in England, Ellen learned to read and write and in 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War, she and William published Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, a popular and widely read account of their escape from slavery.
In 1868 the couple returned to America. After operating a farm and school in Georgia for a few years, they moved to Charleston South Carolina to live with their daughter Ellen and her husband Dr. William Crum. Ellen Craft passed away in 1891 at age 65. Her husband William died nine years later, at age 76.
Ellen and William Craft reached Philadelphia on December 25, 1848, one hundred seventy-seven years ago, completing their daring escape.

After his army was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexican president and general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna trie...
05/11/2026

After his army was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexican president and general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna tried to escape, disguised as a private. But he was captured, recognized, and brought before the wounded Texian commander Sam Houston, who accepted his surrender of his army. While in captivity Santa Anna signed a treaty recognizing the independence of Texas.
Upon his election as the first president of the Republic of Texas, Houston insisted that Santa Anna should be released and sent back to Mexico where he would presumably advocate for ratification of the treaty he had signed. But Houston did not intend to send Santa Anna back on the most direct route. Rather, he first had him es**rted to Washington D.C., along with a warm letter of introduction to Houston’s old friend Andrew Jackson, who was then the president of the United States.
“Dear Sir,” Houston’s letter to Jackson read, “Allow me the pleasure of introducing to the notice and kind attention of your Excellency, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the president of the Republic of Mexico. The distinction, and character of Gen’l Santa Anna, will supersede the necessity of my saying anything in his favor, so far as his reputation is a portion of the history of mankind! As an individual, I claim leave to recommend him to your manly, and generous regard. … I feel confident that with you he can at all times realize a just estimation of his worth as a soldier and a gentleman. As such, I hope you will allow me to recommend him to your attention, and regard.”
Jackson at that time was in the final weeks of his second term and was in poor health and making few public appearances. Nevertheless, on January 19, 1837 (one hundred eighty-nine years ago today), he welcomed Santa Anna with a White House reception and afterwards treated him to a state dinner. Writing later, Santa Anna recalled that “General Andrew Jackson greeted me warmly, and honored me at a dinner attended by notables of all countries.”
So, Sam Houston sends Santa Anna off to Washington D.C. with a glowing letter of introduction to the president and Andrew Jackson fetes him at the White House? What was that all about?
Houston wasn’t only trying to use Santa Anna’s favor in obtaining Mexican acknowledgment of Texas independence, he was also hoping the general could assist in convincing the United States to annex Texas, knowing that the U.S. would be reluctant to do so without Mexican consent. Although Jackson favored annexation, he was cautious, having declined to offer any direct support of the Texians during their war for independence, for example, and having chided Stephen F. Austin for their “rash and premature act.”
Once the diplomatic niceties were out of the way, Jackson and Santa Anna met to discuss ways to proceed. Santa Anna began by offering to sell Texas to the U.S. “for fair consideration.” Jackson countered that before the U.S. could do anything on the matter, Mexico would have to acknowledge the independence of Texas. Once that was accomplished, Jackson said, the U.S. would be willing to pay Mexico $3.5 million for northern California and to compensate Mexico for the loss of Texas, with the proposal predicated upon Mexican agreement to suspend all hostilities against Texas. Although Santa Anna responded that he had no authority to make such an agreement, Jackson must have felt that he had opened the door to future negotiations. He offered to return Santa Anna to Mexico aboard an American warship and the two men parted amicably.
The rest of the story will have to await future Doses. Suffice it for now to say that once Santa Anna was safely back in Mexico, he renounced the treaty he had signed after San Jacinto, saying that he had only done so under duress. And once out of office and back at his home in Tennessee, Jackson became increasingly convinced that the safety of the U.S. required the annexation of Texas, which might otherwise form an alliance with Great Britain, which could use Texas as a launching point for an invasion of the American west. “Texas must be ours,” he would declare, adding later, “peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must.”

In March 1836, with General Jose de Urrea’s Mexican army advancing on his position, Colonel James Fannin of the Texas Ar...
05/11/2026

In March 1836, with General Jose de Urrea’s Mexican army advancing on his position, Colonel James Fannin of the Texas Army made the fateful decision to abandon his fortified post at Fort Defiance and retreat. Encumbered by heavy artillery and baggage, Fannin’s greatly outnumbered force was soon overtaken by the Mexicans and surrounded. The battle that followed convinced Fannin that his situation was hopeless, and he opened surrender negotiations. After being led to believe his men would be paroled and deported, Fannin surrendered his army. Fannin’s defeat became the latest in a series of stinging Mexican victories over the Texas revolutionaries.
Supreme Mexican commander General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had no intention, however, of releasing the prisoners. The previous December he had caused the Mexican Congress to pass a law declaring that all captured “foreigners” were to be treated as pirates and executed. So, Santa Ana ordered de Urrea to execute all his prisoners.
At daybreak on Palm Sunday, the captured Texans were marched out of the prison camp under heavy guard, believing that they were being taken to a ship that would carry them to New Orleans. About a half mile from the camp, the Mexican soldiers, halted, turned toward the prisoners, and opened fire at point blank range. Nearly all the Texans were killed immediately. Those who survived the volley were bayoneted or clubbed to death. Back at the camp, the wounded prisoners who had been left behind because they unable to march (including Fannin) were likewise slaughtered. The bodies of the victims, 342 in all, were thrown into a pile and burned, their charred remains left for vultures and coyotes.
The capture and massacre of Fannin’s army came after Mexican victories at San Patricio, Agua Dulce, the Alamo, and Refugio. Before it was captured, Fannin’s command had been the last remaining Texas army in the field. Had Fannin’s men been paroled and deported to New Orleans, their humiliating defeat might have been the end of the Texas Revolution. But twenty-eight of the Texas prisoners escaped during the chaos of the massacre and carried the story of the atrocity to horrified and infuriated Texans and the American press. The massacre established Santa Anna’s reputation for cruelty and stirred the spirit of Texans, while winning support for their cause in the U.S., Great Britain, and France. A month later Sam Houston’s ragtag army defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, securing Texas independence.
The Goliad Massacre occurred on March 27, 1836, one hundred eighty-six years ago today.

On this date in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” was published in the New York Evening Mirror. It became the mos...
05/11/2026

On this date in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” was published in the New York Evening Mirror. It became the most popular piece of American literature to date and it made Poe famous. He was paid $9 for the poem, about $300 in today’s money.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
The image, by Gustave Doré, is from his 1884 illustrated edition of the poem.

Working at his laboratory in Malibu, on this day in 1960 Theodore Maiman successfully fired the world’s first laser. At ...
05/11/2026

Working at his laboratory in Malibu, on this day in 1960 Theodore Maiman successfully fired the world’s first laser. At a press conference seven weeks later, Maiman and his employer Hughes Aircraft Company announced the discovery to the world.
In 1917 Einstein had proposed the possibility that electrons could be stimulated to emit light of a particular wavelength (“stimulated emission,” he called it), the process that would make lasers possible. Research on stimulated emission had been ongoing at Columbia University for years when graduate student Gordon Gould jotted down his calculations and design for “a LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.” Whether Gould invented the laser would be a subject of patent lawsuits that would drag on for decades. But there is no doubt that he invented the acronym by which the technology would be known. Still, the technology Gould described was conceptual only. Nearly three years later, no one had been able to build a working laser.
On May 16, 1960 that changed. The device Maiman created flashed white light into a cylinder of synthetic ruby, energizing the electrons in the ruby and causing it to emit a short burst of high-powered light—a laser. While certainly not as powerful as those that would follow, it was a working laser nonetheless. It was a revolutionary development.
These days lasers (which produce an intense, very narrow beam of light in a single wavelength) are ubiquitous, with immensely important applications in medical science, electronics, data transmission and much more, making the technology among the most transformative of the past hundred years.
In commemoration of Maiman’s success, May 16 was designated by UNESCO as the International Day of Light, and it will be celebrated today with numerous laser-themed events around the world.
The photo is of Maiman and his laser.

One of the most iconic and beloved figures in the history of American cinema, John Wayne starred in over 140 movies over...
05/11/2026

One of the most iconic and beloved figures in the history of American cinema, John Wayne starred in over 140 movies over his nearly 50-year career.
Although he eventually became best known and most admired for playing tough heroic cowboy figures, Wayne had a fairly wide range of roles over his long career. One of his most critically acclaimed performances was in John Ford’s 1952 film “The Quiet Man,” in which Wayne portrayed a retired American boxer returning to Ireland to purchase the farm that was his father's birthplace, starring opposite Maureen O’Hara, with whom he co-starred in four other films as well. He also starred in a number of popular war movies, such as “The Sands of Iwo Jima,” “The Longest Day,” and “The Green Berets,” and he famously portrayed Davy Crockett in the 1960 film “The Alamo.”
But it is, of course, for his starring role in westerns that John Wayne is most famous. And in 1970 he won his only Oscar, receiving the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit.”
John Wayne’s political conservatism generated some controversy during his career but because many if not most of the fans of his movies shared his beliefs, his outspoken support of the Vietnam War, for example, did not seem to diminish his stature or popularity.
In January 1974 the Harvard Lampoon declared Wayne to be the “biggest fraud in history,” and challenged him to come to Harvard Square and debate Harvard students. To the newspaper’s likely surprise, John Wayne accepted the invitation, arriving at the Square with a cigar clenched between his teeth, and aboard an armored personnel carrier and an es**rt from nearby Fort Devens. When he walked onto the stage, the Harvard Lampoon organizers presented him with a “trophy”–two brass balls in recognition of his willingness to come. Because his health was failing, Wayne remained seated in a chair on stage during the questioning, which started out decidely unfriendly. But Wayne’s witty good-natured replies soon won over most of the crowd. When one of the students asked whether Wayne’s toupee was made of mole hair, he answered “No. That’s real hair. It’s not my hair, but it’s real hair.” “Does Richard Nixon give suggestions for your movies?” asked another student. “No,” Wayne replied. “They’ve all been successful.” “Is it true that since you’ve lost weight, your horse’s hernia has cleared up?” one of the Lampoon moderators asked. “Well, the weight was too much for him,” John Wayne fired back, “So we canned him, which is what you’ve been eating over at The Harvard Club.” Likely no political opinions were changed that day, but Wayne’s good humor won the respect of the crowd and he was warmly applauded.
John Wayne was married three times and divorced twice. He and his first wife Josephine Saenz had four children during their six-year marriage. No children were born during his 8-year marriage to Esperanza Baur. Wayne and his third wife Pilar Pallete had three children together. She survived him, remarried, and is now 95 years old.
In January 1979, at age 71, during a routine gall bladder procedure, Wayne’s doctors discovered a malignant tumor, requiring the removal of his stomach. He had previously survived a bout with lung cancer which led to the surgical removal of his left lung in 1965. This time, however, there was to be no recovery. He passed away from complications related to the cancer on June 11, 1979, at age 72. In his honor, Wayne’s family later established the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, to fund cancer research and innovative treatments, “with the mission to lead the fight against cancer with courage, strength, and grit.”
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa on May 26, 1907, one hundred seventeen years ago today.

25-year-old Margaret Cochran Corbin was working as a nurse during the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776 when she saw her...
05/11/2026

25-year-old Margaret Cochran Corbin was working as a nurse during the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776 when she saw her husband John killed while manning his artillery piece. Without hesitation Margaret stepped up and took over John's place, helping clean, load and fire the cannon. Even after being hit by 3 musket balls, Margaret continued working her gun. Only after a blast of grapeshot ripped through her chest, left arm and jaw was her gun silenced--the last of the American cannons to stop firing.
After being captured and paroled Margaret was assigned to the Invalid Regiment at West Point, where she was acknowledged as a hero and given a soldier’s pay. In 1779 the Continental Congress granted her a life-time pension, making her the first American woman to receive a military pension and the first to be recognized as a veteran.
In 1926 Margaret’s remains (or so it was thought) were exhumed and she was re-interred with full military honors at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 2017 the grave was disturbed by construction equipment, and it was determined that the remains buried there were not those of Margaret Corbin. The search for her grave continues. Nevertheless, the monument in her honor was rededicated, in recognition of her valor and her place as arguably America’s first woman veteran.
Today is Margaret Corbin’s birthday. She was born on November 12, 1751.
The image is from Don Troiani’s painting “Margaret Corbin at the Battle of Fort Washington

By 1776 Adam Smith was already firmly established as one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. His book ...
05/11/2026

By 1776 Adam Smith was already firmly established as one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. His book The Theory of Moral Sentiments had been a great success and he was regarded as one of the most preeminent moral philosophers of his time. But it was his publication that year of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, at age 53, that earned Smith everlasting fame and caused him to become regarded as “the Father of Economics” and “the Father of Capitalism.”
The conclusions Smith came to when examining the question of what causes wealth (meaning goods/prosperity, not merely money) may seem obvious to us now, but they were revolutionary at the time. Two of his most important points of emphasis were the division of labor and the pursuit of self-interest.
To illustrate his point about division of labor, Smith referred to a pin factory that employed ten men. He observed that if each of those ten men had to personally perform every step of the pin-making process, they would be able to make 10-20 pins each per day. But by working together and assigning one man to each of the various steps in the process, the same ten men were producing 48,000 pins per day. In other words, by division of labor ten pin factory employees were doing the work that would require up to 4,800 individual pin makers. And of course the vast improvement in productivity results in pins becoming far more affordable.
Smith also observed that pursuit of personal interest generates wealth. He wrote, “The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful a principle that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often incumbers its operations.” Extending the principle to governments, Smith wrote, “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”
Under the influence of Smith’s work, the British government began to move from a policy of mercantilism to one of free markets, and the centuries following the publication of the Wealth of Nations have witnessed a phenomenal rise in prosperity and human standards of living.
In 2007 the British government began issuing £20 notes featuring Adam Smith and his pin factory example—likely the only currency in world history that includes an economics lesson.
Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on June 16, 1723, three hundred years ago today.

In the middle of the 19th century, the biggest star in American show business was 3 foot 4 inches tall.When he was five ...
05/10/2026

In the middle of the 19th century, the biggest star in American show business was 3 foot 4 inches tall.
When he was five years old, the boy the world would come to know as General Tom Thumb was taken in by his distant cousin P.T. Barnum, who taught him to sing, dance, and do impersonations. It was while working for Barnum that Tom Thumb developed his talent and became an international celebrity of the first order.
Unlike prior “freak show” acts, Tom Thumb was not displayed to be gawked at by circusgoers. Rather he became a gifted actor, singer, and dancer, who won critical and popular acclaim in full-length productions.
His marriage in 1863 to two-foot-eight-inch Lavinia Warren was the subject of intense national interest. Their lavish wedding in New York City attracted thousands of spectators and was described as “a much-needed diversion for a war weary nation.” Over 10,000 guests attended the reception afterwards, and President Lincoln received the couple at the White House.
In addition to being a talented performer, “Tom Thumb” was a successful businessman, eventually becoming a partner of his former employer P.T. Barnum.
In 1883 he died of a stroke at age 45. Lavinia lived another 35 years. After her death she was buried next to her husband.
Charles Sherwood Stratton (a/k/a General Tom Thumb) was born on January 4, 1838, one hundred eighty-six years ago today.

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