Reminiscences of Wistar P. Brown

His Memories of Mary Lincoln

Shortly after Mary Lincoln's death in July 1882, a Chester County, Pennsylvania man named Wistar Parker Brown wrote into the Reading Times to share his recollections:

“….while [Mary Lincoln] lived very differently than I was led previously to believe by flashy newspaper reports . . . All who knew [her] well found her, during her staying the city, always a kind friend, full of grief, caused by the decease of our great war President, free from all signs of insanity, and exercising a true, loving, motherly care on her good son, ‘Tad.’”

Brown was a dentist from Pennsylvania, but he had known Mary and Tad when he was growing up in Germany, where his father, Samuel Townsend Brown, had moved in order to serve as a court dentist.

Wistar continued:

“My belief is that the great stroke of ‘Tad’s’ death cause her late mental and physical troubles, for she was entirely wrapped upon him to the last and seldom ever left the house without his company. As far as I know there has been a considerable amount of injustice done Mrs. Lincoln by the press of all countries as to her relation with the North for she fully convinced me after seeing her almost daily for two years that she was highly devoted to us and our principles. Having a great love for young children, she would frequently bestow tokens of friendship upon youngsters accompanying her gift with a card upon which was inscribed ‘Union for Ever.’ When the name of President Lincoln was merely mentioned in conversation she would instantly burst into tears. Ex-consul W. W. Murphy who so ably served two terms of office at Frankfort was ever eager with his family to tend to the wants of ex-President Lincolns' widow and there was hardly a day while she was in the city but that he showed towards her and her son an act of kindness. . .”

In 1909—when everyone was “celebrating” the Lincoln centennial—Wistar gave an interview to the Philadelphia press on the same topic:

“Facts which he says have never before been published regarding Mrs. Lincoln's sojourn abroad four years after her husband's assassination, were related to-day by Dr. Wistar P. Brown, 46 W. Chelten ave., Germantown. Dr. Brown was for ten years court dentist at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, where the widow of the martyred President and her ‘Tad,’ lived a short time prior to their own deaths.

Declaring that Mrs. Lincoln left this country largely for the reason that she was the victim of insults from society folk and newspapers of the North, some which even accused her of being a traitor at heart to the cause of the Union, Dr. Brown pictures her sorrowful and secluded life and her refutation in word and act of the calumnies.

Dr. Brown, at the time of which he speaks, was a boy who lived with his parents at Frankfort-on-the-Main. His father was then the leading court dentist of Southern and Middle Germany, and the family became intimately acquainted with Mrs. Lincoln and her son, when they arrived in that country. The fact that a brother of Mrs. Brown, formerly a clerk in the War Department, had written President Lincoln's first emancipation proclamation at dictation and knew Mr. Lincoln well contributed to the friendly feeling of the President's widow toward the dentist's family.

Mr. Brown said:

‘A few days ago I came upon the idea that while many others were com- piling articles about the Lincoln family, it would only be just for me, who had seen Mrs. Lincoln and her son, 'Tad,' almost daily in Frankfort-on-the-Main, during her stay there, in 1869-70, to tell a few facts of her visit. There were several reasons which caused Mrs. Lincoln to leave America for Europe, the main one being to evade the insults of the American newspapers and society folk, who even went so far as to report her a traitor to the Northerners' cause during the Rebellion.

She proved herself to us in Frankfort in heart and action true always to the Union, but naturally enough became quite hysterical and wept loudly when the name of her illustrious husband was mentioned. At Frankfort-On-The-Main she could live in quiet on one-fifth the money required in America, avoid all social functions, take the curative waters of the famous bathing resorts with- in a radius of ten miles, and educate her son, 'Tad,' at a German school under her daily vision.

When Mrs. Lincoln started from America she had twelve immense trunks, and by some mistake of the forwarding agents, they were all lost for several months, and as they contained a great many valuables, besides much-needed clothing, Mrs. Lincoln was for a time almost distracted about them. The United States Consul, W. W. Murphy, in Frankfort, finally, through constant endeavor with railroad officials, discovered that they had been . . . in a freight depot in Geneva, Switzerland. The Consul being a warm friend of my father. Dr. Samuel-Townsend Brown, who was then the leading court dentist of Southern and Middle Germany, including among his patients several empresses and queens, told him that he had secured a couple of small rooms for Mrs. Lincoln a few doors from our home, and wished that my mother would make her a friendly call, as she appeared very sad and lonely.

My mother and sister called almost daily upon her, taking flowers and little delicacies at times, but she for a long time seemed cheerless…

Although, the Americans of Frankfort and Hornburg vor der Hohe never had a good word for Mrs. Lincoln, my mother felt she could never do enough for her, If nothing- else than for having been the wife of our great President. . .

When Mrs. Lincoln's trunks arrived, she asked permission of my father to have them stored in our attic. My sister became a great favorite with both Tad and lils mother, and I often heard her remark in Tad's presence: ‘Laura, you are to have this most precious of all gifts to President Lincoln, his diamond ring. When I am dead and gone, I shall will it to you.'

As Tad died a few months after arriving from Europe, and his mother a few years later…from the result of a paralytic stroke, before which for some time she was not capable of carrying on her business affairs, my sister, of course, never heard anything more of the ring. . . Tad was beloved by his small circle of schoolboy friends and I feel that his death was sufficient to unbalance the mind of the idolizing mother. In Frankfort she never went anywhere without him at her side."‘