Condescending history professors may claim there is nothing new to learn about Abraham Lincoln. Considering he was assassinated 140 years ago and remains one of the most revered figures in United States history, that claim may not be too outlandish.
But two Clarkston residents believe they are publishing a book that does indeed provide new information and may change some of the historically recorded details about the nation’s 16th president.
Historical collector Bill Snack and Bill Feeheley recently published ‘Rare Personal Accounts of Abraham Lincoln,? a 360-page book containing approximately 250 personal accounts of President Lincoln. The book provides a typed version of each account as well as a scanned version of the original letters in each individual witnesses own handwriting.
The never before published letters are part of a series of unpublished books written by John Boos, a Lincoln collector and author who lived in Albany, New York.
‘Boos traveled around the country and got handwritten personal accounts of people who knew or had encounters with Lincoln,? said Feeheley.
The accounts cover many of the major events in Lincoln’s political career from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to his assassination and funeral.
‘There’s little we know about John Boos, except that he was quite a collector and he did all this during the early 1900’s. You have to realize he was trying to find all these people before the Model T or at least during the early times of the Model T and many of the people were across the country,? said Snack.
Having little information on Boos, Snack and Feeheley hope one of the outcomes from publishing the book will be discovering more about him.
‘Maybe when we get the book out someone will step forward and say ‘I knew him,?? said Snack.
‘I felt strongly about this book. We are going to be able to accomplish something that he couldn’t get done? He collected signatures from famous people and he kept the Lincoln stuff that I have which is probably his prized collection,? he added.
Snack felt Boos, a staunch Republican, may have struggled with getting the book published because of partisan politics during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration or he may have run out of money during the Great Depression.
Snack highlighted several letters as representative of the unique nature of the collection. Accounts come from people such as an owner of the Ford Theater who took tickets at the gate the night of the assassination and was acquainted with both Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. The collection also includes a letter written by the doctor who tended to Lincoln after he was shot.
The fact that Snack even recovered the books in readable condition is quite a story. Snack’s brother Gene collected the books while living in Decatur, Illinois. Several years ago, Gene became sick and a couple strokes left him unable to communicate.
‘It was like an extra power saying you have to do this. I found these in an old musty basement in Gene’s home that had about two or three inches of water in it. Most of the stuff was in rough shape,? said Snack.
‘I thought it would be great to recognize two people. John Boos for putting them together to start out with and my brother Gene for getting them.?
After rescuing the books, Snack met Feeheley in the Village Bake Shop on Main Street in Clarkston where he often congregates with friends. Snack noticed Feeheley working on a computer and approached him about working on the book.
‘I immediately saw the significance. It’s not just a large collection from Lincoln becoming famous. There’s not much more you can learn from history professors. If there’s more new information to learn, it will come from undiscovered source material,? said Feeheley.
Tackling the publishing process was a new experience for both men who spent about a year on the project. The two decided to publish the book on their own using a print by demand system, due to both the skepticism by some people regarding a ‘new? book about Lincoln, and the cost of going through a publisher.
‘There are over 60,000 books published on Lincoln, so a common response was ‘What are you going to add?? People have researched Lincoln to death and written about him extensively. That was definitely an obstacle,? said Feeheley.
The book will be available on its own Web site www.railsplitter.net
, as well as others like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.
The duo hopes to collaborate on a few other projects in the future. One is another unpublished book from Gene Snack’s collection about Andrew Jackson, they say was written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Marquis James, the cousin of notorious outlaw Jesse James.