Lawyer Helps Smithsonian Find Secret Message on Abe Lincoln's Gold Watch
On the day the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, in a salvo that began the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s gold pocket watch happened to be in a repair shop in the Washington, D.C., area.
So, the watchmaker later told his family—and, in 1906, the New York Times—he wrote a secret message on the inner workings. Passed down through the generations in the watchmaker’s family, the story intrigued Douglas Stiles, his great-great-grandson, who practices real estate law in Waukegan, Ill., near Chicago. Stiles found the old New York Times article, and alerted the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, which was given the watch in 1958, recounts the Washington Post.
Today, museum officials watched on closed-circuit television as an expert watchmaker carefully pried the historic timepiece apart. As he revealed the brass underside of the movement, they gasped. There was an etched message.
“Jonathon Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date,” it reads. “Thank God we have a government.”
Additional coverage:
New York Times: “Timeless Lincoln Memento Is Revealed”
Updated at 11:30 p.m. to include link to New York Times article.
