Assassins And Bloody Dresses And Christmas Dinners, Oh My!
- venangomuseum
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
It is well known that Pennsylvania's Oil Region was once a hub of wealth and industry, with people seeking to find their fortune in the oil fields.
The once bustling region drew the attention of many notable individuals. One individual who had ties to the Oil Region was the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
While America’s two sides fought on the battlefields, many others fled to the oil fields in search of prosperity. In the 1860s, thousands of people were drawn to the area by newspaper stories of the oil boom in Venango County and flocked to the region to try their luck in the industry.
Actor, Oil Man, Assassin
In 1864, John Wilkes Booth stepped off the stage and abandoned his acting career, enticed by the stories of wealth being amassed in the oil fields of Venango County.
He came to the region, where he formed the Dramatic Oil Company with fellow actor friends.
Booth secured a tract of land on the Fuller Farm Lease just outside of Franklin. He drilled his first well in the Summer of 1864.
The well produced twenty-five barrels of oil daily; however, there was no shortage of problems and rising costs associated with his business. As his business continued to decline, Booth and his partners began to "shoot" their well with explosives.
Successful shooting breaks up oil-bearing formations, which allows more oil to be extracted from the well. Unsuccessful attempts, like those of Booth and his associates, ruin the hole. After Booth attempted to increase production, his well never produced oil again. With his gamble on oil, Booth lost much of the fortune he had accumulated from his acting career.
Booth left the region as a different man than he had arrived. He was no longer a hopeful, wealthy entrepreneur, but a failed oilman.
Mere weeks after his departure, the Lincoln Conspiracy began to take shape.
In April 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. with a Baby Philadelphia Derringer gun. Booth's accomplices in the conspiracy included Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne, George Atzerodt, and David Herold.
Booth jumped from President Lincoln’s private viewing box onto the stage, injuring his ankle in the process, before he shouted towards the audience and ran from the theatre. There is much speculation around what Booth yelled after the murder, with conflicting eyewitness accounts. Many, however, agree that he said, “Sic semper tyrannis!” which translates to, “Thus always to tyrants.”
He was eventually tracked down in a Virginia tobacco barn, months after the assassination and hundreds of miles from his failed oil well. Union soldiers set the barn ablaze, which forced Booth from the structure. As he was leaving the barn, he was shot and killed. He was 27 years old at the time of his death.
Laura Keene and Her Bloody Dress
Laura Keene was a British theatre actress who was performing the night President
Lincoln died.
She had the lead role in Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre on April 14th, 1865. She began her performance as usual that evening, until chaos erupted when a gunshot rang out.
Immediately after President Lincoln was shot, Keene was reported to have run to the Presidential box where the President and First Lady had been watching the show. In her attempts to comfort the President and Mrs. Lincoln, her dress accumulated splatters of blood from Lincoln’s wound, which stained the fabric.
According to the Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin, who wrote about Keene’s dress and described it as both a morbid curiosity and a hot commodity saying: “This blood stain is from Lincoln’s death-would, on part of the dress worn by the actress into whose lap, that fatal night, was laid the poor pierced brain of the martyr. The relic was left by Miss Keene herself. The dress [P. T.] Barnum has tried in vain to buy, offering for it several thousand dollars.”
In 1873, Keene toured the Oil Region and notably displayed her blood stained dress in the lobby of theatres where she would perform, turning out an audience not only for her acting, but also those with the morbid curiosity to see the last signs of Abe Lincoln’s life.
The dress, as of 2025, is still circulating throughout the world, albeit in pieces. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, as well as the Nation Museum of American History and other institutions, hold fragments of the dress in their collections.
Keene notably performed in Tidioute, as well as Franklin, where her dress was displayed the nights she performed.
Emma's Christmas Dinner
During the Civil War, Emma Taft Egbert, a Venango County Resident, learned that her brother had been severely wounded at Gettysburg. He was recovering in a Philadelphia hospital, however, Egbert was unable to locate the hospital in which her brother was recovering.
As December 25th, 1864 approached, Egbert worried that her brother would be able to have a Christmas dinner. So, she arranged for the sick and wounded soldiers in all fifteen Philadelphia hospitals, a total of 7,212 men, to have a special meal on Christmas. Not only did she then provide a festive dinner to all recovering soldiers, but also ensured her brother would be able to celebrate despite his distance from her.
The Egbert family fortune within the oil trade generously paid for this act. The dinner was quite extravagant and featured menu items such as roast turkey, apple sauce, sweet potatoes, mince pie, and other foods for the soldiers. The Hospital Band also played music during the event.
Emma's gesture of kindness did not go unnoticed by President Lincoln, who wrote to Egbert on January 9th, 1865, expressing his gratitude for her patriotism and generosity.
Lincoln wrote:
"Executive Mansion, Washington, Jan. 9, 1865. Mrs. Milton C. Egbert, Col. Forney assures me that you will not be displeased if I tender, and I most heartily do, my sincere thanks for your munificent Christmas donation of five thousand dollars to the sick and wounded soldiers in the Philadelphia hospitals. Your Ob. Serv't, A. Lincoln."
We previously featured Emma's story in the eighth episode of our video essay series, A Minute In History. Watch it here.
A Farewell To Lincoln
After Abraham Lincoln’s death, he was transported to his home in Illinois for burial. The “funeral train” stopped in many Pennsylvania cities as it traveled through the country. York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Erie were all stops on the route. While in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell was placed at the head of Lincoln’s coffin.
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