On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln, we are reposting this article about a hidden message discovered scrawled inside the president’s pocket watch. An article posted by the Associated Press in March of 2009 immediately captured the imagination of our watch expert David Mycko, who wrote about the watch—a typical English Fusee Lever, key wind, circa1850.
Here is the original AP story, followed by David’s thoughts on the actual watch. The article tells the story of a man, Jonathan Dillon, who was working in a watch shop in Washington in 186-sand was repairing President Lincoln’s watch when word of the South’s attack on Fort Sumter reached the capital. Dillon, the only Union supporter in the shop, picked up a sharp tool and inscribed a series of notes supporting the president.
Jonathan Dillon, working for a watchmaker, was repairing Lincoln’s watch when word reached Washington about the beginning of the Civil War. Dillon inscribed on an interior plate “April 13 – 1861,” and “Fort Sumpter (sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date.” Another part reads, “Thank God we have a government.” It remained a undiscovered for more than 100 years.
Museum reveals engraving hidden in Lincoln watch
WASHINGTON — For nearly 150 years, a story has circulated about a hidden Civil War message engraved inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. Just recently, museum curators confirmed it was true.
“Jonathan Dillon April 13 – 1861,” part of the inscription reads, “Fort Sumpter (sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date.” Another part reads, “Thank God we have a government.”
“Jeff Davis” etched onto another plate is probably a reference to the Confederate president.
The words were etched in tiny cursive handwriting in the space between the screws and gears on the pillar plate just underneath the dial.In 1906, a then 84-year-old Dillon told the New York Times he had been working for M.W. Galt and Co., on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, when he was repairing the president’s watch. He was inspired by the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon, heralding the opening of the Civil War.
Dillon said he unscrewed the dial of the watch and with a sharp implement made his engraving.
The Irish immigrant later recalled being the only Union sympathizer working at the shop in a divided Washington.Dillon’s story was passed down among his family and friends, eventually reaching a New York Times reporter. In a 1906 article in the paper, Dillon said no one, including Lincoln, ever saw the inscription as far as he knew.
Dillon had a fuzzy recollection of what he had engraved. He told the newspaper he had written: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try.”
For decades the story went unconfirmed.The watchmaker’s great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles, a real estate lawyer, first heard the tale of the engraving from his great-uncle decades ago. He said the story had reached extended family as far away as Ireland.
A few months ago, he used Google to find the New York Times story, and last month he passed the information along to Smithsonian curators, who knew nothing about the engraving.
Historians have long suspected that the 16th U.S. president’s watch carried a secret message, but it was not until the brass underside of the timepiece’s movement was revealed that the text became known.
Yesterday, watchmaker George Thomas, who volunteers at the museum, spent several minutes carefully opening the watch as an audience of reporters and museum workers watched on a video monitor.
“The moment of truth has come. Is there or is there not an inscription?” Thomas said, teasing the audience, which gasped when he confirmed it was there.
He called Stiles up to read his ancestor’s words, drawing smiles and a few sighs of relief.
“Like Pearl Harbor or 9-11, this was the reaction he had (to the Civil War),” Stiles said of the inscription.Later, Stiles said he felt closer to the 16th president.
“My gosh, that was Lincoln’s watch,” he said, “and my ancestor put graffiti on it!”
Lincoln’s family kept the watch until it was donated to the museum in 1958. It was Lincoln’s everyday pocket watch, one of the president’s only valuable possessions he brought with him to the White House from Springfield, Ill., said Harry Rubenstein, curator of the museum’s politics and reform division.
“I think it just captures a bit of history that can transform you to another time and place,” he said. “It captures the excitement, the hope of a watchmaker in Washington.”
The high-grade gold pocket watch was bought by Lincoln in the 1850s from a jeweler in Springfield, where he made his name as a lawyer.
“Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his pocket,” said Brent Glass, director of the National Museum of American History.
“It’s a personal side of history about an ordinary watchman being inspired to record something for posterity.”
The watch will go back on display at the museum by today as part of the exhibit “Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life.” It will have a new label to tell Dillon’s story and a photo of the inscription.
—Associated Press
The watch is a typical English Fusee Lever, key wind, circa 1850, housed in a beautifully engraved 18K hunter case. Sold by an Illinois jeweler, the watch had to be imported from England because at the time, the American watch industry was in its infancy. Relatively few American watches were available until 1857, after the founding of the Waltham Watch Co.
This is a high-quality English Lever Fusee manufactured in Liverpool, England, is full jeweled (15-16 jewels), with all the technological achievements available at the time. Watches of this caliber were equipped with a bi-metallic chronometer balance wheel, fully compensated, and adjusted for temperature and positions. The number of jewels, type of balance wheel, number of adjustments, and the composition of the metal used in the watch casement were all custom ordered by the jeweler.
Lincoln purchased this English Fusee Lever, key wind, circa1850, housed in an engraved 18K hunter case in Springfield, Ill., and was one of the few possessions he brought with him to Washington.
Typically, the name of the jeweler was emblazoned on the dial and engraved on the back plate of the movement. Unfortunately the pictures available at this time aren’t clear enough to discern that jeweler’s identity, other and knowing it was sold in “Springfield Illinois.” Watches of this nature are classified as “contract watches,” with American names engraved upon their plates and dials. They were in fact manufactured in Europe or the United Kingdom. Lincoln’s watch was indeed a very expensive item for the day, being housed in a robust, 18 karat closed face, or hunting case, beautifully engraved with scrolls, leaves and flowers on an engine turned background.
The watch is key wound, as the technical achievement of stem winding was still in the future. The watch is also equipped with its original period gold vest chain, a “Hen’s Tooth” pocket watch vest chain is usually the first part of a watch ensemble to become worn, broken and discarded, along with the key, which apparently has gone missing. Somewhere out there is a watch key that has the intimate touch of Abraham Lincoln (for everyday he wound this watch) lying in a box of junk, just waiting to be discovered!
In just about every photograph of Abraham Lincoln, his watch chain is visible.
Lincoln’s watch chain is visible in this photo with his son Tad.
The watch chain can even be seen in the statue at the Lincoln Memorial.
The cursive etching under the dial on this watch is quite unusual, especially in its personal nature. Watchmakers during this period typically would insert a small piece of round paper inside the back cover advertising his business and penciled in the date of repair, much like the decal inserted on your windshield after an oil change. These are called “Watch Papers” and are highly collectible. This was done by the watchmaker as documented proof of his workmanship, and was later was replaced by a small cursive etching on the inside cover of the watch.
I have personally dismantled literally hundreds of watches, and have NEVER seen anything like this etching; it is quite unique! It is not the place of a watchmaker, in the process of repairing a watch, to engrave a personal message on or in the watch. Imagine your auto mechanic scratching a message on the underside of the hood! You would be horrified to discover this desecration! I’m not so sure ol’ Abe would have appreciated it, either! But, in this particular instance, we have to thank Jonathan Dillon for this very unprofessional indiscretion; it has made an interesting and historic relic all the more interesting and historic!
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