KGC Symbols

The below is from Jay's forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery

It took me two and a half hours to transcribe this important Official
Record to post on this message board so I hope our members appreciate my efforts. :) Please read the entire report carefully as it explains many important things about the KGC. It also tells of their
resolve to go to any lengths to prevent the second inauguration of Lincoln.


http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html
run a simple search of this site for the keywords: Knights of the Golden Circle


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery
***


From: The War of the Rebellion Official Records
"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL,
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA,
Sacramento, August 10, 1864
Brig. Gen. JOHN S. MASON,
Acting Assistant Provost-Marsal-General, San Francisco, Cal.:
SIR: I have the honor to report the result of my investigations of
the secret work of the association called 'Knights of the Columbian
Star,' through Hiram Potter, one of their number. This has been a
very tedious and slow business, for the reason that the whole system
is so cloaked and guarded that but few of the members really know
anything about it. The organization, as near as I can now determine,
is as follows: There is a governor-general for the State, and a
lieutenant-governor-general for each locality, who has a deputy
lieutenant-governor-general to assist him. There are no large
meetings held of the order in their capacity as an association, but
few only of the officers and trusted members get together to initiate
new members and devise the work which is to be carried out. Potter
has only lately learned that there is a third degree, which he has
not yet obtained, but it is proposed to give it to him soon. I may
here remark that it is one of the cardinal principles of the order
that no member of an inferior degree knows of a higher until he is
prepared and expected to receive it. In the first degree, which is
called thirty-three defenders, the candidate is first examined and
[if] found to be a suitable person for their use, he is then sworn in
a solemn and imposing manner. The substance of the obligation is that
he will not support in any election or employ in business an
abolitionist if any other person can be had; that he will obey his
officers in all things; that he will resist the enforcement of any
and all unconstitutional laws by the Administration, his officers
being the judges of the unconstitutionality of the laws; that he will
furnish himself with a rifle or double-barrel shotgun if possible,
and positively to furnis a revolver pistol and bowie knife, and
always to keep on hand a supply of ammunition for a three-days hunt.
After taking this obligation they are invested with the signs,
password, and grip, to enable them to recognize their brothers and
make themselves known, which are: First, to attract attention of any
brother present, take hold of the breast of the coat or about the
third button, carrying the hands about an inch out from the body and
back twice, as if in the act of fitting the coat to your body. The
answer to this sign is to throw the left hand to the small of the
back carelessly. This satisfies the party that they are recognized,
but they will have no communication until they have been further
proved. After selecting a proper place the challenger proceeds to
prove his brother as follows: Q. 'Do you know Jones?' A. 'What
Jones?' Q. 'Preacher Jones.' A. 'Yes.' Q. 'Have you the password?'
A. 'I have.' Q. 'Will you give it to me?' A. 'That is not the way I
obtained it.' Q. 'What will you do with it?' A. 'I will divide it
with you.' Q. 'Well, you divide it, and begin.' A. 'No; you begin.'
Q. No, you begin; the word is yours.' A. 'Death.' Q. 'To.' A. 'All.'
Q. 'Traitors.' They then take hands, the questioner giving the grip,
which is given by inserting the little finger between the little
finger and the next one and then clasping the hands, the questioner
giving one shake and saying 'Right,' the answering man another shake
and saying 'Brother.' This completes the proof of each belonging to
the thirty-third or first degree, and any communication between them
is proper. So far neither man is supposed to know that any other or
higher degree exists. But for the purpose of explanation we will
suppose that they both have the second degree, or what is called the
fifty-seventh degree, meaning 'constitution.' The first hailing sign
in this degree is made by taking off the hat with the left hand,
bringing it down to the side of the head, and placing the right hand
on the top of the head in an easy, careless manner; this is answered
by taking off the hat with the left hand in the same manner. Test
sign follows: The thumb and forefinger of left hand rub the under
lip; the answer is made by touching the pit of the stomach with the
thumb and forefinger of the right hand, as in the act of holding a
pen. This having been properly answered the question may be
asked: 'Have you the password?' Upon the reply in the affirmative the
password is given with the same ceremony as before, being divided.
The word is 'Andalusia,' being divided An-da-lu-sia. The questioner
then asks, 'Have you the sacred password?' and upon an affirmative
answer the same process of getting is observed, with this difference,
that this word is lettered. The word is 'Eloi.' After this grip is
given. The right hand of each is placed together and thrust up until
each grasps the wrist of the other, and the questioner gives one
shake, saying 'Right;' the other party then reaches with the left
hand and takes the left hand of the questioner in the same manner,
giving it one shake, and says 'Brother.' This completes the proof of
membership in the second degree. There are some other signs for
special occasions. Sign of caution or danger: Place the left hand
upon the breast and raise the right vertically, the elbow as high as
the shoulders. Sign of distress: Clasp the hands together, unlocking
the fingers; raise them to the chin, saying, 'Santa Maria.' Sign of
recognition on horseback: Grasping the left breast of the coat with
left hand, giving two moves of the hand and coat about two inches and
back, the party answering salutes with right hand. There is a night
sign, made by clasping the hands and calling out 'Ho!' which is
answered by saying 'Hi!' Before being invested with these signs the
candidate is carefully examined as to his age, occupation, residence,
former place of residence, birthplace, what military service he has
done, his opinions upon the political views of the day, State rights,
slavery, the right to resist unconstitutional laws, &c. If this
examination is satisfactory, he is sworn. The oath is very long and
elaborate. The substance only can be given, which is to resist the
election of Lincoln for President by all possible means, including
the force of arms; to adhere to and obey the call of the governor-
general of the State or the lieutenant-governor-general of your
district in all cases and at all times; that you will resist any and
all unconstitutional laws by the Administration; that you will adhere
to and support the old State rights doctrines and the right of each
State to protect itself, and assist it to carry out the right to
maintain slavery or any other domestic institution to which it is
entitled, by force of arms if necessary; that you will resist with
arms any attempt upon the part of the U.S. authorities to execute any
unconstitutional law of any kind or character, your officers being
the judges of the unconstitutionality. In addition to this, Potter
says he has ascertained that there is a third degree, and has the
promise of having it conferred upon him. Beriah Brown, editor of the
Press in San Francisco, is the present governor-general of the State;
C.L. Weller, who has lately been arrested, is lieutenant-governor-
general of the State, or of the district of San Francisco; not
certain as to the extent of his jurisdiction. It is contemplated to
elect a governor-general of the Pacific Coast, including Nevada
Territory and Idaho, who shall have the general supervision of the
order. Joseph P. Hoge, of San Francisco, is talked of for that
position. This will not be done until after the nomination at the
Chicago Convention, when a meeting of the governors and lieutenant-
governors is to be held at some point not yet known. Each member of
the order pays money into the treasury, and when parties cannot get
arms for themselves they are to be furnished by the society, the
intention being that every man who is with them shall be armed for
instant service when required by his officers. They only make one
member of the fifty-seventh degree for from three to seven of the
thirty-third degree, and it may well be imagined that the third
degree is still less in number than the second and still more
dangerous, all the power resting in a small council or single
governor. The officers in the Sacramento district are: General J.L.
English, lieutenant-governor-general; J.C. Goods, deputy; Thomas
Edwards, secretary, and A.A. Bennett, treasurer. Ex-Governor John
Bigler is a prominent member, and has lately left as a delegate to
the Chicago Convention; he is reported as having carried $160 in
money to be delivered to the rebel sanitary fund; the money was sent
from here to Maggie Perry, in San Francisco, to be delivered to
Bigler there. John R. Ridge, at present of Nevada City, was a
traveling agent of the order, and is now an officer in the Nevada
district. Doctor Fox, of San Francisco, is one of the most active
agents of the order in the State. He estimates that there are 24,000
men at present in the order and reliable for their purposes, and that
this order, with the Knights of the Golden Circle and the men they
can control, will reach 50,000. The actual number is very hard to
arrive at by any one below the head of the order, or a general agent,
as the utmost secrecy prevails between all its parts, and all are
subject to the power of an officer whom they do not know. Amongst
themselves it is freely talked of that there will be war in
California; they expect it and are all the time providing for it.
General J.L. English here talks peace, and the other officers and
prominent men say he is an old fogy and afraid he will lose his
property. Whenever they feel strong enough to make resistance to the
laws they intend to do it. This seems to be the tendency of all the
circumstances that come to my knowledge, and their conversation
reported by Potter will bear no other construction. There is also a
regular system of raising money to be transmitted East under pretense
of giving to the rebel sanitary for rebel prisoners. Since I reported
to you that trouble was expected in San Francisco at the time of the
meeting an order has been issued by Governor Brown (as is reported)
that all Democrats cease to carry arms until further orders, but to
have them always ready where they can find them. In relation to the
arms heretofore spoken of, the only further information we have been
able to gain is that the muskets, 'about 1,000,' were under the
control of Don Juan de Dias, a Mexican, who disappeared about two
weeks since, and whether the arms went with him or not cannot be
ascertained. The result of my observation is that the secret
political organization is very powerful and very dangerous. Second,
that the moving power which controls it is in sympathy with and
acting for the benefit of the Southern rebellion. Third, that it is
most important now to ascertain exactly who they are and what they
are doing. Fourth, that more men should be employed in this service
unknown to each other, so that their information may be compared.
Almost any man who takes upon himself these obligations is more or
less unreliable to us, and I do not feel safe in relying altogether
upon one man, more especially as I have some reason to believe that
he does not push his inquiries as fast as he might, or else keeps
back something that he ought to inform us of.
I submit, then, this matter to you, in addition to what I have
heretofore reported, for your consideration and advice.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
ROBERT ROBINSON,
Captain and Provost-Marshal."

***
~Jay~
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery

Knights of the Golden Circle, David C. Keehn

"The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret Southern society that sought to establish a slave-holding empire in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.

Join us on Wednesday, May 1, at noon as author David C. Keehn provides the first comprehensive analysis of the society and how they carried out clandestine actions to support the southern cause. Even with the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of its members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to assassinate President Lincoln.

(If you aren’t in DC, you can watch line on our Ustream channel. The program will also be archived later on that page.)

http://usnatarchives.tumblr.com/post/49190003647/the-knights-of-the-golden-circle-was-a-secret

The public program is free and will be held in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Enter through the Special Events door on Constitution and Seventh.

A book signing will follow the program. "

MAJOR E. L. BICKLEY, of Tuscumbia, Alabama

    I thought y'all might be interested in this history on one of our Alabama Bickley's from Virginia. it comes from the "Memorial Record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military professional and Industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. In Two Volumes. Illustrated. Brant & Fuller, Madison Wis., 1893. Volume I. pp. 687-691"

  While it only briefly mentions G.W.L.Bickley and the KGC it gives an excellent representation of the family that influenced him. I have more to write and hope that this one is not too lengthy but will post again if any find this interesting.
Confederately
William Rozier



MAJOR E. L. BICKLEY, one of the prominent and well known business men of
Tuscumbia, Ala., proprietor and senior partner of the firm of Bickley & Raiford,
the largest hardware store in the city, was born in Clinch Valley, Scott county,
Va., June 30, 1843. He is a son of Chas. W. Bickley, who was born May 16, 1798,
at the old Bickley Mills homestead in Castles Woods, Russell county, VA. His
father, Charles Bickley, came from eastern Virginia, was the son of John who was
the son of William Bickley, who was the first of the Bickley family to settle in
America, at Williamsburg, Va., in 1670. He was a knight of the garter of
Northamptonshire, England. Charles Bickley the grandfather was a soldier in the
Revolutionary war, and his son Chas. Wesley, the father of the subject of this
sketch, though but a beardless boy of fourteen, volunteered his services for the
war of 1812.

After the wars were over he remained in Castles Woods with his father until
1823. He went to Scott county and bought what is yet known as the Bickley
homestead in Clinch Valley, promising $1,500 for about 500 acres of river bottom
land, made a cash payment of 4400 (about all he was worth) and had five years
time granted him in which to pay the deferred amount, his neighbors predicting
that he had simply lost or would have to forfeit his first payment, as it would
be impossible for him without any operative capital to meet his obligations.

He knew no such thing as failure, however, and went to work, built him an
humble cabin, felled the timber, and made a fair crop, the first year. On March
16, 1825, he married Miss Mary P. Burdine, who was born in Russell County, Va.,
February 16, 1809. She was the daughter of Rev. Ezekiel Burdine, and itinerant
Methodist preacher, who from the year 1809 to 1812 traveled a circuit, the
territory of which now, constitutes the whole of the Holston conference.

Charles Wesley, with his new made bride, returned to their new home on the
Clinch, March 20, 1825. Realizing their situation, surroundings and obligations,
they met the issues of life as a reality, and with their united efforts and
labors they were enabled to and did meet the obligations in the purchase of the
home, discounting the last note a year before it was due. They were the parents
of eleven children, nine of whom lived to maturity, and seven of whom are still
living, four sons and three daughters. Both were consistent members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, south.

Politically the father was an uncompromising democrat of the Breckinridge
wing. After accumulating a competency for old age and seeing the children (all
living) self sustaining, the mother died of diphtheria, December 29, 1866, and
the father remaining at the old home with his son until May 17, 1880, when he
passed from earth to his reward. The eldest of their children, Chas. Washington,
was born July 3, 1827, and went west in 1852, was married to Miss Laura R.
McFarland of Jackson county Mo., November 1, 1857. They had born unto them the
following named children: Otelia, Charles D., Leroy Hopkins, Laura Emmagene,
Willie E., Katie L., Jennie, Oscar, Paralee, and Hettie.

At Pikes Peak and other points in the Rocky Mountains his health was impaired
and he came back to Alton, Ill., and from thence back to the Old Dominion; he is
still living near the home of his youth. Nancy Elizabeth, born May 28, 1829,
married to Col. James H. Godsey, an attorney at law of Prestonburg, Ky.,
September 6, 1853; they afterwards moved to Platte City, Mo., where they lived
until the opening of the Civil war. Col. Godsey raised and organized the Fourth
regiment, Missouri infantry, which he commanded under General Price and was
killed in the battle of Osage, Kan., in 1863.

Mrs. Godsey with her sons Willie and James returned to the old home, April,
1865, where she remained with her parents until May 18, 1868, when she married
John W. Banner, of Russell county, Va., and is still living at St. Paul. Her
oldest son, W. E. Godsey, of Spring Valley, Ala., is an employee of the B., S. &
T. R. R. company; his brother, James H., Jr., is engaged in stock raising in
Tazewell county, Va., and the younger brother, and only child of J. W. Banner,
is with his parents on the farm. The third child, Martha J., was born December
1, 1831. Was married to Rev. W. P. Queen of the Holston conference; they raised
two children, both girls. Mr. Queen was the representative of Scott County in
the senate of Virginia at the time of his death. Mrs. Queen with her youngest
daughter, Mattie, is still living at the Queen homestead, near Hagan Sulphur
Springs. The fourth child was Mary Ann Eliza, born September 20, 1834, and died
March 20, 1843. Emily Burdine and John Hopkins (twins) were born February 1,
1837. Emily died August 31, 1871. John H. was living at old Estillville (now
Gate City) in 1861, with Col. H. A. Morison; he volunteered and went out with
Capt. H. Clint Wood's company of infantry., Col. Samuel J. Fulkerson's
Thirty-seventh regiment, twelve months Virginia troops, Confederate States army,
was with Stonewall Jackson at Laurel Hill, Mt. Arry, Gettysburg,
Chancellorsville, after which he was transferred to cavalry, and commanded
company C, Thirty-fourth battalion Virginia cavalry until the close of the war.
Was married to Miss Rhoda Thompson, of Ryecove, Scott County, Va., January 10,
1867. They had born unto them the following named children, viz.: Anna Bell,
Mary Ellen, Charles W. Lee, William Elbert, Clarence, Myrtle and Grover
Cleveland.

They still live at the old Bickley homestead on the Clinch, and the land that
his father bought, in 1823, for three dollars per acre is now worth fifty
dollars per acre. The captain established a post office in connection with a
lucrative mercantile business at the old home. Henry Powell was the seventh
child, and born February 10, 1840, died April 20, 1840. Elbert La Fayette was
the eighth. Margarette Minerva Ellen and Joseph Wellington were twins, born
February 21, 1846. Ellen was a gentle, loving Christian child, professed
religion and joined the Methodist church, south, when but a girl and lived a
consistent, cheerful member of the same; died in the triumphs of faith in the
Saviour she had so early learned to love, and had so faithfully served, which
was the greatest delight and joy of her short earthly life. She died May 24,
1870, leaving the saviour of her life, both precept and example, as a rich
legacy, to her bereaved and sorrowing brothers, sisters and a host of other
relatives and friends. Joseph W. being the youngest son, had some advantages
more than his elder brothers, his education was more liberal, finishing up at
Emory & Henry College.

He was married to Miss Mary E. Petty, late of Texas (at the time of Cuba), May
24, 1874, they subsequently made their home in Virginia at the old homestead
until about the year 1877, they removed to Alabama, where they now live at
Hunter, having with the aid of General Joseph Wheeler, M. C., established this
new post office, of which J. W. Bickley was the first postmaster appointed, and
has served the office as such ever since. He has also run a general supply store
in connection with a farm.

They have a family of six children: the eldest, Miss Leila E., is about grown;
second daughter, Miss Elberta, and Mary A.; George W. L., the first son was
named for his kinsman, Dr. George W. L. Bickley, late of Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. G. W. L. Bickley, it will be remembered, was the originator and organizer of
the order of Knights of the Golden Circle, about the year 1848, with the purpose
of invading Mexico and making himself emperor of the same; he however failed to
carry his scheme of conquest; notwithstanding the organization had reached a
formidable point numerically, he was betrayed and his plans and purposes
exposed. He wrote a history of Tazewell county, Va., in 1852, where he was
living at that time, and was president of the Jeffersonville Historical society,
he also published a work on botany, besides writing a number of novels and other
miscellaneous matter of journalism.

The fourth and last daughter is Josephine, and the baby boy Seldon Preston
Hopkins, who is now six years old. The youngest daughter, eleventh and last
child of Charles W. and Mary P. Bickley, was Melissa Catharine, born April 18,
1848. She was married to the Rev. J. M. Massey, of the Holston conference,
November 5, 1868; they now live at Dungannan on the Clinch, Mr. Massey having
located, studied and gone into the practice of medicine.

They had only one child, a daughter, Ellena, who married John Hagan, son of the
Hon. Patrick Hagan, of southwest Virginia fame and notoriety as a lawyer and
capitalist. We now come back to the proper and central subject of this sketch,
viz., the early life training, education and personal character of Elbert
Lafayette, fourth son of Chas. Wesley and Mary P. Bickley. His early training in
the home of his parents so impressed him as to develop, and establish in his
character the principles of industry, economy, prudence and piety. Inheriting
the most potent features of his father's character, with strong convictions, and
indomitable energy of purpose, he as it were forged his way, and built character
from his boyhood.
School facilities were very poor, and the most schooling he got was by walking
about three miles to an old log schoolhouse, and this through snow and slush.
After having made a full hand on the farm through the crop season, which he
always did, leading the hands of the plantation from the age of twelve until he
was grown, in the fall of 1855, on a camp-meeting occasion in Castles Woods, he
joined the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and has lived an acceptable member
ever since.

He was at Stony Point Academy at school the winter of 1861-2, and in the spring
he felt an impulse to go into the confederate army, and with the approval of his
parents left home in March, 1862, going out as special courier with Maj. Ben F.
Bradley, Humphrey Marshall's brigade—was in the first battle at Princeton; in
West Virginia; the following May was with Gen. John H. Morgan at Perryville and
Hickman, Ky.; in Bragg's campaign the following fall. He was kept in West
Virginia along the mountain passes most of the year 1863, having been
transferred to Col. V. A. Witcher's Fifty-fourth Virginia cavalry, and was with
Gen. Joseph Wheeler through Tennessee and Alabama. Thence back to Virginia under
Gen. Preston, serving as adjutant of the Thirty-fourth battalion, Virginia
cavalry.

An attack having been made on the garrison at Winfield, W. Va., Maj. McFarland
was run in and hemmed behind the blockhouse with half a dozen other men—cut off
from the command. Adjt. Bickley planned and led a charge upon the garrison in
the night, and succeeded in liberating Maj. McFarland, losing Lieut. J. L.
Williams and two or three other men. For this Maj. Bickley was presented with a
beautiful sword, which he yet has and prizes very highly.

After the surrender of the confederate State of America, Maj. Bickley returned
to the old home, spent the summer of 1865 in agricultural pursuits, and, not
being satisfied with his education, he resolved to go to school one more
session, which he did, at the rye cove academy during the winter of 1865-66.
Leaving school he spent two years with Col. H. A. Morison at Estillville (as
clerk in a dry goods store), and from thence with Dickenson & Alderson, in
Russell county, where he was given general control of their mercantile business,
until the year 1869, when he engaged in the stock business, and after going east
with and selling a drove of cattle in Loudon county, he returned to the
southwest and continued his journey, passing the old home with the purpose of
visiting his uncle, Joseph Bickley, at Indianapolis, Ind.

Stopped off at Tuscumbia, Ala., and visited a cousin, T. B. Bickley, of Spring
Valley. While there he met and was introduced to Miss Sue Jackson, daughter of
James and Sarah (Hodges) Jackson, whom he subsequently married February 14,
1871. Returning to Virginia with his bride they spent one summer and the
succeeding fall returned to Alabama, locating in what is now Spring Valley, in
Colbert County. Here he opened and established a mercantile business, which he
runs successfully in connection with agriculture; he also, through the
assistance of Maj. Joseph A. Sloss, member of congress, of his district,
established a post office, the first the community had ever had.

Remaining at Spring Valley until 1888, he then removed to Tuscumbia, where he
erected a handsome residence where he now lives. Mr. Bickley was raised to the
master's degree in Free Masonry by Catlett Lodge No. 34, at Estillville, Va., in
1866, and took the degrees as a Knight of Honor about the year 1875, and in 1889
was made a Knight of Pythias by Colbert lodge, No. 12, and of which he is now
the V. C. C. Mrs. Bickley, whilst delicately constituted, and almost an
incessant sufferer, has borne it all patiently, and has been truly a helpmate to
her husband temporally and spiritually. Her life has been a benediction to him
and we might say to all with whom she has come in contact.

With no children of their own they have adopted a niece, Miss Katie L.,
daughter of his elder brother, C. Washington Bickley, having taken her when but
a child of six or seven. She is much the same as if their own, educating her in
the Deshler Female Institute, Tuscumbia, and finishing in the Huntsville Female
College. She is the pride of the household and truly an affectionate, dutiful
child—the staff and comfort of her uncle and aunt—as they pass down the stream
of time.

Confederately
William Rozier

G.W.L. Bickley: The K.G.C. Confidence Game

Review of A Secret Society History of the Civil War 

by Mark A. Lause 

© University of Illinois Press 2011. 

ISBN 978-0-252-03655-2

Yet another academic book which would benefit by a better label such as Old Boys' Clubs, Lost-n-Found Causes, Fools' Gold & Brotherhood-in-Arms, Arm-in-Arm.

Mark Lause, a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, has written a well-researched and wickedly revealing volume as regards the secret societies which were in operation behind the scenes of the American Civil War. Of particular note are the tales Lause tells of a trio of individuals and their respective organizations; George Lippard’s Brotherhood of the Union, Hugh Forbes’ Universal Democratic Republicans, and George Washington Lafayette Bickley’s Knights of the Golden Circle [KGC].

Gorgeous George, Golden Knights, Counterfeit Confederacy Ring, Etc.

Lause, who concentrates upon the Cincinnati connection, con man Bickley, that in turn makes the KGC the centerpiece of his tome, comments about its wartime role with the rebels: “The Confederates turned Bickley down, but the South did have a secret service that was active in the North during the war. The United States government was convinced the Knights of the Golden Circle were a big part of this Confederate secret service and spent resources tracking down the organization. However, it wasn’t the case, since the Knights and their numbers were greatly inflated by Bickley”.

Lause, who focuses upon the fact that while Bickley and the KGC were never ever really a fifth-column force for the Confederacy, figures what they supposedly stood for played at least a part toward inspiring the actor John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, remarks: “Booth is thought to have been either a member or sympathizer with the Knights of the Golden Circle who were in Baltimore at that time. A man named George Sanders, who was a member of the Confederate secret service, was reputed to have been Booth’s contact via the group. And Sanders was a member of another secret society that advocated assassination”.

Lause, who also shows that on the other side of the coin, some secret societies, such as the Prince Hall Masons, started by a black veteran of the American Revolution and comprised of African-Americans, which not only supported the abolition of slavery but sustained the Underground Railroad as well, states: “Because slaves were members along with middle-class, free blacks, the group routinely rowed across the Ohio River in secret in order to safely hold meetings in a free state.”

Mark Lause, after all is said and done, gives serious students, a scholarly glimpse, interestingly so, of a generous sampling of the intrigues, including but not limited, of course, to Bickley’s KGC con game, that took place backstage throughout the American Civil War.

Sources:

• Brewer, Bob & Getler, Warren; Shadow of the Sentinel: One Man’s Quest to Find the Hidden Treasure of the Confederacy © Simon & Schuster 2003 andRebel Gold: One Man’s Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy © Simon & Schuster 2004.
• Bridges, C. A.; The Knights of the Golden Circle: A Filibustering Fantasy ©Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1941.
• Crenshaw, Ollinger; The Knights of the Golden Circle: The Career of George Bickley © American Historical Review 1941.
• Dunn, Roy S.; The KGC in Texas, 1860-1861 © Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1967.
• Frazier, Donald S.; Blood and Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest © Texas A& M University Press 1995.
• Hicks, Jimmie; Some Letters Concerning the Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 1860-1861 © Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1961.
• Klement, Frank; Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies and Treason Trials © Louisiana State University Press 1984.
• http://suite101.com/article/counterfeit-csa-civil-war-confidence-game-a400218

Virginia Bickley's descend from Sir Francis Bickley

presented by William Rozier

April 26, 2013

The Arms of Sir Francis Bickley:

Arms: Argent a chevron embattled, counter-embattled, between three griffins heads erased sable, each charged with a plate.

Crest: A hind's head ppr. collared argent.

  George Washington Lafayette BICKLEY, (b. July 18. 1823 d. August 10, 1867) was the son of George BICKLEY (d. June 10, 1830), and Martha LAMB, (this why some mistake the L in his name for Lamb.)

His grandfather was Joseph BICKLEY, (b. 8 FEB 1742)

His great grandfather was John BICKLEY, (b. 7 DEC 1713 in Caroline or, King and Queen County, d. 16 September 1793 in Pedlar Mills, Amherst Co)

His gggrandfather was Joseph BICKLEY (Sr), (b. 1679/1685 in Attleborough Hall, Norwich, Norfolk, England, d. 1751 in King William Co, Virginia)

  Joseph Bickley (Sr) was the eldest surviving son of Sir Francis Bickley, (d.1657), Baronet of Attleborough Hall, Norfolk. Sir Francis Bickley married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Sir Humphrey WINCH.

Joseph Bickley (Sr) immigrated to Virginia and in 1703 was in King and Queen county, later moved to King William, and finally settled in Louisa county, where he was the first Sheriff in 1742, and Judge there in 1745. He married Sarah Gessedge, the widow of Richard Gessedge. Sarah bore Joseph Bickley (Sr) a son, William, who succeeded as sixth Baronet on the death of his uncle. Sir William Bickley died Sept.3, 1771, the title going to his eldest son Joseph Jr, who thus became the seventh Baronet

  Joseph Bickley (Sr) fathered the following: William, 6th Baronet, Joseph Jr, John, Frances, Charles, Francis and James Bickley. 

Confederately,

William Rozier

Knights Of The Golden Circle Mp3 Download

Jesse James or Warren Getler

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John Wilkes Booth Mystery

I remember as a kid in Enid hearing the story that John Wilkes Booth died in Enid. Just recently I ran across this tidbit from the book "Jessie James Was One Of His Names".
( pages 137 - 138 ): "In a sworn statement at Zephyrhills, Florida, on October 1, 1950, William S. ( Wild Bill ) Lincoln said, 'While trying for years on my own to run down the John Wilkes Booth mystery, I landed right in the middle of the Jesse Woodson James mystery without half trying.' In the spring of 1903 ... McDaniel said ... 'The end is coming for that scoundrel, John Wilkes Booth.... I've spared that rascal's life many times. The Golden Circle just had a meeting down in Texas, and we voted to execute Booth.... We know he's registered at the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid [ Oklahoma ] tonight under the name of James St. George.'"
( page 139 ): "A half block from the Grand Avenue Hotel that night a young Indian boy was selling lemons from a small basket.The Colonel stopped and said to Wild Bill, 'Have this kid make you about a quart of lemonade, pronto, while I duck into this drug store.' Four Golden Circle agents sat in the lobby while the other three joined the two agents already surrounding the hotel - just in case Booth made a run for it. 'Mr. St. George expects us,' the Colonel told the desk clerk and he started up the steps, followed closely by Wild Bill with a jar of lemon juice. The door was unlocked and the two men could see the shape of a man lying on the bed."
( page 140 ): "'... Being a hot night, Mr. Booth, we brought you something cool to drink. Now, Wild Bill, you talk to Mr. Booth while I fix up his drink.' Jesse went over to the wash stand with the jar of lemonade. Hastily, he pulled two bottles from his pocket and poured pure arsenic into the jar. Then he stirred the mixture with a table fork. He poured the loaded lemonade into a glass. Approaching the bed, Jesse said, 'Now, Mr. Booth, I think you've had enough alcohol for tonight. This lemonade will really fix you up. I personally guarantee it.' ... Booth gasped, went into almost a stage fall, but hit the floor with a thud. Jesse James bent over and felt his heart. 'Deader than a mackerel,' he said. 'Wild Bill, stay here. I'm sending up the four agents in the lobby to go through Booth's luggage. I'll be back in a few minutes.'
( page 141 ): " ... The six men were amazed at the records Booth had kept through the years. After they had finished sorting it, Jesse said, 'You know, men, I'm just glad Booth didn't put all this in that crazy book his lawyer wrote - he could have put a noose around all of our necks!' Colonel James then directed his men to plant just enough evidence around the room so that the U. S. Marshals could identify the dead man as John Wilkes Booth. Then they took the trunk and departed.... Late that afternoon from Guthrie, Jesse had an agent send a telegram to the U. S. Marshal's office telling them John Wilkes Booth was dead and where his body could be found."
( pages 141 - 142 ): " ... Three days later, Jesse, accompanied by Wild Bill and two agents, went back to Enid.... The clerk said, 'Whole bunch of lawmen were here yesterday morning up there in Mr. St. George's room, but his body is still there in the bed. It's starting to turn black-like and is tough as leather.' 'Don't worry, son,' Jesse said, 'we're relatives and we've come to claim his body.' ... Carting the body of Booth back to Guthrie, Jesse looked up a doctor friend and asked him for a diagnosis.'It would appear that this man swallowed so much poison, probably arsenic, that he is permanently preserved. He's like a damn Egyptian mummy!' Through a friendly town marshal, Jesse learned that the federal men had checked out John Wilkes Booth's body and papers in Enid and reported some transient posing as Booth had committed suicide. The report listed the dead man's name as James St. George. Wild Bill wrote years later, 'Was the Booth case still too hot to touch in 1903? I'm sure Dr. Samuel Mudd along with others would have been vindicated, and it would have exposed the earler ill-conceived, hysterical investigation, but the U. S. Marshals just turned their backs on the case. Maybe the U. S. government by 1903 had uncovered the real facts in the Booth case and was too ashamed to admit the big blunders made by the government in 1865.' Under Jesse James' direction, the leathery, mummified body of John Wilkes Booth was put in a special coffin and several of his men took it on an exhibition tour all over the United States. Jesse James III reports the Booth body was owned by a Glencoe, Minnesota, jeweler named Jay Gould, a relative of the financier, who had it stored. 'This was in 1955 and I believe Gould has passed away. What happened to the body? Who knows? Perhaps John Wilkes Booth, hated by both the North and the South, is destined to lie forever unburied and unwanted.'"
SO, I started doing a little research and came up with the following newspaper reports:
The Houston Daily Post. (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, January 18, 1903
COMMITTED SUICIDE Claimed to Be John Wilkes Booth—Took Poison Guthrie, 0. T., January 17—George an old man, reputed to be wealthy, committed suicide at Enid, O. T., by taking poison. He owned land in Indian Territory and Oklahoma and at Dallas, Texas, Before his death he declared that he was John Wilkes Booth.
The Paducah Sun. (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, January 22, 1903
IS STILL A MYSTERY Old Man Claiming to be John Wilkes Booth Unidentified Man Supposed To Havo Killed Booth Is Summoned to View the Remains BODY IS BEING HELD St Louis, Jan. 22.—A telegram to the Globe-Democrat from Guthrie, Ok., says: It is announced here that Boston Corbett the man who was supposed to have shot and killed John Wilkes Booth in a burning Virginia barn after the assasinatlon of President Lincoln, has been summoned from Old Mexico to identify, if possible the remains of D. E. George, the man who committed suicide at Enid, Okla. and announced just prior to his death that he was John Wilkes Booth. It is also stated that secret service men have been summoned from Washington, D.C., for the same purpose and the remains are being held in the morgue pending identification One thing of Interest connected with the above is the fact that Corbett is alleged to be a fugitive from justice having escaped from an asylum in Kansas. George E Smith who came from Colfax, Ia., left for home Monday without making any disposition of the remains. He visited both Enid and El Reno in looking into the property interests left by the suicide. Relative to George being Booth Smith stated he was in possession of no secrets and knew only of Georges own statement in that matter. Smith said: "He may have been Booth. He was a man of wide experience. I knew him about two years and can say he was an extensively traveled man, unusually well informed. He confided his life secrets to me only to a small extent. He had a pact and told of having killed a man in Texas for which crime I think he was acquitted."
The St. Louis Republic. (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, January 22, 1903
WAS NOT JOHN WILKES BOOTH. Oklahoma Man Who Knew D. E. George Tells Story of His Life. REPUBLIC SPECIAL Oklahoma City. Ok., Jan. 21—C. M. Clark of Oklahoma City stated to-day that D. E. George, who committed suicide at Enid and left a note to the effect that he was John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, had no connection with the death of Lincoln. George was born in Mississippi In 1636 and served as a Major on Bedford Forrest's staff In the Confederate Army. George fought three duels and was wounded many times. After the war, it is said, he killed "Ben" Thompson in a. theater at San Antonio. Tex., and was acquitted. Thompson was a noted Texas "man killer." The killing in the Texas theater probably led up to the Booth story.
The Paducah Sun. (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, June 04, 1903
THE BOOTH MYSTERY One of the Pall Bearers Tells a Sensational Story Says the Body Buried as John Wilkes Booth Was Not That of Booth DEVELOPS INTERESTING STORY The recent dispatches slating that a man who committed suicide at Enid, I. T., in January has been identified as John Wilkes Booth, president Lincolns slayer, has revived interest in the somewhat hackneyed mystory of the actors tragic fate. It has been claimed for many years from time to time that Booth was really never shot, captured or killed and sensational stories have flourished for a time and then been exploded as myths. This last one may share the fate of its predecessors, but following it comes the following story from Baltimore, Md.,: Basil Moxley, the veteran doorkeeper at Fords opera house in this city and the sole survivor of the pallbearers who carried what is supposed to be Wilkes Booths remains to the tomb in Green Mount cemetery today made the surprising statement that it was only a mock funeral. The late John T. Ford, theatrical manager, Charles Bishop the comedian and Samuel Glenn wore the other pallbearers. Mr Morley has preserved silence until this time non account of the Booth family. He now says: "I have never cared much about talking in regard to the truthfulness of the statement that John Wilkes Booth was buried in Green Mount cemetery for there has always been a certain amount of doubt existing as to whether or not the assassin of President Lincoln was ever captured killed or even shot. But in order that I might clear up at least one supposition I'll tell you positively that his body is not and never was buried in this city to my knowledge. Certainly the body buried in Green Mount was not that of Booth. "Never were any two things in this world which resembled each other less than that body did John Wilkes Booth. I had known Booth all my life and was a very close to the family which I think Is shown by the fact that they asked me to act as pallbearer at the funeral of the dead man whom they had been led to believe was that of their relative. I saw the body several times and examined it The hair on the dead body was of a reddish brown color, while Booths was black." Mosley says further: "However that mere detail made no difference for we all knew at the time that the body was not that of John Wilkes Booth and my examination was only prompted by curiosity alone not that I believed for one minute that the body was that of the assassin. You see the whole affair was planned by friends of the family and was done for purpose which they deemed imperative. Mrs Booth, the mother of John Wilkes Booth, was naturally nearly prostrated with grief at her sons action and the stories of his horrible death in the barn and latter the report that the government had taken charge of his body only acted as a vehicle to a general breaking down of her system and for a time it seemed as though she would not survive that shock." "Then in order that the affair might become a thing of the past as soon as possible some friends determined that it would be best to bring the body here and bury it in the family lot in Green Mount. Through these friends Mrs. Booth applied to the government for the body. This brought matters to a crisis, for I do not believe that John Wilkes Booth was ever killed in that barn and if any one was slain it was some innocent man who knew nothing of the real assassin." "At any rate it was incumbent upon the government to furnish a body to make good their report that Booth bad been killed and they did so. What we got and what was sent here for the body of John Wilkes Booth is what I have already described to you a red haired man who looked no more like the tragedian than you do yourself." "I am now the only one of the five left all of the others have died. I never will believe that Booth was killed and am confident that he escaped, but how I have never been able to make up my mind, or have I any positive knowledge that he did. Yet the one point that has always caused me to doubt the various stories of his death is that if he was killed why did not some one receive the immense reward offered for his capture dead or alive? You can search all records in Washington or Interview any officials then in office who are now alive and I will wager you will be unable to learn of any reward being paid for the delivery of John Wilkes Booths body to the government." I also remember several rumors to the effect that Booth had been seen at the crossroads near Penmar and I have heard men say that they had drank with him in that locality, but I must say I believe those rumors were of the same material as those hatched out about his death and peculiar burials, the funniest of which is the one told by Captain E. W. Hllliad of Metropolis, Ill., to the effect that he helped to sink the body in the Potomac river." Another incident bearing indirectly on the case is reported by a prominent Paducah man who was talking in the Palmer house last season to young Junius Booth, who is a nephew of John Wilkes Booth, and played here in a Mrs. LeMoyne's company several months ago. He declared to the Paducah man that John Wilkes Booth was never captured or killed, and if he was dead he died a natural death.
The National Tribune. (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, February 05, 1903
SAW BOOTH AFTER DEATH Capt Owen Ridicules the Story of the Oklahoma suicide     Capt Silas Owen Deputy State Factory Inspector of New York, now residing at Buffalo, N. Y., ridicules the story of the Oklahoma suicide to the effect that he was Wilkes Booth. Capt Owen was Commander of the U. S. Ship Primrose the last year of the war and while in Washington met John Wilkes Booth several times. The last time was two weeks before the tragedy. He says"     "The next time I saw him was in Fords Theater on the night he shot President Lincoln. I sat in seat D 179, right back of the orchestra, with William H Ford, the Executive Officer of the Primrose. I saw Mrs Lincoln stand up in the Presidents box and scream and saw Booth leap to the stage. This Oklahoma story says that the fellow who claimed to be Booth had a broken leg such as Booth sustained in that leap. Booth did not break his leg then. He only broke a tendon in his ankle. On his way across the stage Laura Keene stopped him and asked him, "What have you done?" For answer he slashed at her with his knife. I can hear the sleeve of her dress rip yet as the knife tore through it. I had a good look at him and recognized him as the man who addressed me less than two weeks before.     "I saw him once again. This time he was lying on a tarpaulin on the deck of the Lehigh in the Washington Navy Yard. The Lehigh was in dry dock and the body was laid there. He was dead, dead as a door nail. One bullet had gone through his lungs and another broke his leg. I was allowed on board being a naval officer and being in the company of the Lieutenant of the Lehigh     Booths body was buried in a cell under the old Arsenal on the point at Washington. A flagstone in the floor of the cell was raised and the body let down then the stone covered it. I learned this at the time from one of the three named officers who saw the body buried. Three Secret Service men were also in the secret with President Johnson, Secretary of War Stanton and the Attorney General. It stayed there until 1872 when it was removed by members of the Booth family.
The Paducah Sun. (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, February 05, 1903
MORE BOOTH TALK It May be John Wilkes Booth Was Not Killed After all A Metropolis Man Recalls Incidents of the Mysterious Burial of Booth OTHER INTERESTING DETAILS     Since a man died out west claiming to be John Wilkes Booth many papers of the country have been speculating on the question whether or not Booth was ever really killed as is generally supposed     The Metropolis Herald says:     "Sundays St. Louis Post-Dispatch contained a startling article concerning a man by the name of D.E. George who recently committed suicide at Enid, Okla., and who just before his death confessed that he was John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of Abraham Lincoln. There was in many ways evidence tending to prove that the mans dying confession was true.     "The article is of special interest to Metropolis people from the fact that Captain E. W. Hilliard, of this city, assisted in the final disposition of Booths body, or what was supposed to be Booths body.     "To a representative of the Herald Captain E. W. Hilliard read the story and recalled carefully the time when he and five other soldiers took a body down the Potomac river and buried it beneath the waves with the impression that it was that of Booth, and he was quite forcibly impressed with it.     "He says the whole affair of Booths capture and the disposition of his body was a peculiar circumstance and shrouded in mystery and while the body was positively identified by a military surgeon it is possible the body was that of some man resembling Booth which had been substituted for the purpose of quieting the country at the time when the authorities realized that they had failed to capture the right man     "Captain Hilliard never saw Booth while alive but remembers that he saw what was said to have been an excellent likeness of the man and on the night that he assisted in disposing of the mysterious body he noted the fact that the resemblance was quite similar. However one side of the head and faoe wero badly burned     "Mr, hilliard has a letter from Horace L. Trim of Providence, R. I., 59 Lydia street, corroborating his former story of disposition of the body which was published in the Herald during the soldiers reunion here in the fall of 1901. Trim was a first-class boy on the steamer Dragon at the time the body was unwrapped and examined that night and assisted in handling the tarpaulin.     "The statement that the real Booth was never captured has been made more than once and now it seems quite plausible."     A few years ago a well known man of Unionville, Ill., came to Paducah and told a number of his friends that be had received a latter from John Wilkes Booth who was an old school mate and tbat Booth was running a coffee plantation in BraziL. The story was repeated and copied into the big newspapers, and one or two of them sent staff correspondents to the old mans home across the river to interview him and take photographic copies of the letter.     He never showed it to anyone however and subsequently declared it was only a joke but many such incidents as this and the one of the western man who recently died and claimed to be Booth have occurred since the war to arouse momentary interest.
The Houston Daily Post. (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, February 17, 1903
WAS HE JOHN WILKES BOOTH? An Embalmers Story of a Recent Suicide in Oklahoma     Corsicana, Texas, February 15, Jack L. Ogilvie, representing an embalming fluid company of Detroit, Mich., spnt yesterday in this place and told The Post representative a story of the old man who suicided in Oklahoma a few days ago, and who said he was John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Lincoln.     The old man took his life at Enid, O. K., on the last day of December, 1902, and Mr. Ogilvie was in Oklahoma at the time. He was given charge of the body and learned the story of the man. It seems that the old man, who seemed to be at least 70 years old, went to El Reno in November last. He was a cultured man and of sociable disposition and soon made many aquaintances. He dressed well, lived at the best hotel and seemed to have plenty of money. About December 23 he took an overdose of morphine with suicidal intent. Before doing so he sent for the wife of a prominent lawyer there with whom he was very friendly and told her he was Booth, but requested her to keep the secret until he was dead. Physicians were were summoned when it was found that he had taken the drug, and they countered the poison, and the old man recovered.     A few days later the lawyer moved to Enid and the old man appeared there. He again took morphine and sent for the lady and to her presence he wrote:     "I am John Wilkes Booth, the man who murdered Abraham Lincoln, the greatest man the country ever produced."     After his death the lady told of his former confession to her and made a sworn statement to that effect.     Before the man was buried an old schoolmate of Booth's, living in Memphis, Tenn., came to Enid to see the remains. Before looking at the body this man told the undertaker that Booth's body could be identified by three marks. One was sort of a wen on the right instep, two peculiar marks on the right arm, and a scar behind the left ear. The body was examined and these markes were there just as the memphis man had described them, and he was thoroughly satisfied that the body was that of his former schoolmate, John Wilkes Booth.
The copy of the above is hard to read and the word "wen" is the best I can make it out. I have no idea what it could be as a mark though.
New-York Tribune. (New York, N.Y.) 1866-1924, February 19, 1903
.............The sixty-nine acres comprised in the Washington barracks became a military post as far back as 1803, and a regular depot for military supplies located there was burned by the British in 1814. Under the old United States Penitentiary, located there, were buried John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, and Mrs. Surratt and the conspirators with him. who were hanged in the court Of the penitentiary at the same time. When the penitentiary was torn down, however, these bodies were removed to established cemeteries.
From Historia 13 July 1922
BOOTH LEGEND Legend tells that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, using the name David E. George, committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma Territory, in 1903. Booth, a popular and talented southern actor, accomplished his task of assassination on April 14, 1865, and following his escape into Virginia, was shot by Sgt. Boston Corbett of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry. Conflicting stories still exist about the identification of Booth's body, and there were errors made in the identification process along with errors in supplying information to the public about the identification. Legend tells that Boston Corbett, the man who shot Booth against orders, was involved in identifying the body as Booth's; within a short time rumors began to circulate questioning the true identity of the corpse doubts and rumors that continue today among Lincoln/Booth scholars and enthusiasts. At approximately 10:30 a.m. on January 13, 1903, in the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, the screaming of a guest who had occupied room number four for three or four weeks brought others to his side; David E. George was soon dead. A doctor diagnosed the cause of death as self-administered arsenic poisoning. Later it was told that the deceased had purchased strychnine that morning at a local drug store. The body was taken to Penniman's Furniture Store, also a funeral home. A coroner's jury soon heard stories about this strange, locally unknown man: he was a house painter who did not know how to paint, who always had access to money but died penniless, who frequented bars and loved alcohol, who often quoted Shakespeare, who knew no one but was known by many outside Enid, who was quoted as saying ". . . I killed the best man that ever lived." After George was embalmed, he was placed in a chair in the window of the furniture store/funeral home so that the public could view him, and a photograph was taken. It was believed that he had a "remarkable likeness" to Booth and that his leg had been broken above the right ankle the same break that Booth had suffered in jumping from the Ford's Theater balcony. However, the doctor who had set Booth's leg reported it to be the left leg. Many Enid citizens believed that if George was Booth, the body should be burned. Just as public interest was beginning to fade, Finis L. Bates from Memphis, Tennessee, arrived in Enid. Bates identified the body as his old friend John St. Helen. Bates had been a lawyer in Granbury, Texas, and claimed to have known St. Helen (George) as a client and friend in the early 1870s. After about five years of friendship St. Helen became seriously ill and believing that he was dying, confessed to Bates that he was Booth. He recovered and later gave a detailed account of his life, the assassination, and the escape, to Bates information that only Booth would know. However, some information that Bates later published about St. Helen was inconsistent with documented facts. Nevertheless, the body, which had been embalmed well enough for long-time preservation, was turned over to Bates, who then leased it to interested parties for specified time limits. The George story created enough attention to have the body displayed during the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904; then the mummified cadaver was displayed in different places from time by time by different people, such as carnival sideshow promoters. Shipped by rail to California in 1920, the body was stolen after the train wrecked. Bates later recovered the remains and kept it until his death; his widow sold the mummy. It may today be stored in someone's basement or closet. The Booth Legend has been perpetuated by articles in journals such as Harper's Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, Life, Literary Digest, and many others as well as in numerous newspapers throughout the years. As a young boy growing up in Enid, Henry B. Bass saw the body on display and became fascinated with the story. He became a Lincoln poetry collector as well as a major collector of Booth artifacts. He also became an authority on the actor and the legend about Booth, or George, having lived in Enid. Bass, a widely known and respected building contractor, is the man who discovered and reported the strange coincidence that Sgt. Boston Corbett is buried in Enid. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okgarftp/people/booth.htm