Social media can be a huge time-waster, but occasionally something fascinating pops up, like the fact that Nathan Simms (1851-1934) is buried at Bradford Cemetery in Marshallton.
According to the tombstone, Simms is "the slave boy who helped Booth escape the night of Lincoln's assassination, but told the Union soldiers the next day the direction Booth took, thus aiding in his capture."
I did some online research and found that there's a dispute over whether Simms was a slave or an indentured servant. Either way, on April 14, 1865, he was a 14-year-old stable worker at Surratt’s Tavern in Maryland (owned by Mary Surratt, a co-conspirator in the assassination plot) when John Wilkes Booth stopped during his escape to eat, pick up weapons and change horses. As Simms put it, Booth, despite his leg injury, "rode down the pike as if a whirlwind was pursuing him.”
When Union soldiers arrived at the tavern the next morning, Simms learned of the assassination and told them which way Booth had ridden off. He was not charged.
At age 19, Simms moved to Marshallton (history doesn't record why), where he worked as a laborer but died destitute in the county poorhouse in 1934. His headstone was installed by local Boy Scouts in 1960.
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| Nathan Simms' grave marker, Bradford Cemetery. |
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| Nathan Simms, 1931. |
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