An insight of the assassination from Reverend F. A. Conwell

“Some time ago, I providentially met the Reverend F. A. Conwell of Chicago. Having known that I was in search of facts about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he told me he knew one of those facts, which might perhaps throw light on the subject of my researches.

“The very day of the murder, he said, he was in the Roman Catholic village of St. Joseph, Minnesota State, when, at about six o’clock, in the afternoon, he was told by a Roman Catholic of the place, who was a purveyor of a great number of priests who lived in that town, where they have a monastery, the State Secretary Seward, and the President, Lincoln, had just been killed.

“This was told me,” he said. “in the presence of a most respectable gentleman, called Bennett, who was not less puzzled than myself As there were no railroad lines nearer than forty miles, nor telegraph offices nearer than eight miles, from that place, we could not see how such news was spread in that town. The next day, the 15th of April, I was at St. Cloud, a town about twelve miles distant, where there are neither railroad nor telegraph. I said to several people that I had been told in the priestly village of St. Joseph, by a Roman Catholic, that Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary Seward had been assassinated, the very day before, which was Friday the 14th, at 10 o’clock p.m.

“But how could the Roman Catholic purveyor of the priests of St. Joseph have told me the same thing, before several witnesses, just four hours before its occurrence? I spoke of that strange thing to many, the same day and the very next day I wrote to the St. Paul Press, under the head of “A Strange Coincidence.”

“Some time later, the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer having denied what I had written on that subject, I addressed him the following note, which he had printed, and which I have kept. Here it is; you may keep it as an infallible proof of my veracity.

“To the Editor of the St. Paul Pioneer: You assume the non-truth of a short paragraph addressed by me to the St. Paul Press, viz.:

“A STRANGE COINCIDENCE!

“At 6:30 p.m., Friday last, April 14th, I was told as an item of news, 8 miles west of this place, that Lincoln and Seward had been assassinated. This was three hours after I had heard the news.”

St. Cloud, 17th April, 1865.

“The integrity of history requires that the above coincidence be established. And if anyone calls it in question, then proofs more ample than reared their sanguinary shadows to comfort a traitor can now be given.

Respectfully,
F.A. Conwell.

“I asked that gentleman if he would be kind enough to give me the fact under oath, that I might make use of it in the report I intended to publish about the assassination of Lincoln. And he kindly granted my request in the following form:

“STATE OF ILLINOIS,
COOK COUNTY.

“Reverend F. A. Conwell, being sworn deposes and says, that he is seventy-one years old; that he is a resident of North Evanston, in Cook County, State of Illinois; that he has been in the ministry for fifty-six years, and is now one of the chaplains of “Seamen’s Bethel Home,” in Chicago; that he was chaplain of the First Minnesota Regiment, in the war of the rebellion. That on the 14th day of April, A.D., 1865, he was in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and reached there as early as six o’clock in the evening in company with Mr. Bennett, who, then and now, is a resident of St. Cloud, Minnesota. That on that date, there was no telegraph nearer than Minneapolis about 80 miles from St. Joseph; and there was no railroad communication nearer than Anoka, Minnesota, about 40 miles distant. That when he reached St. Joseph on the 14th day of April, 1865, one Mr. Linneman, who then kept the hotel of St. Joseph, told affiant that President Lincoln and Secretary Seward were assassinated; that it was not later than half past six o’clock on Friday, April 14th, 1865, when Mr. Linneman told me this. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bennett came into the hotel, and I told him that Mr. Linneman said the President and Secretary Seward were assassinated; and then the same Mr. Linneman reported the same conversation to Mr. Bennett in my presence. That during that time, Mr. Linneman told me that he had charge of the friary, or college for young men, under the priests, who were studying for the priesthood at St. Joseph; that there was a number of this kind at St. Joseph at the time. Affiant says, that on Saturday morning, April 15th, 1865, he went to St. Cloud, a distance of about 10 miles, and reached there about 8 o’clock in the morning; that there was no railroad or telegraph communication to St. Cloud. When he arrived there he told Mr. Haworth, the hotelkeeper, that he had been told that President Lincoln and Secretary Seward had been assassinated, and asked if it was true. He further told Henry Clay Wait, Charles Gilman, who afterwards was Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, and Reverend Mr. Tice, the same thing, and asked them if they had any such news; and they replied that they had not heard anything of the kind.

“Affiant says that on Sunday morning, April 16th, 1865, he preached in St. Cloud, and on the way to the church, a copy of a telegram was handed to him, stating that the President and Secretary were assassinated on Friday evening at about nine o’clock. This telegram had been brought to St. Cloud by Mr. Gorton, who had reached St. Cloud by stage; and this was the first intelligence that had reached St. Cloud of the event. Affiant says further, that, on Monday morning, April 17th, 1865, he furnished the Press, a paper of St. Paul, a statement that three hours before the event took place, he had been informed, at St. Joseph, Minnesota, that the President had been assassinated, and this was published in the Press.

(Signed) FRANCIS ASBURY CONWELL.

“Subscribed and worn to by Francis A. Conwell, before me, a Notary Public of Kankakee County, Illinois, at Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, the 6th day of September, 1883.

STEPHEN R. MOORE
Notary Public.”

Father Chiniquy adds,

“Though this document was very important and precious to me. I felt that it would be much more valuable if it could be corroborated by the testimony of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Linneman, themselves, and I immediately sent a magistrate to find out if they were still living. and if they remembered the facts of the sworn declaration of Reverend Mr. Conwell. By the good Providence of God, both of these gentlemen were found living, and both gave the following testimonies:

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