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News Updates
Article Found At An Antique Fair Sheds Light On Andrew Johnson
Sun Photo by Nelson Morais Sharon Collins displays the newspaper clipping, dated May 6, 1865, about Andrew Johnson.
Source: The Greeneville Sun
by Nelson Morais
Date: 2008-11-03
A remarkably well-preserved newspaper article from 1865 -- 143 years ago -- contains extensive biographical information on Andrew Johnson when he ascended to the U.S. presidency.
Vice President Johnson became the 17th U.S. president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865.
Artist Sharon Collins, who resides in the Ottway community, said Wednesday that she bought the single newspaper page from the Illustrated London News at an antique fair in the 1990s when she and her husband, John, lived in Kansas City, Kansas.
The single sheet of newsprint contains an article printed on one side and continued on part of the reverse side, on pages 437 and 438, of The Illustrated London News dated May 6, 1865.
It is the only page of the British newspaper that Collins has.
British Newspaper
The article in the newspaper is entitled, "The New President of the United States." Johnson was nominated for the vice presidency in 1864, running with President Abraham Lincoln.
They had formed a National Union Party ticket, Lincoln being a Republican and Johnson a Democrat.
The newspaper article is dated only 21 days after Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became president in 1865.
It includes a handsome, engraved portrait of Johnson, who was 56 years old when the article was printed. Another engraving is of Americans who gathered at St. James Hall in London within days of Lincoln's assassination.
The newspaper article reports on Johnson's personal and political achievements following his birth in Raleigh, N.C., on Dec. 29 in 1808.
Written in the distinctive British style of the time, it states the following early on in the article: "When he (Johnson) was four years of age he lost his father, who died from the effect of exertions to save a friend from drowning."
Johnson Self-Educated
It goes on to relate Johnson's commitment to educate himself.
The author writes, "His mother was unable to afford him any educational advantages, and he never attended school a day in his life. While learning his trade (as a tailor), however, he resolved to make an effort to educate himself."
Collins said she had framed the article.
She undid the frame and removed the article for a reporter who visited her at her home. She said, almost apologetically, she has kept it stored in her attic for many years.
However, Collins said that when she displayed the framed article at a bicentennial art exhibit on the lawn of the Andrew Johnson Homestead two weeks ago, next to her art work, "Quite a few people seemed interested in seeing it."
She said she has never had the article appraised and "never really thought" about selling it, in part because she does not believe it to be overly valuable.
She said she and her husband John, a retired executive with Dairy Farmers of America, returned in the 1990s to Ottway, where both grew up.
Sharon Collins makes beautiful stained glass window hangings and mosaic table tops through the James-Ben: Art Center in downtown Greeneville.
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