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The sad truth is that neither shot would have been fatal to the president, however a small army of doctors proded and probed the president's wound with unsteril fingers and instruments. They beleived that the president would die of lead poisoning if the bullet were not removed. Propper steril surgical procedures were just being developed, but the connection between germs and infection was not yet universally accepted. President Garfield's surgeons had turned a small two inch wound into a gaping hole that stretched from the groin to his ribs. Alexander Graham Bell constructed a crude metal detector to help find the bullet; however the bullet was lodged inside a vertebrae, and was not easy to find. President Garfield suffered for 80 days, finally surrendering to the massive infection. During this time, the president took pen or pencil in hand on four different occasions. Col. A. F. Rockwell, who attended the president kept notes of this. 1: On Sunday, July 17, at noon, at the president's request for writing materials, I placed in his hand a clip and a pencil in his left hand, he then wrote his name and the prophetic words, "Strangulatus pro Republica," What epitaph more significant, eloquent, and truthful than this--his own. 2. On August 10th, with a fountain pen, he wrote his name on a clip. 3. Immediately after, he signed an extradition paper sent from the Department of State, first requesting me to read the document,-- the old habit of thoroughness asserting itself. 4. On August 11th, he wrote, on a larger clip, with a pencil, the brief letter to his mother, a copy of which has been widely circulated. |
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In the early 1880's "fountain pen" could have meant a dip pen with a special nib designed to hold a large drop of ink to decrease the dipping process, or it could have been a regular fountain pen. Since the president was confined to a bed and any extra movement was painful, it makes sense that either a pencil or a modern fountain pen would be used. As fountain pen collectors and researchers, what fountain pen was used becomes a great interest. I haven't found any further refrence from Col. Rockwell about the pen. To be sure, he had a lot on his mind and the make of the fountain pen was of little concern for him. It is a wonder that he noted when the president wrote and with which tool, pencil or fountain pen. One clue is from a 1928 Time Magazine Article: That was a buster, that pen. I called it the Idea, after a horse I owned. Eugene Leigh, who brought that French horse over last year, trained him for me. . . When I had a place at No. 212 Broadway I sent President Garfield a pen like that. L. E. Waterman had a place a few doors down the street. I used to get my rubber from H. P. & E. Day up at Seymour, Conn. No one could make gutta percha like they could, on a big marble table, you know. Well, one time Mr. Day said he couldn't sell me any more rubber casings. Said he'd made a contract with Waterman. I put all my machinery on a boat and sailed it down to Baltimore. . . I advertised on P. T. Barnum's first circus program. . . When they put up the Flatiron building, they flashed 'The Lancaster Pen' against it with a stereopticon machine. Once I printed a Sunday paper to give away. . . My wife and I traveled all over; I introduced her to Mrs. Potter Palmer out in Chicago . . . It all goes back to the Baltimore fire." . . Old Mr. Lancaster pointed to a woodcut on a time-stained circular, which showed a Tennysonian gentleman with bushy brown whiskers, gold pince nez. "I looked like that once," said he. "It was always a fight. . ." If Lancaster's memory is correct, then it is possible that the fountain pen Garfield used in his last days was a Lancaster Fountain Pen. However there are a few time issues that make this claim a problem. If Lancaster meant that Lewis Waterman's Fountain Pen company was a few doors down from the Lancaster Fountain Pen company at the time he sent his fountain pen to the president, this is impossible. Lewis Waterman moved to 155 Broadway in 1885, four years after President Garfield was assisnated. Lancaster's claim could be true, but it is questionable. Certainlly this topic needs some more research. If you have any clues, please contact me at rd@kamakurapens.com |
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