Secret message engraved by Irishman in Abraham Lincoln’s watch

After repairing the watch for the president he left a communication

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

3 Comments

The message left by Irish watchmaker Jonathan Dillon

Photo by Google Images

Tweet

Two other inscriptions were also found on the back of the watch movement. One reads “LE Grofs Sept 1864 Wash DC” and was probably added by another watchmaker doing a repair. 

The other, “Jeff Davis,” may have been intended as a rejoinder to Dillon’s pro-Union inscriptions, as Jefferson Davis was the president of the rebel Confederacy.

According to Thomas, the timepiece was made in Liverpool but the case was crafted in America. He said that the watch, reportedly the only watch that Lincoln owned, was in perfect condition and looked as if it had not been worn very much. While the watch is unable to be wound after hundreds of years of no use, it will be reassembled and available for viewing at the museum with a photograph and transcription of the engraving.

Stiles claimed that the story of Dillon’s “graffitti” had been told to him in the 1970’s by a great-uncle, and his attention returned to it last year when an Irish cousin recounted the story as well. The revelation of the inscription lends a new credibility to generational tales and emphasizes the importance of oral history, persistent as it is in the Irish-American tradition. 

Read More: When Abraham Lincoln kissed the Irish flag and praised the Irish

Print

E-mail

Tweet