The Abraham Lincoln Connection?
On April 15, 1865 the famous American president died. He’d been shot the previous night at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.
I came across this date while researching sailing ships of that era and looking at routes my great grandfather may have taken to China. Coincidentally, he arrived at Foochow on April 16th, 18965, the very day after the assassination of Lincoln. I wondered if as he walked down the ship’s gangway in this foreign land, was there a newspaper hawker shouting, “Extra, extra, read all about it! President Lincoln Assassinated!” Did news travel that fast?
WLH was now in Foochow, after months at sea, seeking his fortune in a new world. The record below is of foreign residents at the end of the years but in the case of my great grandfather is also shows his date of arrival. He was 21 years old, a bachelor as far as we can tell and employed by W R Adamson. His father John Hunter had also been involved in the tea business with Binyon’s in Manchester, so William would have likely been well versed in the trade. As a side note, he is listed on the 1861 census in London, as a tea salesman. Although not mentioned, this could have been his first affiliation with Adamsons.