A Mouse in Henry Livingston's House
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The answer, I decided, must be in father's family. Of all the people to whom he had given his book, surely he must have given one to a relative. My path to his family lay in an obituary of his mother that had been kept with his photographs.

Catharine Burnett Van Deusen had been a writer, herself, and the first female publisher of a newspaper in Canon City Colorado. Her obituary said that her father was Henry Burnett, and that she was descended from Henry B. Gibson of Canandaigua.

That, and the fact that her pallbearers were the Governor of Colorado and three generals!

From files in Canandaigua I followed threads that led to Henry Burnett, one of the special judge advocates at the Lincoln Assassins Trial. Great grandfather, too, had turned out to be a writer. In Goshen New York I found his memories of the trial. But on a huge tombstone he had had made to guarantee that he would be remembered, was only the word BURNETT. Someone had stolen great grandfather's plaque.

I found no relative who had father's book, but it seemed I had found another relative who needed my help. I searched for the blueprint of the plaque but, in the end, found no trace. Instead of saving father for the future, I'd just found another ancestor I hadn't been able to help.





Intro:   0,   1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8

Slideshow Index,
Introduction,   Ch1: Mouse,   Ch2: Sarah,   Ch3: After Sarah,   Ch4: Locust Grove,   Ch5: Know,  
Ch6: Dunder,   Ch7: War,   Ch8: Unexpected,   Ch9: Economy,   Ch10: Dutch,  
Ch11: Politics,   Ch12: Religion,   Ch13: Work,   Ch14: Myths,   Ch15: Happy Xmas,   Epilog





        
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Slideshow Index

All Henry Livingston's Poetry,     All Clement Moore's Poetry     Historical Articles About Authorship

Many Ways to Read Henry Livingston's Poetry

Arguments,   Smoking Gun?,   Reindeer Names,   First Publication,   Early Variants  
Timeline Summary,   Witness Letters,   Quest to Prove Authorship,   Scholars,   Fiction  


   Book,   Slideshow,   Xmas,   Writing,   The Man,   Work,   Illos,   Music,   Genealogy,   Bios,   History,   Games  


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