Did You Know This About Williamstown...
Do You Know These Things About Williamstown?
While our local Historian, Mr. Ken Stone, wasn’t exactly sure if this happened in 1946 or 1948, he knows for certain that the City of Williamstown decided to graciously offer a place for the baby elephant to be laid to rest in the Williamstown
Cemetery. Some have claimed this was the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus, while others say that it was just a small circus company. Have you heard of the elephant buried in the Williamstown Cemetery?
John Wilkes Booth may be buried in the Williamstown Cemetery. The death of the man who assassinated America’s 16th President and Kentucky Native, Abraham Lincoln, has been long debated. Various rumors have claimed that he escaped his capture and eventually found himself as Williamstown High School’s Principal (circa 1917). Legend has it that a mysterious man named Henry Newton came to town in the late 1870’s and took a career as a local high school teacher. Mr. Newton: a man who walked with a limp, looked almost identical to John Wilkes Booth, and refused to ever speak of Abraham Lincoln, both in and out of the classroom, married Amanda Rodgers of Crittenden in 1878 and had six children. He had teaching stints in Grant, Boone, and Kenton County High Schools until, eventually, Henry Newton become the principal of Williamstown High School. There were many, many rumors circulating at the time that this mysterious Henry Newton could be the elusive John Wilkes Booth. It was said that Henry Newton would carry with him a briefcase that was to never be opened and instructed his wife, Amanda, to upon his death, burn the briefcase without question and to not allow it to be opened or its contents shown. In 1924 Henry Newton passed away, and it was later discovered that his wife did not burn the briefcase but, instead, buried it somewhere in Williamstown. To this day, no one has ever found this mysterious briefcase.
What do you think? Did John Wilkes Booth evade his capture? Was John Wilkes Booth’s Kentucky alias Henry Newton? Will Henry Newton’s briefcase one day be unearthed?
