A few years ago I chanced upon the
gravestone in Whitaker Cemetery in Monterey, Tennessee of a ‘George Winfield
Mudd.’ Can you guess who came to my mind? Hmm… Monterey, by the way, is the
hometown of many of my Nash kin. I lived there for a time also. I was in the
cemetery visiting some Nash graves and just started walking around looking at
the names and dates on the markers and stones. Anyone who has spent anytime at
all doing genealogy can relate to that behavior. So there I found myself
staring down at this ‘Mr. Mudd.’ I asked a cousin about the grave. She thought
that he was indeed a kin to Dr. Samuel Mudd (the physician who treated the
wounded John Wilkes Booth). She also said something about someone else being
buried underneath the body of Mudd!
When I returned home I posted an
inquiry at the Mudd Genealogy Forum on Genealogy.com. Did anyone know about the
Mudd grave in Whitaker Cemetery?
Alas, almost nine years later a
reply was posted! Dr. Op Walker, who as it turned out, is related to me, had
the answer! He said that he had actually corresponded with Dr. Richard Mudd,
the grandson of Dr. Samuel Mudd. Dr. Richard Mudd had spent a good part of his
life trying to clear his grandfather’s name concerning his involvement with
John Wilkes Booth. Mr. George Mudd, as it turned out, was a cousin to Dr.
Samuel Mudd. The Mudd family thanked Op Walker for finding their long lost
relative’s grave. Some of the Mudds even ventured to Monterey to see the
gravesite in the 1980’s.
Mr. George Mudd was a Master
Mechanic for the railroad and lived in Monterey, since Monterey was a repair
station for trains belonging to the Tennessee Central. He moved to Monterey in
1922. I would have thought that George Mudd got as far away from Maryland as he
could because of the Mudd name. He had been born in Charles County, Maryland.
George was sixteen years old when President Lincoln was assassinated on Easter
weekend, April 1865. One can only imagine the stigma attached to the Mudd
family name after Dr. Samuel Mudd was convicted in the Lincoln case. Even so,
Dr. Richard Mudd told U.S.A. Today, “I am proud to have the name
Mudd!” Despite the “problems” associated with the Mudd name, Ida Zoe
Walters married George Mudd. They raised three sons. George made a living in
the railroad profession.
George Mudd lived the last six years
of his life in Monterey, where he died in 1928. He had wanted his burial to
occur in his home State of Maryland but his sons gave their permission for the
resting place in Whitaker Cemetery. Dr. Op Walker’s father and uncle dug the
grave. They reported that there was a body already buried in the gravesite
(unmarked). George Mudd was buried there anyway. No one knows who the identity
of the other body.
In recognition of Monterey’s place
in the life of George Winfield Mudd and his wife Ida Zoe Mudd- and of
the Mudds themselves, a theatre production was performed in the 2009 Monterey
Dinner Theatre. Dr.Op Walker played the role of George Mudd and his wife Kay
played the part of Ida Zoe Mudd. I’m told it was a great success. May George
Winfield Mudd rest in peace. He has distinction of having his name remembered
long after his death. No, he had nothing to do with the conspiracy to kill
Abraham Lincoln. Now if someone could just find out whom in the world he is
eternally laying on top of!
- See more at:
http://abesblogcabin.org/187#sthash.7pUt9hRK.dpuf
Poster's notes:
Just another story to be told
whenever.
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