March 2, 1978
Picture #1 – Lincoln-Kennedy penny
SIGNIGICANT LINCOLN-KENNEDY PENNY
Not long ago Esther Chance, a lifelong Fostorian, and old friend of mine, gave me an uncirculated penny. I am not ordinarily a collector of such items but I treasure it because she gave it to me, and because of a special significance of this particular coin.
Perhaps some readers know about it…but I didn’t until I inherited it. In addition to the head of Lincoln in normal size, there is a small profile of John F. Kennedy looking at Lincoln.
Here are the astonishing coincidences between the two presidents:
1. Lincoln was elected in 1860. Kennedy was elected in 1960.
2. There are seven letters in each name
3. Both presidents were slain on Friday. Both presidents were slain in the presence of their wives.
4. Both were directly concerned with civil rights.
5. Both presidents had legality of elections contested.
6. Kennedy’s secretary Lincoln warned him not to go to Dallas. Lincoln’s secretary Kennedy warned him not to go to the theatre.
7. Both of their successors were named Johnson. Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson.
8. Each successors name contains 13 letters.
9. Both served in the U.S. senate
10. Both were southern Democrats
11. Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908
12. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808
13. Booth and Oswald were both southerners favoring unpopular ideas.
14. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and hid in a theatre. Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and hid in a warehouse.
15. Booth and Oswald were both murdered before trial could be arranged.
16. Lincoln and Kennedy were carried in death on the same caisson.
17. Booth and Oswald were born one hundred years apart
18. Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilks Booth, each name has 15 letters.
Your editor knows very little about horoscopes, the signs people are born under, and all that stuff…but probably those who study those things have an answer for the similarities of Lincoln and Kennedy.
READER FEEDBACK
From Norman Fruth…about Carl Anderson story. Norm reports he had the steering wheel from the wrecked car of Anderson. J.F. Fruth, father of Norm, salvaged the part from the wreckage, labelled it and hung it in the basement of Fruth Hardware, where it collected dust for many years before being discovered.
From Royal Shoemaker…about Carl Anderson story. “I’ve lived on Sandusky Street at the time of Anderson’s accident and death, and remember the Fostoria and Fremont interurban car moving slowly toward Fremont, bearing the casket and remains of Anderson for burial there. On the rear platform stood a uniformed lodge brother, erect, at attention, in honor of Anderson. I was just a boy, but remember it well”.
OLD PHOTOS
I have had a request from Fostoria High School for suitable photos of all of the superintendents of the school, going back as far as possible. They would like to copy and frame them for the high school building.