I heard this story on NPR on the way home from work. An Irish watchmaker, Johnathan Dillon, used to tell his family a story around the dinner table that he had inscribed a secret message inside Abraham Lincoln's watch while he was repairing it. While Johnathan had the watch apart, 150 years ago, the Civil War began. His family heard this tale told for years and today, at the Smithsonian Museum, they opened up the back of the watch.
Picture is Abraham Lincoln’s English gold watch is seen in a handout photo provided by the Smithsonian Institution Tuesday, March 10, 2009.
This morning, in a small conference room on the first floor of Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, officials decided to find out. Expert watchmaker George Thomas used a series of delicate instruments -- tweezers, tiny pliers -- to pull apart Lincoln's timepiece. He put on a visor with a magnifying lens and talked as he worked. Some of the pins were nearly stuck, he explained. The hands of the watch were original with a case made in America and the workings from Liverpool. The Illinois rail-splitter had splurged: The watch, Thomas said, would be the equivalent to a timepiece costing "$5,000 or more" today.
It read: "April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J. Dillon." It then read: "April 13, 1861. Thank God we have a government. Jonathan Dillon."
UPDATE: Graycat13, in the comments, posted that an old photogragh was also found today of Lincoln. It is the first ever picture of Lincoln at the white house.