Ward Hill Lamon - Lamon After Lincoln's Death

Lamon After Lincoln's Death

Lamon had tendered his resignation as Marshal of the District of Columbia in June 1865. He was offered the cabinet position of Postmaster General but declined. He formed his law partnership with Jeremiah Black as referenced above, and the law practice dissolved in 1879 due to the poor reception of The Life of Lincoln ghostwritten by Black's son Chauncey. In 1879, Lamon and his wife Sally moved to Boulder, Colorado and later to Denver where he formed a friendship with poet Eugene Field. The ill health of both Lamon and Sally caused them to return to Washington in 1886, and in 1889 they traveled to Europe for the spas and subsequently Sally died in Brussels in 1892.

Lamon moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia where he was cared for by his daughter Dorothy until his death on May 7, 1893. He was aged 65 when he died. Lamon was buried in Gerrardstown, West Virginia in the Presbyterian Cemetery (Sally had been buried in Springfield, Illinois). The home built by Lamon's cousin Joseph in Danville, Illinois is open as a museum.