DR. T. S VERDI, Physician                                                                                      

 

Verdi, is not person who stands out amongst his fellow men for any significant achievement in terms of a great discovery or action beyond the call of duty. His renown happens from being in the right place at the right time. However, his assistances are commendable as they are for any good serving medical professional.

Dr. Tullio S. Verdi was an immigrant from Italy, who immigrated to the United States some time before 1860. It appears that a brother Ciro S. did also. The Washington, D.C., census of that decade indicates Verdi as a thirty-one year old physician living with his wife Rebecca A. 21, of Pennsylvania, and his brother Ciro, 26, then a student.

Verdi became the physician of Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family after an incident involving a run-away-horse carriage in which Seward and other members of his family were riding. Seward was the most seriously injured, suffering from a fracture of his face and a broken arm. The family sought the services of Verdi to tend to the injured at Seward’s home. Frederick Seward, a brother, was also treated. Dr. Verdi visited his patients several times over the following weeks; however, during the late evening hours of Friday April, 14, 1865, Verdi was at the Seward home tending to his patients. Family members, including Fanny Seward the sister and servants were present. Upon completing his visit, he left at 9:00 p.m., only to return an hour and a half later to a horrible scene of a violent attack. Secretary Seward had been stabbed a number of times as he lay in bed recuperating from his previous injuries. The assailant, Lewis Payne was a member of the conspirator group that assassinated President Lincoln at 10:15 p.m. that same evening. Verdi in  his testimony at the trial of the attempted assassinator Payne, stated, “I saw the Hon. William H. Seward, Mr. Frederick Seward, Major Augustus H. Seward, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Hansell, all wounded and their wounds bleeding.” Robinson and Hansell were servants. “I had left Mr. Seward… very comfortable in his room, and when I saw him next he was in his bed, covered with blood, with blood all around him, blood under the bed, and blood on the handles of the doors.”

  Verdi after his initial examination assured his family, his wounds were not fatal. Verdi had prescribed a neck brace for the Secretary to wear and it, investigators believe, prevented the stab from being fatal. However, Verdi disagreed testifying, “It was not my opinion that the wounds received by Mr. Seward tended to aid his recovery from his former accident.”

After tending to the Secretary he then attended Frederick Seward, who was in another room. He found him lying on a couch with blood issuing from his face and from several stab wounds about his body.  He treated him and upon finishing, an uninjured individual requested him to tend to August Seward. Shocked that there was another wounded individual, he hurried to him in another room and treated him. His wounds were comparatively slight. Once again someone alerted him to another victim, Seward’s mannurse, a soldier in attendance of Mr. Seward. He suffered four stab wounds. After tending to him, again someone alerted him to another injured person. Following this he received another request to treat another victim, who suffered a stab wound in his back. Apparently, the assassin didn’t attack any of the women. The men, other than the Secretary received their wounds in their struggles with the assailant. In total there were five victims, none expiring from their wounds.

The 1870 census shows that Verdi and his wife, Rebecca, had a daughter, Sophia, age 4. Verdi’s brother Ciro, also became a doctor and was living in Mount Vernon, Ohio, with his wife Fanny. The following census of 1880 shows Verdi living with Sophia, 13 and another daughter Denny, age 7. They were still living in Washington, D.C., with three servants. There was no listing for Rebecca, presumably she passed away after childbirth.  Ciro, who apparently lost his wife Fanny the same decade, later married again (Caroline), and moved to New Brunswick, NJ, where he continued practicing medicine.

The last listing Dr. T. S. Verdi was in the 1890 Washington, DC, city directory as a physician. Neither he or his brother appeared in the 1900 census

 

See, for more detailed information, The Assault Upon Mr. Seward,:Interesting Details—Letter from Dr. Verdi, Mr. Seward’s Family Physician, of May 18, 1865, from the Western (St. Louis) Homeopathic Observer, https://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/18/archives/the-assault-upon-mr-seward-interesting-detailsletter-from-dr-verdi.html. And https://www.fold3.com/page/420-dr-t-s-verdi-sewards-physician.