Izola Martha Mills was married to John Wilkes Booth an American actor. She helped him escape being captured after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln but they had to lie about it to stay alive. She grew up writing on her journal and it described her misfortunes in life. She talked about her pain and journey of losing her child and the torture of dealing with an unfaithful man. The book Izola Martha Mills is a true story based on an orphan girl struggling to survive in the 1850s.
Izola Martha Mills was born in 1838 in Spain, as Martha Lizola, to Izola Mendoza. Her father Abram Mills was a sailor and met her mother while trading merchandise at Malaga, Spain. His ship returned three years later and when he found out he was a dad, he married Izola and gave Martha his last name. he took them along to America but unfortunately, Izola died on the way to Massachusetts, and Martha was raised by relatives. When she was ten, Martha decided to change her name to Izola to honor her mother and that’s how Martha Lizola became Izola Martha Mills.
Who is John Wilkes Booth?
John Wilkes Booth is an American stage actor popularly known for assassinating President Abraham Lincoln on April 14 1865 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. He was a member of the Booth theatrical family from Maryland. Booth’s interest in politics and theatre began at a young age and began as a delegate of the Know Nothing Party for the immigrant candidate Henry Winter Davis. He was always inspired by his actor brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr.
His acting career began in 1855 as a support role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimore’s Charles Street Theatre. He played a full season in the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia and played in Lucrezia Borgia. He was arrested in 1863 while on a theatre tour in St Louis and was heard saying he wished the president and his government would go to hell. He was charged for speaking ill of the government and had to pay a heavy fine and take an oath of allegiance.
Booth was a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society that was planning on how to acquire territories as slave states. He was in a secret relationship with his fiancée Lucy Hale. Lucy was the daughter of US Senator John Hale of New Hampshire. His mother had approved of their relationship and he left a handwritten Valentine card for his fiancée expressing his love for her.
John Wilkes Booth’s Murder and Death
Booth and his group denounced President Lincoln for abolishing slavery in the United States. They plotted to kidnap him to help in the Confederate cause. Still, they decided to kill him instead along with Vice President Andrew Johnson and William H. Seward the then secretary of state. He believed the American Civil War was unresolved due to the fight from the Army of Tennessee. Booth shot President Lincoln once in the head and died the next morning due to complications and bleeding.
William Seward survived and recovered while they did not manage to get to the vice president. Booth fled to Southern Maryland on a horse and was traced twelve days later and found in a barn together with David Herold who surrendered. The barn was set on fire and he was shot in the neck by one of the soldiers. He died a few hours later and his conspirators were arrested, four hanged and the other four sent to prison.
