The Antiques Road Show has come to Walla Walla, Washington to tape a show. Unfortunately, all the publicity that was done told everyone that the show was being filmed in Milton-Freewater, Oregon! As a result, only three people showed up at the high school for the show. The producers decided to tape the people that brought items to the Walla Walla location while the rest of the crew drove down to Milton-Freewater as quickly as they could.
Randy Sherling is an expert in civil war memorabilia, specifically letters, books and official documents. He and the Keno twins were the experts that stayed behind to make the best of the Walla Walla offerings. Randy was a little skeptical of the item that producers wanted him to talk about.
“So, what can you tell me about the document you brought in today?”, Randy asked the elderly gentleman.
“This letter has been passed down through my family and I wanted to bring it in to share it with everyone. Hopefully you can tell me what it is, and maybe how much it’s worth! Just kidding, I’d never sell it!”, Joseph Whartbuckle said as he broke out laughing.
“Well, Mr. Whartbuckle, can I call you Joe?”, Randy asked.
“You can call anything but ‘Late for Dinner’!”, said Joseph, yukking it up.
“OK, Joe, it’s really hard for me to even tell what I’m looking at. Can you tell me anything about it?”, Randy asked.
Joseph picked up the picture frame, flipped it over and removed the backing to remove the letter. “This is a photocopy of a facsimile of a mimeograph of a carbon copy of a tracing of an original letter from Abraham Lincoln to my great-great-grandfather, Wharburton Whartbuckle. It’s so important to our family because president Lincoln wrote to Wharburton about the bible that Wharburton left in the White House.”
Randy reached over to have a closer look at the document. It was so blotched and distorted as to be completely illegible. “Does anyone in your family have the original letter?”, Randy asked.
“Whoo-boy. That’s a hard one. I don’t know.”, Joseph said.
Randy placed the letter on the stand so the camera could zoom in on it. “Well, Mr. Whartbuckle, I would have to say that what you have here is an interesting story that isn’t really worth anything. In fact this letter and three dollars might get you a latté.”
“Wait until my wife hears that! Thank you very much!”, exclaimed Joseph.
The camera zoomed out to show both men sitting on either side of the table, Randy was holding his head in his hands and the screen said, “Photocopy of Lincoln letter – $0 to Latté.” In the background the viewers could see Leigh and Leslie playing “Pull My Finger”.
