SOMETHING ABOUT THE LYON FAMILY
The grand mansion and the extensive domain of Riverlawn had been
occupied by the Lyon family hardly more than a year when the political
excitement in Kentucky began to manifest itself, though not so violently
as in some of the more southern States. Abraham Lincoln had been elected
President of the United States, and south of Mason and Dixon's line he
was regarded as a sectional president whose term of office would be a
menace and an absolute peril to the institution of slavery. Senator
Crittenden of Kentucky proposed certain amendments to the Constitution
to restore the Missouri Compromise, by which slavery should be confined
to specified limits, and Congress prevented from interfering with the
labor-system of the South.
Before Christmas in 1860, South Carolina had unanimously passed its
Ordinance of Secession, the intelligence of which was received with
enthusiasm by the Gulf States, all of which soon followed her example.
The more conservative States held back, and all but the four on the
border seceded in one form or another after some delay.
In Kentucky the wealthy planters and slaveholders, with many prominent
exceptions, were inclined to share the lot of the seceding States; but
the majority of the people still clung to the Union. Both sides of the
exciting question were largely represented, and the contest between them
was violent and bitter. For a time the specious compromise of neutrality
was regarded as the panacea for the troubles of the State by the less
violent of the people on both sides. Home Guards were enlisted and
organized to protect the territory from invasion by either the Federal
or the Confederate forces.
The occupation of Columbus and Hickman on the Mississippi River by
Southern troops, immediately followed by the taking of Paducah by
General Grant with two regiments of Union soldiers from Cairo,
practically dissolved the illusion of neutrality. The government at
Washington never recognized this makeshift of those who loved the Union,
but desired to protect slavery. It was honestly and sincerely cherished
by good men of both parties, who desired to preserve the Union and save
the State from the horrors of civil war.
The government did not regard the seceded States as so many independent
sovereignties, as the Secessionists claimed that they were, but as part
and parcel of a union of States forming one consolidated nation, with no
provision in its Constitution for a separation of any kind, or for the
withdrawal of one or more of the individual members of the Union. The
States which had pretended to dissolve their connection with the other
members of the compact were considered as refractory members of the
Union, in a state of insurrection against the sovereign authority of the
nation, who were to be reduced to obedience and subjection by force of
arms; for they had appealed to the logic of bayonets and cannon-balls in
carrying out their disruption.
With the duty of putting down the insurrection and subduing the
refractory elements in the South on its hands, the government could not
respect or even tolerate a neutrality which placed the State of
Kentucky, four hundred miles in extent from east to west, between the
loyal and the disloyal sections of its domain. If for no other purpose,
armies of Federal troops must cross the country south of the Ohio in
order to reach the seat of the Rebellion.
The Home Guards were powerless to prevent the passage of the loyal
armies through the State; and any attempt to do so would have been to
fight the battle of the Confederate armies, and would have at once
robbed neutrality of its transparent mask. A portion of these military
bodies were doubtless honest in their intentions. Those who were not for
the Union in this connection were practically against it. Later in the
course of events, the Home Guards were incorporated in the armies of the
Rebellion; and no doubt these organizations were used to a considerable
extent to recruit the forces of the enemy.
For a period of several months the State was not in actual possession of
either party in the conflict. One was struggling within its territory to
keep it in the Union, and the other to force it into the Southern
Confederacy. Irresponsible persons formed what they called a
"Provisional Council," elected a governor, and sent delegates to the
Confederate Congress, who were admitted to seats in that body.
During this chaotic state of affairs, Kentuckians were joining both
armies, though the great body of them enlisted in the forces of the
Union. At the close of 1861 it was estimated that Kentucky had
twenty-six thousand men, cavalry and infantry, enrolled to fight the
battles of the loyal nation, including those who had joined the
regiments of other States.
Deeds of violence were not uncommon in many parts of the State, growing
out of the excited state of feeling. Confederate emissaries were busy in
the territory, and armed bodies of them foraged for provisions and
fodder in the southern portions. Unpopular men were hunted down and shot
or hanged, and the reign of disorder prevailed. Such was the condition
of Kentucky soon after the Lyon family took possession of Riverlawn; and
some account of its several members becomes necessary.
The first of the name in America had been one of the earliest English
settlers in Massachusetts; but one of his descendants, more than a
hundred years later, had moved to the colony of New Hampshire. Early in
the present century, one of his grandchildren was a farmer in Derry, in
that State. This particular Lyon had four sons, two of whom have already
been mentioned in this story.
Duncan Lyon was the eldest of them, and seems to have been the most
enterprising of the four; for he emigrated to Kentucky, and purchased
the extensive tract of land which now formed the estate of Riverlawn. He
became a planter in due time from his small beginnings, raising hemp,
tobacco, and horses, without neglecting the productions necessary for
the support of his household. He was very prosperous in his
undertakings; and being a man of good sense and excellent judgment, he
became a person of some distinction in his county. He was known as
"Colonel Duncan Lyon," though he never held any military position; but
his title clung to him, and even his brothers in New Hampshire always
spoke of him as the "colonel."
He never married; but he made a modest fortune of one hundred thousand
dollars, including the value of his estate, though not including the
value of about fifty negroes, men, women, and children, which for some
reason he never disclosed, he did not put into the inventory that
accompanied his will.
The colonel's estate was on Bar Creek, at its junction with Green River.
One mile from Riverlawn was the village of Barcreek, a place with three
churches, several stores, a blacksmith's and a wheelwright's shop, with
a carpenter and a mason. It supplied the needs of the country in a
circuit of eight or ten miles. In fact, it was a sort of market town.
There was not a great deal of building done in this region; but the
mason residing there had made a comfortable living, jobbing and erecting
an occasional chimney, till he died in 1852. The colonel notified his
brother, Titus Lyon, who was a mason in Derry, that there was an opening
for one of his trade in Barcreek, but he could not advise him to move
there.
Titus was not a prosperous man; for he was rather lazy, and greatly
lacking in enterprise. The colonel did not believe he would do any
better in a new home than in the old one, and he bluntly wrote to him to
this effect. The planter had a suspicion that his brother drank too much
whiskey, for he could not account for his poverty in any other way; but
he had no evidence on the point. Titus decided to move to Kentucky; and
he did so, though he had to borrow the money of his brother Noah to
enable him to reach his new home.
Business in his trade happened to be usually good after his arrival, and
for several years he did tolerably well. Then he desired to buy a house
and some land which were for sale in Barcreek. The colonel loaned him
five thousand dollars for this purpose, and to pay off his note to Noah,
mortgaging the estate he had purchased as security.
From this time Titus did not do as well as before. He seemed to regard
himself as a landed proprietor, and the equal of the planters of
Kentucky. He neglected his work, feeling rather above it, negroes doing
most of the jobs in his line. He employed a couple of them, but they did
not earn their wages. The colonel had to help him out several times.
As a planter in good standing among his neighbors in the county, Colonel
Lyon, who was not a profound thinker, fell in with the views and
opinions of those in his grade of society. He was not a strong
pro-slavery man, but he owned half a hundred negroes, who had been
necessary to enable him to carry on his planting operations; but he
treated them as well as though he had paid them wages.
He was not inclined to make any issue with his neighbors on the labor
question, though some of them thought he was not entirely reliable on
this subject. He attended to his business, and did not vex his spirit
over extraneous matters. When the protection of the South against the
aggressions of the North in connection with slavery was agitated, he
followed his Kentucky leaders.
On the question of any interference on the part of Congress or the
people of the free States he had very decided opinions. If he had ever
intended to manumit his negroes, as had been hinted in the county, no
one could object to his position after the subject began to be agitated
in the State. After eight years' residence in Barcreek, his brother
Titus was a more thorough-going pro-slavery man than the planter; in
fact, he had had a strong tendency in that direction when he lived in
Derry.
Titus's wife was not a happy woman in her domestic relations. She was
better educated than her husband, and emphatically more sensible; and
she could not help seeing that Titus was frittering away his
opportunities, drinking too much whiskey, and associating with reckless
and unprincipled characters. Their two sons, Alexander and Orlando, were
following in the footsteps of their father. Even the three daughters had
imbibed strange notions from their associates, and belonged on the
Secession side of the house.
Colonel Lyon was not permitted to witness the wild disorder which
pervaded the State after the election of the Republican President; for
he died suddenly in a fit of apoplexy, after he had eaten his Christmas
dinner, in 1858. He was only fifty years old, and perhaps if he had
taken more exercise and been more prudent in his eating and drinking, he
might have taken part in the stormy events of the later period.
Colonel Cosgrove, a prominent lawyer residing at the county seat, and an
intimate friend of the deceased, was present at the funeral. Titus took
charge of the affairs of the mansion, and the lawyer intimated to him
that he should be present at Riverlawn the next morning to carry out the
wishes and intentions of his departed friend.
Titus did not understand this notice, and supposed that the duty of
settling the estate of his brother rested entirely upon him. Colonel
Cosgrove came as he had promised, with a will in his hands, of which he
had been the custodian. He proceeded to read it without any ceremony,
Titus being the only other person present.
The deceased valued his property at one hundred thousand dollars,
Riverlawn being placed at twenty-five thousand, the rest being in cash,
stocks, and other securities. The estate, including the negroes,
everything in the house or connected with the place, and ten thousand
dollars, half cash and half stocks, were given to Noah Lyon. The
document explained that he gave the money and stocks to Noah, because he
had supported and brought up the two children of his deceased brother
Cyrus.
To his brother Titus he gave twenty-five thousand dollars, including the
mortgage note he held against him, half the balance in cash, and half in
stocks and bonds. To his brother Noah, in trust for the two children of
his brother Cyrus, deceased, twenty-five thousand dollars, to be paid
over to them when they were of age. Colonel Cosgrove said the deceased
had apportioned the stocks as they were to be given to the legatees, and
the money was in the county bank. He would come to Barcreek in about a
week to pay over the cash, and deliver the stocks to Titus.
The lawyer was appointed executor of the estate, and he would hold the
property given to Noah Lyon until he came to receive it, or made other
arrangements in regard to it. Then he showed a letter, with a great seal
upon it, which he had been directed to deliver to Noah in person. Titus
wanted to know what the letter was about; but if the lawyer knew its
contents, he avoided making any revelation.
It was evident to Colonel Cosgrove that Titus was dissatisfied with the
will, for a heavy frown had rested on his brow since the reading of the
first item of the instrument; but he said nothing, and very abruptly
left the legal gentleman.