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.