While Fame her record keeps,
Or honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps.”
A great and magnanimous government has had these verses, the composition of an ex-Confederate soldier, cast separately in bronze and set up in appropriate places in all the National cemeteries.
It is worthy of mention that a lady bearing a now historic name, at least in song, Mrs. Ann McGinty, brought the first spinning-wheel into Kentucky, and made the first linen in the territory. She is also credited with making the first butter there, and with bringing within its borders the first chickens, ducks and hogs. The first Catholic priest in Kentucky was Father Whalen, who was in Bardstown in 1787. There were then fifty Catholic families in the state. The first families to settle there were those of Daniel Boone, Hugh McGary, Thomas Denton and Richard Hogan. As has been mentioned, the first practising physician was Dr. Hart, and the first school teacher was Mrs. Coomes, both Catholics from Maryland.
Col. Matthew Lyon, mentioned elsewhere, is alluded to as the most remarkable character among the public men of southwestern Kentucky. He was born in Wicklow county, Ireland, in 1746. His father, for being engaged in conspiracy against the English government, was tried, condemned and executed. To secure his passage, Matthew bound himself to a sea captain to work for twelve months after his arrival in America. The captain sold him to a Connecticut farmer for two bulls; he served his time faithfully and became a free man. His favorite by-word was forever after “By the bulls that bought me.” It is worthy of record that Rudyard Kipling has put these words in the mouth of one of his recently created characters, without, however, giving Matthew proper credit. It is very evident that Colonel Lyon never forgot his father’s execution, for he was, up to the day of his death, an inveterate hater of the English government.
After he gained his freedom, he made his home in Vermont. He founded the town of Fairhaven in 1783, where he built saw and grist-mills, an iron foundry, engaged in paper making from basswood, and a variety of other occupations. He served in the Vermont legislature ten years, and for some time was assistant judge. He served in congress from his adopted state. He was one of the first arrested under the alien and sedition laws, was convicted of a libel on the president, John Adams, fined one thousand dollars, and served a jail sentence in addition.
While in congress, on the thirty-sixth ballot he decided the protracted seven days’ voting for president by casting his vote and that of Vermont for Thomas Jefferson, making him president in preference to Aaron Burr. Shortly after the beginning of the present century he went to Kentucky with his family. He served in the legislature of his newly adopted state, and from it, between 1803 and 1811, was in congress eight years.
Eighteen years after his death congress voted to refund with interest the amount of the fine inflicted on him in 1798. This was done on July 4, 1840. He had a son of the same name who was the father of Gen. H. B. Lyon. Col. Chittenden Lyon, Matthew’s oldest son, represented his state in congress eight years, and was fully as impetuous and honest as his father. Of Matthew Lyon, Gov. John Reynolds, of Illinois, said, “His Irish impulses were honest, and always on the side of human freedom. His leading trait of character was his zeal and enthusiasm, almost a madness itself in any cause he espoused.” This covered his zeal.
The opinion of the members of the first Continental congress, of the Irish in Ireland, and in the colonies, is well expressed in an address issued by that body in 1774. In part it said: “Your parliament had done us no wrong; you had ever been friendly to the rights of mankind, and we acknowledge with pleasure and gratitude that your nation has produced patriots who have nobly distinguished themselves in the cause of humanity and America. Accept our most grateful acknowledgments for the friendly disposition you have always shown towards us.”