Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Matthew Lyon

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]

Descendants of Matthew Lyon

35. GEN. HYLAN BENTON³ LYON (MATTHEW², MATTHEW¹) was born February 22, 1836 in Eddyville, Caldwell Co., Kentucky, and died April 25, 1907 in Eddyville, Lyon Co., Kentucky. He married (1) LAURA O'HARA 1863, daughter of REUBEN O'HARA and MARY LYON. She was born August 31, 1839 in Eddyville, Caldwell Co., Kentucky, and died April 04, 1865 in Eddyville, Lyon Co., Kentucky. He married (2) GRACE MACHEN August 1869. She died 1876. He married (3) RUTH WOLFE Bef. 1889. She was born 1865, and died 1952.

Notes for GEN. HYLAN BENTON LYON:
Hyland entered West Point Military Academy and graduated in the class of 1856, at the age of 20, and was a brave officer in the United States Army. He saw service in Florida, California, Oregon, Washington Territory, Idaho and Montana.

He joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and at the close of the Civil War he was a General in command of the Department of Western Kentucky.As a young child, Hylan B. was left a large estate, which his guardian, Fred. H. Skinner, applied in securing him a liberal education. After the common schools, he attended the Masonic University of Kentucky, at La Grange, Cumberland College at Princeton, and at sixteen years of age was admitted as a cadet at West Point, from which he was graduated in 1856, being the nineteenth in a class of forty-eight.

Soon after, he was Brevet Second Lieutenant of Second Artillery, and was assigned to duty at Fort Myers during the Seminole war, and there first met Gen. Hancock. At the close of the war he was promoted to full rank of Second Lieutenant of Third Artillery, and ordered to Ft. Huyma, Cal. After one year he was ordered to Washington Territory, where he was in two battles with the Indians. During that expedition he witnessed an act of treachery on the part of Col. Wright wholly uncalled for. Chief Qualshan, the Indian commander, was sent a polite invitation to visit the soldiers' camp. In complying, he and his wife were seized and ten minutes later, hanged.

In 1850, Gen. Lyon was a volunteer with Col. John Miller's expedition opening a wagon road from Walla Walla to Ft. Benton. He was detailed to a special duty with a Flathead guide, who deserted him among the hostile Blackfeet; was captured, but was saved by addressing them in their own tongue. Returning to Ft. Vancouver, he secured a leave of absence and returned home. While there the civil war broke out, and he was appointed First Lieutenant of Third Artillery, but resigned and raised Company F, Third Kentucky Infantry, and went into the Confederate service, which was detached from the regiment, and organized into an independent battery known as Lyon's (afterward as Cobb's) Battery, which the general himself equipped.

He was promoted in January 1862, to Lieutenant Colonel, in the Eighth Kentucky Infantry; commanded that regiment at Ft. Donelson, and was there taken prisoner; first confined in Camp Morton at Indianapolis, then at Camp Chase, Ohio, and lastly with other confederate officers. He was taken to Ft. Warren, Mass., and was exchanged. His regiment was reorganized as the Eighth Kentucky, and he was made Colonel. He was with Van Dorn against Grant at Coffeyville, Champion Hill, etc.; was assigned to Pemberton and guarded his retreat to Vicksburg; was in the siege of that place, but with 250 of his men escaped; joined Johnston, who attempted to relieve Vicksburg; failing in this went to Jackson, Miss., from whence after a severe battle fell back and went into camp at Meridian, Miss.

Lyon was placed by Gen. Bragg in command of two regiments of cavalry under Wheeler, in the rear of Longstreet's army at Knoxville; was placed in command of Bragg's artillery immediately after the battle of Missionary Ridge, during the retreat of Bragg, and saved the artillery from capture. He was next placed in charge of cavalry belonging to Forrest in Mississippi in 1864; then assigned to command in western Kentucky and Tennessee, his special duty being to gather provisions and men to facilitate a raid by Hood, but which failing, he with 800 men retreated south and regained Forrest's command in Mississippi. Near the close of the war, Gen. Lyon was surprised in his tent, and taken prisoner by strategy by a young Lieutenant. Lyon, of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry; the General succeeded in killing the Lieutenant and making his escape. After the close of the war, Gen. Lyon went with Gov. Harris of Tennessee to Mexico, intending to join Maximilian, but instead united with a civil engineer corps; was in Mexico nearly a year.

In the winter of 1865-66 he returned to Eddyville. After farming for a while he was one of the lessees of the State Penitentiary, and cleared as his share of the profits $150,000. He now manages his various farms, and does a mercantile business in Eddyville. He was recently appointed one of the commissioners to build a branch penitentiary, the location of which he secured for Eddyville.

The following letters were written by Hyland B. Lyon, son of Matthew Lyon Jr, to his guardian and cousin, F.H. Skinner of Caldwell County, KY. The letters were found in the estate file of Matthew Lyon Jr (1852) in the Caldwell County Clerk's Office. Hyland B. Lyon would later, during the Civil War, attain some notoriety for his part in the burning of a number of Western Kentucky courthouses. After the Civil War he lived in the part of Caldwell County that had become Lyon County in 1854.

La Grange, Ky March 16 1850

Dear Cousin

You cant expect a very sensible letter from me but I will do my best. We arrived here last Saturday evening and I did not see the president until monday and he did not give me a receipt for the fifty dollars until Thursday, and have not had a chance to write until to day. My schooling for this session cost twelve dollars and a half. The man that I am boarding with says if you will advance the money for my boarding which is one dollar and three quarters a week, in advance or two dollars at the end of five months. I got a
receipt from the clerk for eight dollars and he only charged me five to Louisville and one dollar and a quarter to this place.

My books cost One dollar and eight cents which are a latin grammar One Arithmetic and a spelling Book and some ink and paper. I had a very pleasant trip And I like the town very much.
Give my love to all of my relations and acquaintances and
accept the same of
Your affectionate cousin
Hylan B. Lyon

NB write soon and send the money for my board if you please.

LaGrange Ky April 4 1851

My dear cousin

Two months have now rolled over my head since I saw you and I have been looking for a letter from you every day since but one has not made its appearance. We have some very pretty weather at present but there is no telling how long it will last for it is very changeable. Cassius Clay made a speech
here on the 2nd inst which I heard. As I told you in Louisville you did not give me enough money to pay my debts and you would oblige me very much by sending me eight or ten dollars to pay for what I then owed and for what I have bought since. As I said I am not up with Euk[?] in algebra. The professors have so arranged it that I do have to stay at college more than two hours in a day. You will find enclosed a receipt for my tuition fee. You will please excuse my short letter for I have written all that I can think of and also bad writing and mistakes and believe me to be your kindest and most affectionate cousin.
H.B. Lyon

[Written in another hand at the bottom of the letter:
Answered Apl 13th & enclosed 10$. F.H.S.]

Enclosed with the two letters are two receipts:

La Grange, March 13 1850
Received of Hyland B. Lyon Twelve Dollars 50/100 Tuition fees
for 2nd Session of 6th Collegiate Year, at "Funk Seminary,"
the Masonic College of Kentucky.
Brent Hopkins Treasurer

La Grange, KY April 2 1851
Received of H.B. Lyon Fifteen 50/100 Dollars, tuition fee for
2nd session and 7th collegiate year, of the Masonic University.
A.M. Yazlay[?] Treasurer

Brenda Joyce Jerome, CGRS

More About GEN. HYLAN BENTON LYON:
Burial: Unknown, River View Cemetery, Eddyville, Kentucky.
Education: 1856, Graduated from West Point Military Academy, 2nd Lt. U.S. Army.
Military service: 1861, General in the Confederate States Army.

Children of HYLAN LYON and LAURA O'HARA are:

	i.		HUGH S.⁴ LYON, b. July 23, 1863; d. January 04, 1865.
	ii.		HYLAN F. LYON, b. July 23, 1864; d. April 03, 1885.

Children of HYLAN LYON and GRACE MACHEN are:

iii.

CAPT. FRANK⁴ LYON, b. 1870; d. Unknown; m. MABEL EMERY; d. Unknown.

Notes for CAPT. FRANK LYON:
Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Served aboard the USS Oregon during the Battle of Santiago, off the coast of Cuba during the Spanish/American War.

	iv.	GRACE LYON-BEELER, b. 1872, Lyon Co., Kentucky; d. Unknown; m. M. R. KEVIL; d. Unknown.
	v.	HUGH LYON, b. 1873; d. Unknown; m. RUTH DODDS; d. Unknown.
96.	vi.	ERNEST LYON, b. 1876; d. Unknown.

Children of HYLAN LYON and RUTH WOLFE are:

	vii.		MAYBELLE FAXON⁴ LYON, b. 1889; d. 1966.
	viii.		LORRAINE LYON, b. 1894; d. 1949.

36. MAY³ LYON (MATTHEW², MATTHEW¹) was born May 15, 1838, and died November 08, 1859. She married RUSSEL WEIR WAKE. He died Unknown.

Child of MAY LYON and RUSSEL WAKE is:

97.

LYON⁴ WAKE, b. November 04, 1859; d. September 09, 1938.

37. DR. URIAH CHITTENDON³ ROE (ELIZABETH ANN² LYON, MATTHEW¹) was born January 01, 1825 in Eddyville, Lyon County, Kentucky, and died July 03, 1900 in Franklin Grove, Lee County, IL. He married (1) MARION EDWARDS. She died Unknown. He married (2) ALMEDA BROWN February 19, 1846 in Ogle County, IL. She was born 1826, and died 1882.

More About DR. URIAH CHITTENDON ROE:
Burial: 1900, Franklin Grove, Lee County, IL

Children of URIAH ROE and MARION EDWARDS are:

	i.	JOHN⁴ ROE, d. Unknown.
	ii.	FRANCIS ROE, d. Unknown.
98.	iii.	ELLA ROE, d. Unknown.
99.	iv.	FREDERICK ROE, d. Unknown.
	v.	BELLE ROE, d. Unknown.
100.	vi.	HERBERT ROE, d. Unknown.

Children of URIAH ROE and ALMEDA BROWN are:

101.	vii.	DR. NATHANIEL CHITTENDON⁴ ROE, b. 1849; d. 1911.
	viii.	EMMA ROE, b. Abt. 1850; d. Abt. 1870.
102.	ix.	LUCY ROE, b. Abt. 1851; d. Unknown.
103.	x.	CARRIE ROE, b. Abt. 1853; d. Unknown.
104.	xi.	MADELINE ROE, b. Abt. 1855; d. Unknown.
	xii.	RAYMOND ROE, b. Abt. 1857; d. 1929.
	xiii.	ROSE ELIZABETH ROE, b. Abt. 1860; d. Unknown; m. RUSS DELANOS; d. Unknown.

[ Home Page | First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page ]