Person:James Lyon (18)

The Life and Times of James Browning Lyon B. Jan. 25 1841 d.Feb. 25 1911 James Browning Lyon was born in Wilson County Tenn. near Lebanon as was his father William M. The first record I find of him is in the 1850 census as a 9 year old boy living in Logan Co. (Russellville) Kentucky with his mother Hannah Browning Jones and his father William Mosby Lyon. The census says he has 7 siblings 5 brothers and 2 sisters. His father is listed as a farmer owning little real estate valued at 133 dollars. In the 1860 census James is farming and living in the home of his 42 year old father in law, Arnold Malin near Madisonville Ky. who owned real estate worth 600 dollars, with His wife Frances M., 12 years his elder. (Marriage the 23 May 1860 Hop. Co.Ky.Book).They were married by the Reverend James J. Ruddell, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South [25]. He would soon enlist to become a private in the 25th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry which was to be engulfed into the 17th Regiment Kentucky Infantry (Company D) when it was ravaged by sickness during the Civil War in 1862. Here I state that he must have seen and endured some very horrible times as a daughter of his first marriage, Ida V. Lyon Lemons says in her memoires “My father was a Civil War Veteran; he was wounded in this war and never did fully recover from his injury.”*. The 17th Kentucky Infantry fought among others in the Battle of Chicamauga. Chaplains tended the wounded after the battles. John Berry McFerrin (1807-1887) recalled: At Chickamauga, the slaughter was tremendous on both sides, but the Confederates held the field. I remained on the battlefield eleven days, nursing the sick, ministering to the wounded, and praying for the dying. The sight was awful. Thousands of men killed and wounded. They lay thick all around, shot in every possible manner, and the wounded dying every day. Among the wounded were many Federal soldiers. To these I ministered, prayed with them, and wrote letters by flag of truce to their friends in the North[26] Army certificate No.128824 explains his disability: “gunshot wound of the right shoulder, chronic diarrhea and residual disease of rectum”&.[27] He got a $2 pension per month.The problem facing every soldier was the following: The Napoleonic wars had been fought with muskets which had a very minimal range and accuracy. The tactics which were promoted by WestPoint from which all the officers of both sides were issue were based on this fact. Soldiers would line up and fire at the opposing army. With the invention of rifling or engraving spiral grooves in firearms and minie balls invented in France, this inaccuracy was greatly diminished. The soldiers were killed by droves: probably more than 700,000 from combat alone.

      A family story was handed down that when James came home from the Civil War, his daughter, Mary Elizabeth and some other children, all rather young and playing in the yard, began to cry when reintroduced to their father who they had just witnessed walking up the road towards the house. James then would have retorted "If you’re going to cry, I’m going to go back" #.

Bruce Catton says in an essay for The Union (troops): They went off to war to the tune of a military quickstep, with cheering crowds lining the board sidewalks and plenty of bunting overhead. Each regiment trudged down the street with its band playing, small boys scampering along the line of march, a presentation flag snapping in the breeze at the head of the procession, and the men in the ranks innocently supposed that they were tramping on toward a bright adventure which no man of spirit would dare to miss. Reality would come later; at the start, everything moved to the sound of music, and the music had a swing and a lilt that the soldiers would remember a long as they lived.

    The American Civil War, in other words, came to an unsophisticated people living in an unsophisticated age. Hardly anybody knew what war was like, and the few who did know were not listened to. The young men of the North, responding first to Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 men to serve for three months (which, it was believed, would be plenty of time in which to put down the rebellion), and moving off later in far greater numbers when three-year enlistments became the rule, had no idea what they were getting into, War was flags and drums and trumpets and unstained uniforms, and a feeling that it was good to be young and to be in on things.
    This did not last very long, to be sure. In its details, the Civil War was just like all others wars: hardship, boredom, disillusionment, danger, suffering and death, and the hundreds of thousands of young men in blue who went laughing under the flags found out the truth soon enough. Perhaps the awakening was all the harder just because no one was really prepared for it. The eternal cynicism of the combat soldier can be extremely bitter when its put down on top of a layer of impossible dreams: and the dreams which went with the volunteer of the 1860’s were strong enough and bright enough to leave a deep emotional scar when they vanished. In any case, however, the Civil War soldier used music to express the moods that possessed him, and as he went on from bright expectancy to a sullen acceptance of reality he could always find tunes that speak for him. Music was important to him-all the more so, 

perhaps, because few young men then were wholly articulate, and because camp life in the 1860’s offered so few of the diversions that are available nowadays-and it is possible, simply by listening to the songs which the Civil War volunteer sang and marched to, to follow his emotional development as he moved from his sunlit beginnings down the darkening road that let him to the terrible depths of a soldier’s experience.

In 1870 the census finds him living in Greenville married to Frances’ younger sister Martha Jane Malin (Marriage 15 December 1867, Muhlenberg Ky. marriage book) who was 10 years younger than he (birthday Sept. 1850). I have finally found the date of Frances’ death through James’ last marriage license (Sept. 1867) at the age of 38*. At this time I can only guess as to the reason for her disappearance, collateral damage from the war, sickness or childbirth are possible scenarios. James lists farming as his principal activity. They have 3 daughters at home including 2 girls from his now deceased first wife Frances; Mary Elizabeth Lyon (first marriage: Bransford)(second Freeman) (9) and Ida Virginia Lyon (Lemons) (4). Roma F. (1)(later Stewart).

In 1880, we find James B. and Martha J. living in the Boggess Precinct in Muhlenberg Co. near Greenville Ky. He and Marthey (Martha) are still farming and have 7 daughters living in their home, Mary Elizabeth (19), Ida Virginia (14), Roma Frances Lyon ( 11), Luella (8), Minnie (3), an unnamed baby -1 year old (Tonbie I think), and Sallie( 6). There are few records in 1890 due to fire.

In 1900 we find James and Martha living in Munfordville village with one remaining daughter Tonbie (19) and 3 boys Willie (17), Bunnie, later Burnie (15) who was my paternal grandfather, and their youngest Tommie (12). James is no longer listed as a farmer but as a Section Foreman on the railroad even though he was absent 5 months out of the year for reasons unknown. RailsWest.com gives this definition of this position; Yard or field operations. Section Foreman - Individual in authority over a group of workers. My guess is that he had his workers laying new rails or fixing old ones. The fact he was absent 5 months out of the year could be old health problems popping up or quite simply a lull in the winter months. In 1907 “Captain” James B. Lyon was candidate for the position of Hart Co. Jailer as this election card attests *. The title may have been given him as foreman on the railroad. It was not from the army as he was a private.

 In the 1910 census, Martha has passed away Apr.15 1908*. James (69) has married another woman, Julia Williams (51), born in Barren Co. Ky. She was the daughter of W.H. Williams a blacksmith from Tennessee and Elizabeth Madley from Virginia with whom he eloped to New Albany, Indiana on Oct. 24 1908. It was her first marriage and James' third. James’ son Tommie or Thomas as they call him is the last child (22) to leave home. James lists his occupation as “gardener” and son Thomas does odd jobs. Julia does not list her occupation. James passed away a year later from an apoplexy, a cerebral hemorrhage. His son William Rufus was near his father.

Concerning farming at this time: farming was arduous work back then. There were no tractors therefore fields had to be labored with oxen or horses. Plowing was difficult and it was a physical challenge to make the plow dig a straight line. Planting and picking were done by hand requiring strength, stamina and a good back.

James was a farmer; we don’t know exactly what he planted so here is a list of Kentucky’s cash crops in 1854:

GNP Kentucky farmers 1854

58,672,591 bushels of corn, (2067567.5511287 cubic meters) 2,142,822 bushels of wheat (75511.05481339 cubic meters) 8,201,311 bushels of oats (289006.5737904 cubic meters) 9,947,523 lbs. of butter (4512120.5332 kgs)

2,297,433 lbs. of wool (1042098.079386 kgs) 55,501,195 lbs. of tobacco (25174918.577882 kgs) 1,335 tons of hemp (1356.42262 metric tons) 2,891,163 swine 1,102,091 sheep

A glimpse of Kentucky life in 1854 Population: white 761,413 210,981 slaves 5,148 free black Total: 9,824,05 3,177 merchants 1,818 doctors 931 ministers of the Gospel.

Babo, (great grandson).

James Browning Lyon

Death certificate for James Browning Lyon

Lyon family Colt 1860

17th Regiment Flag believed to based on the actual Kentucky FlagUnited We Stand,Divided We Fall"

1. ↑ 29826213, in Find A Grave.
2.   Logan, Kentucky, United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   [7]

3. ↑ Hopkins, Kentucky, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   [8]

4. ↑ Muhlenberg, Kentucky, United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   [9]

5. ↑ Muhlenberg, Kentucky, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   [10]

6. ↑ Hart, Kentucky, United States. 1900 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   [11]

7.   Genforum.genealogy.com.

   notes for James Browning Lyon. [12]

8.   Familysearch.org.

   [13]

9.   Familysearch.org.

   [14]

10.   Floyd County Indiana marriage records
    [15] .

    Marriage licence James Browning Lyon/ Martha J. Malin [16]

11. ↑ .

    [17]

12. ↑ ^12.0 12.1 .

    [18]

13. ↑ [19].
14.   * An interview with Ida Virginia Lyon Lemon; Anna R. Barry author
    [20].
15.   An Interview with Jenny Virginia Lyon Lemon; Nora Lorrin author.

    [21]

16.   genealogy.com[22]
17.   Chaplains tended the wounded after the battles. John Berry McFerrin (1807-1887) recalled:
    
    At Chickamauga, the slaughter was tremendous on both sides, but the Confederates held the field. I remained on the battlefield eleven days, nursing the sick, ministering to the wounded, and praying for the dying. The sight was awful. Thousands of men killed and wounded. They lay thick all around, shot in every possible manner, and the wounded dying every day. Among the wounded were many Federal soldiers. To these I ministered, prayed with them, and wrote letters by flag of truce to their friends in the North[23]
18.   Regiment flag information [24]