by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER III
SOMETHING ABOUT THE LYON FAMILIES
The town of Derry in New Hampshire had contributed fourteen persons tothe population of Kentucky, all of them by the name of Lyon. ColonelDuncan Lyon had gone there as a young man, and had made a very handsomefortune. But he died at the age of fifty, and bequeathed his property,consisting of a large plantation, which he had named Riverlawn, becauseit had a delightful lawn, with great trees scattered over it, thoughafter the English fashion with none immediately in front of the largemansion, to his two brothers and the children of one deceased ten yearsbefore his death.
The elder of the two living brothers was Titus Lyon. He had removed tohis new home eight years before, and he appeared to be the black sheepof the fourteen who had departed from their native town. He was a masonby trade, and had done fairly well in his former home at his business.He was one of those men who believed that fate or circumstances hadmisused him, as he compared his worldly condition with that of hiseldest brother, who had departed this life leaving a fortune behind him;or even of his other brother, who had always been a prosperous farmer.
Titus had been informed by Colonel Lyon that there was an opening for amason in the village of Barcreek, near which he resided, though he hadnot advised him to remove to that locality, and was really opposed tohis coming. His discontent with his condition had induced him to changehis residence to this far-off section of the country, probably with amotive which he concealed from both of his brothers. He had a wife, whowas an excellent woman, belonging to a very respectable family, and fivechildren, three girls and two boys, the latter already introduced.
The mason did tolerably well at his trade in his new home for a fewyears, though it was not a business at which a fortune could be easilymade in that rural section of the country. It was not a prohibitionState, which seemed to make it all the worse for the head of thisfamily; for he had contracted the habit of drinking moderately when, asa young man, he had been a stage-driver, and it had grown upon him inhis new home.
Titus had not become a sot, or even a very heavy drinker, before thedeath of his brother; but he regularly imbibed his whiskey, and to someextent his habit affected his manners and his morals. He had alwaysappeared to be extremely devoted to the colonel, and even fawned uponhim, during his residence in Barcreek; and he was always kindly treatedand assisted financially when he needed help.
Colonel Lyon died suddenly at the age of fifty. He had never beenmarried, and had no children to whom he could leave his property. Abouta year before his decease he paid a visit of a month to his brotherNoah, the youngest of the three brothers, in his native town. The latterwas a substantial man, who held a very respectable position in the town;he had been somewhat distinguished among his fellow-citizens, and hadbeen the incumbent of several town officers.
Noah Lyon was forty years old at the time of his brother's death, witha good woman for a wife, who was in every sense a helpmate to herhusband. They had two children of their own, a boy and a girl, Dexterand Hope. Cyrus, a fourth brother of the Lyons, had lost his life in afreshet in Vermont, where he had settled as a farmer; and his wife hadperished with him, leaving two small children, Artemas and Dorcas. Hehad not left property enough to pay his debts; but Noah promptly adoptedthe little ones, and for ten years he had cared for and supported themas though they had been his own.
Noah had suggested to Titus that he should take one of them to his home,while he received the other in his own family; but his brother pleadedthe poor health of his wife for not doing so, and the little ones hadreached the ages of seventeen and fifteen when they were removed toKentucky. Noah and his wife treated them in every respect as their ownchildren, and no one could have asked a better home for them. Theycalled their uncle and aunt by the endearing names of father and mother.
At the death of Colonel Lyon, the telegraphic message announcing the sadevent had been immediately followed by a letter from Colonel Cosgrove,summoning Noah to the late home of the deceased. To the intensedisappointment of Titus, the Riverlawn plantation had been left to Noah,with the fifty-one slaves, and everything connected with the place.Titus had set his heart upon the possession of the estate; for it wouldgive him a generous support without manual labor.
He was one of those men who contrive to believe in and expect what theymost desire. He had been his wealthy brother's neighbor for eight years,and knew something about the estate. For this reason, and because he wasnext in age to the deceased, he had come to believe that the placebelonged to him. The colonel had other views; for he realized that Tituswas not an entirely reliable person, was not much of a business man, andhis drinking habit was continually growing upon him.
The eldest brother had, however, endeavored to make a fair division ofhis property among his nearest of kin. He had given some legacies to hispersonal friends, including his faithful overseer, who had served himfor many years.
Then he had given Noah ten thousand dollars in consideration of the factthat he had supported the children of Cyrus for ten years. To him alsohe bequeathed twenty-five thousand dollars in trust for these children.He had left the same sum to Titus, less a mortgage note given at thetime the mason had purchased his residence in the village. The will wasaccompanied by an inventory of the entire property, indicating that thecolonel had figured up his resources, and endeavored to make anequitable division among his legal heirs.
With the will also came into the possession of Noah two letters, oneenclosing the other. The open one directed him not to sell any of theslaves on the plantation, and the other was not to be opened for fiveyears. The sum of money left to his successor on the plantation, inpayment for the support of the niece and nephew of the testator, and thedisposition of the negroes, were the principal grievances of Titus,apparently, though the real one had been the giving of the plantation toNoah. In some of his moments, when he had rather overcharged himselfwith whiskey, he had furiously assailed his innocent brother for whatthe dead one had done in his will.
Noah was a mild and peaceful man under ordinary circumstances, and hedid his best to preserve intact his fraternal relations with his angryand discontented brother. Some discussion had taken place between them,and Titus was as unreasonable as a mule. The subject rendered himfurious, aided by the whiskey, and the difference on this matter becamea decided rupture.
Colonel Lyon had sometimes been charged with over-indulgence to hisnegroes; and it was true that he had treated them as kindly as thoughthey had been hired servants instead of slaves, perhaps more so. The"people," as they were often called on the plantation, after the mannerof a man-of-war, had not been valued in the inventory of the deceasedplanter, and had not been mentioned in the document, any more than thehorses, mules, and cows.
By this omission Titus believed that he had been cheated out of hisshare of about thirty thousand dollars. Noah exhibited the open letterof the colonel to him; but this only fanned his wrath. He appeared tobelieve that his deceased brother had no rights in his own property, allof which he had accumulated himself. He had nursed himself into theconviction that he was the victim of a gross injustice, and he hadlittle patience, or even toleration, with his mild-mannered brother, whohad never spoken to the colonel about his will, or the colonel to him.
This family quarrel owed some of its bitterness, on the part of Titus,to other circumstances than the naked merits of the case, if there was ashadow of justice in the charges of his brother against him. Noah hadnot a particle of it in his composition; for he was a true Christian,and returned good for evil so far as he was permitted to do so. Thepolitical situation in Kentucky had complicated the relations of thebrothers.
Titus had belonged to one party, while his brother was an earnest memberof the other; though with a very wide difference of opinion, one hadproved to be as patriotic as the other. Probably because Noah wasemphatically devoted to the Union, Titus had taken the other side of thequestion in Kentucky, where all was excitement and turmoil from thenomination of the candidates for the presidency.
The agitation becamethat of Loyalty and Secession.
The governor had issued his proclamation in favor of the neutrality ofthe State, and Home Guards were organized to enforce it. But it neveramounted to anything; for the majority were demonstrated to be Unionmen, and appealed to the traditions of the past as the first State tojoin the original thirteen. Captain Titus had become the commander ofone of these companies, on his promise to uniform and equip his men. Hehad expended a considerable portion of the money he had inherited in thepurchase of arms and ammunition for his command, though he had neverbeen able to supply his soldiers with uniforms.
He had sent to New York for an abundant supply of weapons andcartridges, including two brass field-pieces, over a hundredbreech-loading rifles, and nearly as many revolvers of several sizes. Heintended that his company should be the best equipped in the region, andhis newly acquired wealth made him very extravagant. But the Unionforces had begun to show themselves in the State, and the loyal elementexceeded in numbers the Secessionists; so that it was necessary for thecommander of the Home Guards to take extraordinary precautions for thesafety of the war material he had purchased.
With some difficulty he had moved the cases from the train at DrippingSpring, carted them to a point on Bar Creek, from which he had conveyedthem to one of the numerous sink-hole caverns which abound in this partof the State. He had carefully disposed of them, with the aid of his twosons and some trusted neighbors, intending to give them out to his menin a few days.
An indiscretion on the part of his wife had given a hint of theexistence of the arms at Riverlawn, which an exploration of Artie Lyon,the adopted son, had worked into tangible evidence of the place wherethe munitions had been concealed. Noah believed it was a duty he owed tohis country to obtain possession of these arms. He had already beenwarned by his brother that he was regarded as an abolitionist, and thata mob, consisting mainly of the Home Guards, were agitating the questionof burning his mansion and driving him out of the county.
When the loss of the arms was discovered, Titus became absolutelyfurious, and, either with or without sufficient evidence, accused Noahof stealing the property. A very enthusiastic Union meeting was held atthe Big Bend schoolhouse, and was attended by some of the most prominentcitizens of the county. The action of Major Lyon, as he had come to becalled very generally as a title of respect, in accordance with aprevailing custom, in securing the arms was heartily approved by theassembly.
That very night the ruffians of the Home Guard, for such they were,which included most of the baser element of the locality, had made anattack on the plantation of Major Lyon, intending to burn and destroyit, if not, as was hinted, to hang the planter to one of the big treeson his lawn. But a few of his neighbors had rallied to his assistance,and his negroes were armed with the confiscated weapons, and the attackwas an utter failure.
Colonel Belthorpe, who had been a soldier in his earlier years,commanded the defenders of the estate, and the mob marched to hisplantation to wreak their vengeance upon him by the destruction of hisproperty; but the same forces defeated them there, with many wounds, andthe loss of a few lives.
At the Union meeting Major Lyon had proposed to raise a company ofcavalry. He had offered to contribute a considerable number of horsesfor the service, and his neighbors had followed his example; and over ahundred steeds were pledged. Letters had been written to the commanderof the Union army in Kentucky, relating to this project, and LieutenantBurke Gordan had been sent to organize the company; and he was followedlater by several non-commissioned officers to assist in the drill. Theruffians had made an attempt to stop the enlistments at Riverlawn, wherethe camp was located; but they had been beaten off.
The recruiting had progressed very successfully; and instead of onecompany, two had been organized during the next three months. Major Lyonand his two sons had drilled and studied the military art in the mostdetermined manner; for they were enthusiastic in the support of thegovernment. The two companies, though hardly entitled to the name, werecalled a squadron. The planter, in spite of his protest, was made themajor of the command; and he had become competent for the position. Thiswas the squadron which marched by the house of Swin Pickford while Deckwas talking with the two sons of Titus about the strait of the captain'sfamily in Barcreek village.