| E. B. WAKEFIELD VISITS GRAVE OF NATHANIEL LYON
Commander Wakefield of Nathaniel Lyon Post G. A. R. made a pilgrimage recently to the General Lyon burying ground in Phoenixville Conn., to visit the plot in which the general is buried. The historic house in which he was born is gone. Nothing but the chimney remains and the place is well known. It will be remembered that the widow (sister) of General Lyon lived long in Webster in the house owned by the late Judge Clark on Main street. Hero of many encounters in the Mexican War, General Lyon, entered the Civil War a trained and experienced officer of the U. S. Army. Killed in August , 1861, in Kentucky his burial was in what was then the township of Ashford, now Eastford, attracted wide attention. The present Postmaster at Eastford, then a lad of ten, recalls the soldiers with muskets at the Church and that twenty thousand attended the obsequies. The plot visited yearly by a representative of the Webster Post on Decoration Day is conditioned by the Sate of Connecticut, and is park like with trees and shrubs. four cannon with noses in the earth, slope at the four corners and another cemented to a base stands over the grave in the family plot. At present there are fourteen flags marking soldiers graves in the one small cemetery. Commander Wakefield would advise any who are patriotically inclined, to drive over the excellent roadway, to see the plot and grave of one so long identifies in name with Webster and Dudley, General Nathaniel Lyon. |