Uncle Daniel's Story of Tom Anderson

Publisher Marketing: ALLENTOWN is a beautiful little city of 10,000 inhabitants, situated on the Wabash River, in Vigo County, Ind., in the vicinity of which several railroads now center. It is noted for its elevated position, general healthfulness, and for its beautiful residences and cultivated society. Daniel Lyon located here in 1850. He was a man of marked ability and undoubted integrity; was six feet two inches in height, well proportioned, and of very commanding and martial appearance. In 1861, he was surrounded by a large family, seven grown sons-James, David, Jackson, Peter, Stephen, Henry and Harvey-all of whom were well educated, fond of field sports and inclined to a military life. The mother, "Aunt Sarah," as she was commonly called by the neighbors, was a charming, motherly, Christian woman, whose heart and soul seemed to be wrapped up in the welfare of her family. She was of short, thick build, but rather handsome, with dark brown hair and large blue eyes, gentle and kind. Her politeness and generosity were proverbial. She thought each of her seven sons a model man; her loving remarks about them were noticeable by all. Daniel Lyon is at present 85 years old, and lives with one of his granddaughters-Jennie Lyon-now married to a man by the name of James Wilson, in Oakland, Ind., a small town conspicuous only for its rare educational facilities. Contributor Bio:  McElroy, John McElroy was born to Robert and Mary Henderson McElroy in Greenup County, Kentucky. When his father died, he traveled to St. Louis to become an apprentice in the printing business. As a sixteen-year-old in 1863, McElroy enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Company L of the 16th Illinois Cavalry regiment, having earlier served with local Union troops in operations near St. Louis. In January 1864, he was among dozens of men captured in a skirmish near Jonesville, Virginia, by Confederate cavalrymen under William E. Jones. According to his book, Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, McElroy was first sent to Richmond, then to Andersonville in February, 1864. In October, 1864 he was moved to Savannah and within about six weeks was sent to the new prison in Millen, GA (Camp Lawton); thence to several other camps before the war ended. After the war ended, McElroy was released from captivity and transported back to the North. He settled in Chicago and resumed the printer's trade. He became a local reporter and newspaperman before moving to Toledo, Ohio, to become an editor of the Toledo Blade. He married Elsie Pomeroy of Ottawa, Ohio, and raised a family. In 1879, he wrote Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, a non-fiction work based on his experiences during his fifteen-month incarceration. It quickly became a bestseller and remained popular for the next twenty years. In 1884, he moved from Toledo to Washington, D. C. to take over as editor and co-owner of the National Tribune. He was active in the local Grand Army of the Republic, serving as commander of the Department of the Potomac in 1896. In 1908, McElroy wrote The Economic Functions of Vice. The following year, he published Struggle for Missouri, a history of the bitter division over slavery that split the state's loyalties and led to armed conflict within its borders. In 1910, he wrote a Civil War novel entitled Si Klegg: His Transformation from a Raw Recruit to a Veteran.