DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for the Lyons Family Cemetery in Fayette County — here's how I tell it. James Lyons was born in 1778, and somewhere along the way this New York man looked south and west and decided Texas was where his family belonged. He brought them here in 1820, long before Texas was anything but frontier and promise and considerable danger.
For seventeen years, they made it work. Then came October 15, 1837. Lyons was outside his cabin, working near this very site, when Comanches struck.
He was killed that day, and his grave became the first in what would grow into the Lyons family cemetery. That alone is a heavy thing to carry — the patriarch of a family becoming the foundation of its burial ground. But the story doesn't end there.
Not by a long measure. James had a twelve-year-old son named Warren, born in 1825. Warren was captured in that same attack and held by the Indians for about ten years.
Ten years. A boy taken at twelve, somewhere out on that frontier, living a life none of his family back home could fully imagine. When Warren was finally able to return home, he did what people do when they come back to life — he kept living.
In 1848 he married a woman named Lucy Boatright. They settled eventually in Johnson County, and Warren Lyons died there in 1870. Now here's the part that keeps this marker honest in a way most markers don't bother to be.
Somebody erected a stone here in 1931 — and that stone got the story wrong. It named Warren Lyons as the victim of the 1837 raid, when in fact it was his father James who was killed that day. Warren survived it.
Warren was taken. Warren came back. So the marker you're standing near today is doing double duty — telling the true story, and correcting the stone that told it wrong for years.
James Lyons died on October 15, 1837. Warren Lyons lived. And sometimes, setting the record straight is the whole point.
What the marker says
James Lyons (b. 1778) brought his family to Texas from New York in 1820. While working outside his cabin near this site on Oct. 15, 1837, Lyons was killed by Comanches. His was the first grave in this family cemetery. His 12-year-old son Warren (b. 1825) was captured in the attack and held by the Indians for about 10 years before he was able to return home. In 1848 he married Lucy Boatright. They later settled in Johnson County, where he died in 1870. A stone erected here in 1931 states incorrectly that Warren Lyons, rather than his father James, was a victim of the 1837 raid.