Captain Henry C. Lyon
Roby, Fisher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Served in army of the Republic of Texas * Commanded a company in the army of the Confederate States of America * Born in Tennessee, April 15, 1815 * * Died March 31, 1889 Erected by the State of Texas 1936 [supplemental stone inscription: For Public Record Capt. H. C. Lyon's body is not buried in Roby Cemetery. His body lies in Woods Chapel where he was buried March 31, 1889. Fisher Co. Historical Soc.]
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Tennessee in 1815, Henry C. Lyon soldiered across the great dividing lines of nineteenth-century Texas: first in the army of the Republic of Texas, then as a company commander for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The state erected his memorial in 1936, though a later stone set the record straight that his body actually lies at Woods Chapel, not the Roby cemetery. His life spans the arc from frontier republic to Confederate war.
Why it matters
Lyon's service embodies the generation of Texans who fought first for their republic's independence and then for the Confederacy, tracing the state's turbulent path through the Civil War.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Henry C. Lyon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
County Named for Confederate Hero General "Stonewall" Jackson 1824-1863
Aspermont, TX
Stonewall County honors Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who earned his enduring nickname at the First Battle of Manassas in 1861 when General Barnard Bee — a Texan — pointed to him standing firm amid retreat. The marker also recounts Texas's all-out commitment to the Confederacy: some 90,000 troops in the field, a 2,000-mile frontier and coast defended, and a home front of families and enslaved people whose labor supplied the Southern armies.
Jones County
Anson, TX
This corner of west Texas was crossed by an emigrant trail and a frontier military road guarded by Fort Phantom Hill, founded in 1851. The county was named for Anson Jones, a San Jacinto veteran and the last president of the Republic of Texas. Phantom Hill served as a Butterfield Overland Mail station in 1858-61 and then as a Civil War patrol point trying to curb frontier raids, before the county was fully organized in 1881 with Anson as its seat.
Fort Phantom Hill, C.S.A.
Anson, TX
When Texas seceded, Confederate and state troops took over abandoned Fort Phantom Hill as an outpost guarding the frontier against Indian raids while the state's men were away at war. In 1862 the defense line was pulled back thirty miles east, but patrols kept ranging out—often on their own horses, guns, and provisions—to protect settlements and watch for Union incursion. The marker honors Texans who held a 2,000-mile line of coast and frontier with the few men the Confederacy could spare.
Scurry County
Snyder, TX
Scurry County was created in 1876 from older Texas territories and organized in 1884, with Snyder as its seat. It honors General William R. Scurry, a member of the last Congress of the Republic of Texas and a Confederate officer killed in 1864. The county's founding was part of the steady organization of West Texas as settlement pushed onto the plains.