has held that position.
His marriage was with Miss Rebecca M. Neal, a daughter of
Stephen Neal and Francis Adaline Neal, and of this union was born
ten children. Those living are Robert Bingham Lynch, Mrs.
Rubie Thompson and Mrs. Maggie McNeal Lartigue.
His political principles have been built upon the Democratic
platform, and his religion that of his early training, Presbyterian.
Professor Lynch has for many years been a member of the Masonic
Order. He is also a fraternity man, his association being with the
Delta Psi Fraternity.
The life of this gentleman and scholar, has been a useful and
a busy one. There has been little time for outside activities, but
his influence has been felt in many inspirational ways. In his
relation to life he has been upright and conscientious. His hand
has been open to the needy, and his heart to the sorrowing. His
ideals have been high and he has stood firm for the betterment of
man and his uplifting. Professor Lynch is a strong Prohibitionist
and believes that the suppression of the liquor traffic will go a long
way towards accomplishing higher development of the people.
Haura lie jftarp Cijompson
Mrs. Thompson is one of the connecting links between the
Florida of today and the Florida of fifty years ago. She is the
widow of Col. Samuel Beard Thompson, who came to Florida at
the age of eighteen as an orderly sergeant in the United States
army during the Seminole War. He was a Virginian from Hamp-
shire county, in the great valley. After leaving the army, he
became a merchant at Middleburg, in Clay county. He was a
prominent man in his day. of fine personal character, a good soldier,
highly esteemed by all who knew him; and died on January 21,
1891. Mrs. Thompson is a native of Georgia. She was born
near Eatonton, in middle Georgia, daughter of Dr. Josiah Ashurst
and Eliza Rebecca (Lucas) Ashurst. Both her father and mother
were natives of middle Georgia. On the maternal side she is
descended from the Lucas, Baskerville and Wyche families of
Virginia. Nine of her uncles and two grandfathers served in the
Revolutionary armies, and she is proud of the fact that not one of
her ancestors was a Tory. One of her brothers, Robert J. Ashurst,
served in the Second Florida Regiment in the Civil War. Another,
Peyton Watson Ashurst, served in the artillery under Colonel
McDonald. Mrs. Thompson, while on a visit to Alabama in her
youth, received educational training from Professor Hentz and his
famous wife, Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz. She subsequently attended
school at Limestone Springs, S. C., Columbia, S. C., and lastly at
Barhamville College, S. C. About 1850 her parents settled at what
is now Ocala, and removed thence to what was known as " Craig
Place," on the south side of St. John's river, near Jacksonville.
This place is now known as Alexander Mitchell's winter home.
The Ashursts called it "Liveoak" When her education was com-
pleted, she returned to "Liveoak," and on October 8, 1857, married
Colonel Thompson. Of her marriage four children were born of
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LAURA DE MARY THOMPSON 363
whom Samuel Boteler Thompson, now a resident of New Orleans,
has two children. A daughter, Willie Florence, married J. C.
Getzen, of Webster, Fla., and they have six children. Her youngest
daughter, Birdie Lee, died on March 15, 1906, and her youngest
son, Robert Lee, died when five years old.
Mrs. Thompson is a very prominent member of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, and organized the first chapter
known as "Stonewall Jackson," in Lake City, Columbia county,
Fla., which she served a number of times as president. She is a
communicant of the Episcopal Church, and an occasional con-
tributor to the Jacksonville Times-Union, and Lake City local
papers. Though she has not a vote, she calls herself a Democrat,
and it cannot be doubted that she is a much more loyal one than
some of the men who have a vote. She is an accomplished woman,
whose circle of friends is as wide as her acquaintance. She now
lives in a beautiful old home adjoining Lake City, to which Colonel
Thompson moved in his lifetime, and in her quiet retirement
spends her declining days in extending a cordial hospitality to those
who have the opportunity of spending a few hours in her delightful
home.
The battle of Olustee in Florida was fought almost under her
eye, and she has furnished a very interesting description of it to
the Lake City Index. Josiah Flournoy, a very prominent member
of Congress from Georgia in the early days, was a great-uncle of
her father, Josiah Ashurst. The late Frederick Lucas, of Athens,
Ga., was a first cousin of her mother, and she is connected by mar-
riage with the Cobbs, Jacksons, Longstreets, Colquitts, and other
old Georgia families. Those who have had the pleasure of visiting
Mrs. Thompson at her home describe it as one of the most beautiful
retreats to be found anywhere in the country, and Mrs. Thompson
is simply a fountain of reminiscences. Her life covers such a
stirring period in our country's history and her own contact with
notable people has been such that her friends have requested her
to write a book of the principal incidents which have come under
her observation. This she hopes to do. One incident is worthy
telling here. Her mother was a cousin of Cecilia Stoval Shell-
man, of Augusta, Ga. Mrs. Shellman as a girl was on a visit to
364 LAI RA DE MARY THOMPSON
West Point, and there became acquainted with Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman, then a cadet. Mr. Sherman became greatly
enamored of her, but the young lady did not reciprocate. On
his devastating march to the sea thirty years later, Mrs. Shellman's
home was in the track of his army. Her place was spared and he
left with the old negro who was in charge of the place the following
note: "You once said that I would crush an enemy, and that you
pitied my foe. Do you recall my reply? Although many years
have passed, it is the same now as then, 'I would ever shield and
protect you.' This I have done. Forgive all else, I am but a
soldier. (Signed) W. T. SHERMA.N."
The following account of the Battle of Olustee was published
in the Lake City Index and was given by Mrs. Thompson, one of the
honorary presidents of the State of Florida, who was almost an
eye-witness of the battle. It occurred on February 20, 1864, and
was one of the most brilliant victories won by the Confederates
during the Civil War. The following is Mrs. Thompson's own
account of her recollections of that memorable day:
"How vividly it comes up to me this dark cloudy morning,
after a lapse of nearly forty years that battle of Olustee. How
well I remember the time, February 20, 1864, I was young and
enthusiastic, ever hopeful and confident of the success of my
beloved Southland, knowing that she was right, still realizing that
she had the world to defeat. So when a battle was to be fought in
this my adopted State, the belief never for a moment crossed my
mind that the enemy could ever get a foothold here, but the cry
rang forth, 'The Yankees are coming!' They were marching
through the country to take Tallahassee, our capital. Soldiers
were dispatched by General Beauregard under command of that
able officer, General Colquitt, of Georgia. \Ve were refugeeing
at Madison, Fla. At the time Capt. J. J. Thompson, of Virginia,
was at home on furlough, having been wounded in one of those
hard-fought battles of Virginia, but was sufficiently recovered that
he was appointed by General Colquitt as one of his aides, and they
proceeded at once to Olustee, where they met the enemy under the
command of General Seymour. Among these soldiers was a young
Lieutenant-Colonel belonging to a Georgia regiment. How well
LAURA DE MARY THOMPSON 365
I remember the sad expression on the face of my friend, Mrs. Dr.
Johnson, as the troops were marching before us, and she pointed
out this officer to me, saying that he had a presentiment that he
would never return alive to wed the beautiful Georgia girl to whom
he was engaged. As the troops tramped along to the depot, while
the band played the spirited tune, 'Oh! Listen to the Mocking
Bird,' it seemed more like a dirge to me, so filled was I with sym-
pathy for this young stranger.
"The battle began about 12 o'clock the twentieth of February,
opened by Captain Gamble's Artillery, and was a determined on-
ward march by the Confederates, the enemy persistently resisting
our assaults. One of the incidents of the battle, was the capture of
a Federal battery by what was termed the 'New Issue,' consisting
of boys under 18 years of age, and old men from Hamilton, Madison
Marion and Hernando counties, a company from each. These
boys had never been in a battle before, or met the enemy in any
way, but they fought like Napoleon's Guards. They pressed for-
ward, unheeding danger, and closed upon the enemy's infantry.
Cannons belched forth grape and canister, forcing the enemy to
retreat, leaving two of their guns in our possession, and only with
superhuman strength and effort they succeeded in getting away
with the other two.
"As a matter of history, these two guns were transferred to
the Federal army in Virginia, and at the battle of Cold Harbor,
these same Florida soldiers, with the other soldiers in Virginia, in a
decisive engagement, succeeded in capturing these two guns.
And still as a matter of history, these guns were the same that
figured in the battle of Buena Vista, Mexico, in the year 1846, at
the time when General Taylor rode up to the officer commanding
and said: "A little more grape, Captain Bragg."
: There was no interval of intermission in the progress of the
battle until late in the afternoon, the Confederates advancing against
the stubborn resistance of the Federal soldiers. In the latter part
of the day, messengers came from the line of the battle to General
Colquitt, saying, 'Our ammunition is growing short.' He immedi-
ately sent Captain Ely, his quartermaster, for the ordnance wagon.
Other messengers coming to General Colquitt on the same errand,
he sent his aide, Newnan D. Cone, for ammunition. Still the
366 LAURA DE MARY THOMPSON
cry from the front was, not a cartridge in their boxes. General
Colquitt not being able to obtain ammunition, dispatched an officer
of the staff to General Finnegan for fresh troops. General Finne-
gan told the officer where he might find Col. Chas. Hopkins and
Scott's Eleventh Florida Regiment, Col. Zachary's Twenty-Seventh
Georgia and Major Baunard's Battalion, who were immediately
ordered to proceed to the front, which they did in double-quick
time. The ordnance wagon now arrived, and the soldiers were
supplied with ammunition, and the battle went on with renewed
vigor. Each soldier vied with the other in making the battle
doubly successful, and those who had waited so long without ammu-
nition now felt that their time had come, and they would make the
best of it. So with the Confederate yell, vehement and deter-
mined along the entire line of battle, they compelled the enemy to
give way with precipitation, leaving the battlefield of Olustee in the
hands of the victorious Confederates.
" History does not record such a spectacle as was enacted on
this battlefield when the Confederate soldiers, having expended
every cartridge, stood there immovable pillars for nearly an hour,
receiving the fire of the enemy undaunted and undismayed. Had
they yielded under the circumstances, they could not have been
blamed, but their patriotism and bravery knew no such contem-
plation. They were ordered to stay by their officers, and they
obeyed orders. The officers knew the ammunition would come, as
it did, and with its coming victory was theirs.
While the infantry was without sufficient ammunition, Cap-
tain Wheaton, that grand and good soldier of the Savannah Chat-
ham Artillery, including two of the Charleston Battery, making
six guns in all, engaged in the fight. The other two guns of the
Charleston Artillery were detached and serving with the cavalry
on the right of the Confederate Army, and on the south of the rail-
road, which branch of the service was of no use in the engagement,
not that the soldiers were less brave or willing to be carried into battle,
but because of disobedience of orders. In this interval the Chat-
ham Artillery kept up a vigorous and incessant fire that was terrible
to witness, and held the enemy in check until the ammunition
arrived. After the battle, many of the wounded were sent that
night to Madison, where I was refugeeing.
LAURA DE MARY THOMPSON 367
"On the morning of the 2ist, my friend, Mrs. Dr. Johnson, in
company with other ladies, called for me to accompany them to the
courthouse to do what we could for the wounded. Alas! Alas!
Among those who were there lay this brave Georgia Lieutenant-
Colonel, a tranquil smile upon his handsome features. His pre-
monitions were realized. He was dead. His fiancee would see
him no more.
"The fatalities of the i8th Georgia Regiment, Colonel Neil
in command, were one out of every three, which is a fair estimate of
the loss of the entire army engaged. The loss of the enemy must
have been greater, as our men were better marksmen and cooler
men."
The following pathetic lines were written by Mrs. L. D. M.
Thompson, when only twelve years old They were printed and
commented upon by the editor of the Ocala paper at that time, and
we herewith reproduce them from the Index:
" The following verses, were recently addressed by a young girl,
now in school in South Carolina, to her mother in Ocala. They
breathe a touching sweetness, which is only excelled by their tender-
ness and affectionate devotion of an absent daughter:"
TO MY DEAREST MOTHER.
Are thou thinking of me, mother?
Art thou thinking, mother dear,
Of her whose seat is vacant
Whose chamber's lone and drear?
Dost thou miss me in the morning?
Dost thou miss me in the evening?
Dost thou miss the ringing laughter
That from thy ear is gone?
When thy heart is weary, mother,
And thy soul is full of care,
Dost thou miss me even then
And wish that I was there?
Dost thou never, never listen
To hear thy daughter's tread,
And raise thy hand unthinking,
To lay it on my head?
LAURA.
las iUlanfc 3$tgloto
Silas Leland Biglow, of Tampa, is of that stiff necked old
Puritan stock which in the past three hundred years has made
such an indelible mark upon our national life. The predominant
trait in the old Puritans was a stubborn determination to carry
through whatever they might undertake, and never to concede
themselves defeated. Their descendants are today scattered not
only over the United States, but to the remotest corners of the earth,
and wherever the blood is met with, the predominant quality is
found in greater or less degree.
Mr. Biglow was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., December 12, 1841.
His parents were John Boynton and Charlotte Haskell (Leland)
Biglow. Both parents were natives of Vermont, where his father
was born in 1808, and his mother in 1809. The family is of English
descent, the first ancestor of the Biglows in America came from
England to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1642, and the Lelands
came from England to Sherburn, Mass., in 1652.
Young Biglow grew up in Brooklyn, attended the public
schools there until the age of fourteen, when he began clerking in a
mercantile establishment, which occupation he followed until the
breaking out of the war between the States in 1861 when he became
a clerk in the Quartermaster's Department of the i8th Army Corps
and was stationed for the greater part of the war at Old Point Com-
fort, Virginia, and Newbern, N. C. In 1865 he went West, and
for eighteen years was engaged in transportation work, and in the
service of railroad and express companies.
In 1884 he came to Tampa and was for three yeas agent of the
Southern Express Company, and was also engaged in mercantile
business. When the city of Tampa was incorporated in 1886 he
became Councilman from the third ward and served until 1891.
From 1891 to 1894 he was chief of sanitary department. With the
SILAS LELAND BIGLOW 369
organization of the board of public works in 1895 he became
Clerk of the Board and has held the position continuously to date.
From 1901 to date he has been Secretary of the Ybor City Building
and Loan Association, and from 1902 to date he has been Secretary
and Treasurer of the Ybor City Land and Improvement Company.
Mr. Biglow has been twice married. In 1872 he married Mary
L. Ferguson, daughter of Alexander and Anna Eliza (Gould)
Ferguson then of Illinois, to which State the family came from New
Hampshire. His first wife died in 1890, and in 1900, Mr. Biglow
married Mattie L. Lucas, daughter of Geo. Troup and Sarah
Emeline (Edwards) Lucas, of Georgia. Of these marriages six
children have been born, three by each wife, all living: Mary Edith,
Leland Gould, John Alexander, Troup Lucas, Charlotte Louise,
and Edwards Boynton Biglow.
Mr. Biglow has found his chief literary recreation in historical
and geographical works. He is identified politically with the Demo-
cratic party, and is a member of the Tampa County and Yacht Club,
and the Tampa Automobile Club. Descended from hardy pioneer
stock which in its generations has helped to develop Massachusetts,
then Vermont, and then the West, and in the meantime contributed
valuable fighting men to the Revolutionary armies, Mr. Biglow has
lived up to the traditions. Imbued with energy, business sagacity,
enterprise, and public spirited to the core, he has probably during
the past twenty years been as valuable a factor in the development
of Tampa and its suburban towns as any other one man. Ybor
City owes to his companies much of its rapid growth, and prosperity,
but while doing so much for Ybor City, he has found time to fill
important positions, and to contribute largely with both counsel and
work to the betterment of Tampa. That he has won the esteem
and confidence of his fellow-townsmen is the logical result of his
labors, and that he has become one of the foremost figures in the
splendid development work which is making of Tampa a metropol-
itan city is but a sequence of the application of his great capacity to
the public welfare.
Benson Upman
Among the substantial business men of the East Coast, Morris
B. Lyman, head of the M. B. Lyman Company, at Lantana, and
Treasurer of Stranahan and Company, at Fort Lauderdale, ap-
pointed Treasurer of Palm Beach County July 26, 1909 by Gov.
Albert W. Gilchrist, holds an honorable position. Like many
of the prominent business men of the State, he comes from another
section, being a native of Canada, born in Bosanquet township,
Lambton county, Ontario, on September 22, 1860, son of Morris K.
and Rachel Lyman. At the time of his birth his father was teach-
ing school at Port Franks, where our subject was born, but he
moved away at the completion of that term, and for several years
taught elsewhere in the same section.
The Lyman family has a long and honorable history in New
England since 1620. Unlike a multitude of American people,
who have neglected to keep up with their family history, the Lymans
have a clear-cut record for ten generations back. The American
family dates back to Richard Lyman, of High Ongar, England,
who lived from 1580 to 1640. Then comes Richard Lyman second,
of Northampton, Mass., 1617 to 1662; then Richard Lyman third,
of Lebanon, Conn., 1647 to I 7&) then Isaac Lyman, of Sum eld,
Conn., 1682; Benjamin Lyman, of Bolton, N. Y., 1734 to 1799;
Benjamin Lyman second, of Kitley, Canada, 1761 to 1846; Barna-
bas Lyman, of Kitley, Canada, 1784 to 1865; Robert F. Lyman, of
Kitley, Canada, 1811 to 1894; Morris Lyman, of Georgetown,
Canada, 1836 to 1909; Morris B. Lyman now of Lantana, born in
1860. Morris B. Lyman is therefore in the tenth generation from
Richard Lyman of England and founder of the family. It will be
noted in this record that the later generations lived to a much greater
age than the earlier ones, due partly, possibly, to a more suitable
climate, and partly to improvements in sanitation and medical
science during the last few generations.
tE flF*-'
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AST OR. ' -
T1JLDKN fOLJNDAi-
MORRIS BENSON LYMAX 373
Mr. Lyman's early education was obtained in the section in
which he was born, and between the years 1872 and 1876 he divided
his time between school and serving in a store then conducted by
his father. The business was not successful, and after wind-
ing up his affairs in 1876, in February, 1877, he moved to the
undeveloped country in the northern part of Ontario, known as the
Muskoka district. Young Lyman took up the trade of carpenter
along with that of boat building, and followed that until July,
1883, when the family moved to Michigan. The weather being
very severe in that section, a growing predilection for the South
overmastered Mr. Lyman, so about the tenth of December he
headed for Birmingham, Ala., but before arriving there changed his
mind and went on to Jacksonville. In June 1884, he sailed on the
schooner Bessie B. from Jacksonville for Lake Worth. After
going through a very heavy gale of three days' duration, the
wind being so severe as to throw a fifty pound grindstone off the
deck, they arrived safely at Lake Worth. They could not get over
the bar, and ran down to where Palm Beach now stands. The
first six months of his residence was spent with Mr. A. Geer, and
his time was occupied in building Delmore Cottage for Mr. R. B.
Moore. In the fall of that year he erected the frame of the first store
building on Lake Worth for the firm of Brelsford Brothers. He
then took passage for Jacksonville, and through several changes of
vessels arrived in Jacksonville in four days, then considered a
remarkably quick trip. After the usual hard experiences of the
newcomer, Mr. Lyman had fallen into pretty steady work. His
father joined him that first winter, and later on the rest of the family
came down from Michigan. In December, 1884, he returned to
Marlett and married Miss Mary A. Beltz, on Christmas eve.
They returned to Jacksonville, and he worked in that city at his
trade until 1886, when he again went to Lake Worth, as a general
utility man for Brelsford Brothers. 1887 found him again in Jack-
sonville, employed as a wood worker on various contracts. When
yellow fever was declared epidemic, on August 9, 1888, he, with his
wife and two children, went down to Mayport, where he camped for
twenty-one days, and through the kindness of the port doctor was
enabled to get health papers and go on to Lake Worth. After
374 MORRIS BENSON LYMAN
much trouble with the health officers and many delays, they arrived
at Lantana on September 22, 1888. They had no house to live
in, the home occupied by his father and brother being too small for
the family then in it. Through the kindness of the Rev. Pat Lemon,
he secured a small amount of lumber and built his own house, using
pine poles for a frame and cabbage palmetto for a roof. Mr.
Lyman immediately obtained work in the line of his trade, and in
December went into Lake Worth post office, where he took charge
of the rebuilding of the steamer Lake Worth owned by Capt. N. D.
Hendrickson, which he had built first in 1886. He spent several
months on this job, then finding that the firm of Brelsford Brothers
wanted to sell their schooner, the Bessie B. he bought this schooner
and took up the run between Lake Worth and Jacksonville. This
business was a success from the start, as he remembers his only light
load was the first one. They ran regul-ir trips during the season,
making the trips in from fifteen to twenty days. On one of his
trips down, they were caught inside the bar, and were closed in by
the sand drifting, which was a serious matter. It took the united
strength of the community and a spell of very hard work to get the
inlet reopened, which did not occur until January, when the freight-
ing business was resumed. In the summer of 1889 he engaged in
mercantile business on a small scale, at Lantana, being the third
mercantile establishment on Lake Worth. This is the business
now running under the style of the M.'B. Lyman Company,
Incorporated, dealers in general merchandise, fertilizers, crate
material and paper. They have a capital of $25,000 paid in, and
are doing a large volume of business. The other firms have long
since retired from business, and the M. B. Lyman Company, one
of the pioneer concerns, still grows and prospers.
It would be very interesting if space permitted to enter into
a great many of the lesser details of the experiences of this hard-