TOMBSTONE TUESDAY - PEYTON BELL LYTLE

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY - PEYTON BELL LYTLE (1850-1873)

I have always found cemeteries to be fascinating places. From the interesting head stones with the loving goodbyes and tributes engraved upon them, to the dates that tell of tragic events and epidemics that swept through a place taking many people with them. Calhoun County has had more than its share of both. The saddest ones to me are those that belong to children and young people whose lives are cut short before they really begin. In Indianola Old Town Cemetery there is the grave of one such young man. His stone is long gone, washed away in the hurricane of 1875 that swept through Indianola, and the exact location where he does rest is lost to time. For a short life his was one surrounded by both treasure and tragedy.

Peyton Bell Lytle was born in October of 1850 to James Thompson Lytle and Margaret Eveline Peyton Lytle. Peyton never had any siblings. His mother was the child of a famous Texan, known as the Heroine of the Archives War, Angelina Belle Peyton Eberly. The Peytons made their home in Washington on the Brazos and ran a tavern and an inn. Margaret’s father, Johnathan Peyton died in 1834. When the Texas Revolution began Peyton’s mother and grandmother were part of the Runaway Scrape, the trip that women, children, elderly, and the sick made towards the Sabine River ahead of Santa Anna. After the Texans won Texas Independence, Angelina, and Margaret made their home in Columbia where Angelina married widower Jacob Eberly in 1836. In 1839 the family moved to Austin, Texas and opened Eberly House. Eberly house hosted many well-known Texans including Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas, and his cabinet to whom she served dinner in 1839. President Sam Houston chose to live in Eberly House instead of residing in the Presidents home in Austin. Jacob died in 1841 and it was in 1842 that Angelina alerted the government officials in Austin of the attempt to steal the public documents and take them back to Washington on the Brazos using grapeshot fired from a 6-pound cannon. Eventually Angelina and Margaret moved to Lavaca and then Indianola where Angelina opened a hotel, she named American Inn. It was here that Margaret met and married Texas State Senator James T. Lytle on October 28, 1848.

James was not only a Texas State Senator, but he was also a poet and a Texas Ranger. He wrote several popular songs of the time including “The Ranger Song” and “the Maid of Monterrey.” James was a lawyer in Port Lavaca and in the 1850 Census it shows that he and Margaret were living in Stanton House Hotel, run by Juliet Watts Stanton, the widow of Hugh Oram Watts who was killed in the Linnville raid. The census was taken in August of 1850 and in October of that same year Peyton Bell Lytle was born. Tragically on the 12th day of that same month his mother, Margaret, died. She was 19 years old. James was a widower with a new baby boy. There is no record that still exists of these baby years of Peyton, but one can easily imagine that his grandmother Angelina helped his father in caring for him. The Calhoun County Tax rolls show James living here in 1853; however, Peyton was a sickly child and with both Peyton’s father, and his grandmother employed it would make sense that they both had a hand in raising him.

In 1853, when Peyton was 3 years old, his father married Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead. She was a widow from a wealthy Arkansas family and had moved to Lavaca in 1851 with her 1st husband, Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead, who was the great grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. Thomas died that same year and is buried here in Port Lavaca. James and Elizabeth married at her parent's home in Arkansas but made their home here. That same year he was elected to the Texas State Congress as Senator. Just a few months later, on March 7, 1854, James T. Lytle died. His death was announced throughout the nation. He was buried in Port Lavaca Cemetery with the Masons of Indianola joined with the lodge in Port Lavaca honoring him and Reverend Cocke of Green Lake presiding. He was 29 years old.

Upon his father's death Peyton, age 4, was sent to live with his grandmother Angelina Eberly in Indianola. His fathers will left Peyton $5,000 dollars and a slave named John. His will stated that he wished to give John his freedom after his death but that the law prohibited it at that time, so he went with Peyton to live in Indianola. Everything else he left to his 2nd wife, Elizabeth Anne Pryor Lytle. His good friend Fletcher Stockdale from Indianola was the executor of his will. Stockdale was a lawyer, politician, railroad official, and Lt. Governor of Texas. In 1857 Stockdale married Peyton’s stepmother Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead Lytle.

Peyton moved in with his grandmother Angelina at Indianola, where he made friends and attended school. One of his school friends that helped tell his story to the Southwestern Historical Quarterly was Mr. F. S. Montier, in 1932. Peyton helped his grandmother at the inn and lived a life that would compare to any other boy in the port city. When he was10 years old his grandmother Angelina died, and the boy found himself alone. His grandmother was laid to rest in the Old Town Cemetery. Peyton inherited his grandmother’s entire estate which was $50,000 dollars.

He became the ward of his father's good friend, Indianola lawyer and politician, Fletcher Stockdale. Once again Elizabeth Anne became his stepmother. With Stockdale’s guidance, Peyton entered Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, graduating in 1867. In 1869 he entered the Virginia Military Institute as a cadet. The executive of the institute noted that Peyton was of “delicate” health. The hope was that the experience there would help him gain strength and build good health. For a time, it worked, but in 1872 Peyton’s health once again returned to what was called a “constitutional malady.” Medically it is defined as a chronic, systemic, or hereditary disease that affects the entire body, or a specific bodily system. The underlying root cause often ties back to genetics, metabolic processes, or a person’s baseline biology. Symptoms are generalized physical signs of fatigue, fever, unexplained weight loss, and night sweats that affect the whole body. In the summer of 1872, he traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under the care of a famous physician. He lingered through the fall but on January 19, 1873, he succumbed to his illness. His body was brought back to Indianola, where he was laid to rest next to his grandmother in Old Town Indianola Cemetery.

In an article printed in the Victoria Advocate, V. B. Proctor from Victoria, who knew Governor Stockdale, and as a child was sent with his mother to Virginia to see Peyton in 1872. He said that Gov. Stockdale loved the young man as he would have if had he been his own child. Proctor recalled the following about Peyton; “he was a handsome, clean cut looking boy. In his wonderful uniform, as a senior classman of the Virginia Military Institute he is indelibly impressed on my memory.” In a letter from the Virginia Military Institute, the business manager recorded that “Peyton had a high rating in all his classes and was a cadet of unusual promise.” He was a wealthy young man who left his estate to collateral relatives of his grandmother.

Peyton was 21 years old at the time of his death. The lives of Peyton and both of his parents are examples of the uncertainty of the length of life. They lived in a time when life was often at the mercy of epidemics, natural disasters, rudimental medical knowledge, poor sanitation, and the dangers of lawlessness. Death was not selective when it came to race, religion, wealth, social status, or age. People tended to marry, have children, and begin their own journey in life at much younger ages than we do today. The life of Peyton Lytle was one that was marred by illness and loss. He had all the social connections to take his life wherever he wanted to guide it. He also had all the wealth that would ensure him the comforts and opportunities that the world had to offer, but that was not to be. He did have the opportunity to meet and know many people both well known and those that traveled in and out of his grandmother’s inn at the port of Indianola. He had the opportunity to travel, get a good education, and make new friends and start his own journey of life. As short as it was, I hope it brought wonderful memories and many happy times to Peyton.

By: Sheryl Cuellar

Washington Telegraph, Washington, Arkansas, March 22, 1854

Indianola Scrapbook

Indianola, Mother of West Texas

Victoria Advocate Tuesday, March 1, 1932, pg.2

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly Volume 36, Jul 1932 – Apr 1933 pages 198-199