Sunday, October 11, 2020

Another Link to History Gone

 Several times over the years I blogged about the Amazing Secret of Sherwood Forest. 

No, the amazing secret of Sherwood Forest doesn't have anything to do with Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Although it would have been interesting to watch them fight in the Civil War, dressed in their bright green clothes and using their longbows and clubs to fight....well, I don't know if they would have sided with the Union or the Confederates.  But Friar Tuck would have been quite the sight.

No, I am talking about Sherwood Forest Plantation, in Virginia, which became a bit of an Internet sensation in 2012 because of a man who lived there. His name is Harrison Tyler, and he happens to be the grandson of President John Tyler, a U.S. President who served from 1841 to 1845. There was also another living grandson.

John Tyler was born in 1790.  In other words, a man born in 1790 had two living grandsons.

Here is an interview with them from 2018.

But now, I have to report the sad news that one of the two grandsons, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr, passed away September 26 at the age of 95.

He never met his grandfather, John Tyler, who died in 1862.  But still, I consider the two Tyler grandsons as "human wormholes", connections to the past.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr. was a lawyer and historian and a World War II veteran, a member of the Greatest Generation.

As for the surviving grandson, Harrison Tyler, he is still alive at the age of 92.  To the best of my knowledge, he still lives at Sherwood Forest.

History is fascinating.


5 comments:

  1. Very interesting story about Tyler. Sad to hear he passed

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  2. ...fabulous genes in this family!

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  3. I had heard of his passing. One more link to the past gone.

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  4. History is fascinating and it's important to pay attention to it before it slips away.

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  5. That is an amazing story .. everyone's first thought about Sherwood Forest is of course the British version .. this was totally new to me.
    Links t the past are disappearing so quickly people have hardly any time to realize it.

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