9. DODIE BECOMES A LOCAL CELEBRITY

TOTAL AMAZEMENT:

When Dodie and I arrived in Savannah, Georgia, we went to the Town Hall to search the records there for information on the de Lyon family.  The clerk asked why, and I said, "This is Dorothy de Lyon an we want to know who the ancestors were.  We heard they came from here."  The clerk chuckled and said, "You need to go over to the Georgia Historical Society and let them know you are in town.  They have far more information on the de Lyons than we do."

After a satisfying lunch topped off with some Georgia Peach Cobbler, we drove over to the address the clerk had given us.  We strolled into the Historical Society and saw it was a huge library, packed with floor to ceiling bookcases full of local history.   We went to the counter and asked the librarian if she had any idea where we should look to find information on the de Lyon family.  She looked a bit startled, asked why we were interested, and when we told her Dodie's name, she said, "You are descended from the de Lyons and Dr. Sam?  Well, you are in the right place.  Go to section 3 and those shelves are full of books detailing their involvement in the original settlement of Georgia and how they saved the colony from extinction."

OMG, we lost the rest of the day in there reading about Dr. Samuel Nunez and Abraham de Lyon. In the post to the O'Neal and Sorensen family members, I included a long section about the de Lyon family and their activities as Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition.

THE RABBI:

The librarian also told us that the deLyon family had their own private cemetery in Savannah and that he could arrange with the groundskeeper to let us in.  He told us that the synagogue had been founded originally by our ancestors who had hand-carried the Torah with them from Spain to Portugal to England and then to Georgia.  He said they were the ones who had built that synagogue, along with the rest of the Nunez family and the Sheftall family.   He told us about how the home in town as well as the farmland and plantation home had been destroyed by the Union Army under General Sherman in the Civil War.  He also told us that the entrance doors to the mansion were so beautiful and famous that the Yankees removed the doors and took them away before they torched the property.  Then he disclosed yet another hint about that group:  they were staunch Masons who also established the first Masonic Lodge in Savannah.

HISTORICAL TIES

Because the family was so deeply entrenched in the Masons, they became involved in the American Revolution which was led by another very involved Mason, George Washington and other very politically involved Masons living in the colonies.  As a result, they received a plea from Washington at the start of the revolution to send "100 horses" north to him and he promised to repay after the war ended.

Levi de Lyon had been breeding horses out at that farm (along with growing wine and assorted fruit and vegetables) since they first got that land from Oglethorpe.  He brought in his most trusted horse men (who happened to be black slaves who lived in the stables along with the house slaves), and asked them to herd the horses north to join Washington at his encampment and then to 'stay with Washington and make themselves useful'.  He also promised to emancipate them and their families who accompanied them.  Bet you didn't know that there were black soldiers in the American Revolutionary Army!  They elected to stay with Washington who placed them in his army, emancipated them, and paid them just like all the other soldiers.

SYNAGOGUE SERVICES:

We were grateful to the Rabbi who had spent hours with us with background information on our ancestors, so when we got back to the hotel that night, after shouts of "OMG, WE'RE JEWISH", we decided to go see what we had been missing all our lives.  Saturday morning, we arrived at the synagogue for the services.  We were amazed again - it was going to the Methodist Church.  Some Bible readings, a pleasant sermon about kindness to others, a collection plate, and a reception afterwards.  I said, "Doggone it, Dodie, if they had any really interesting rituals or dances or costumes, I might pursue this, but I guess religion is religion is religion, no matter where you go.  Just a lot of platitudes to a social group who only pay lip service to any of it by identifying with the group name."   Fortunately, she forgave me for saying such a thing but she also laughed her head off.

THE GREYLINE TOUR

We decided to take the City Tour offered by Greyline to get an overview of everything of historical interest there.  When the tour bus got to the harbor, the bus driver started talking about how Oglethorpe and the first bunch of colonists had arrived by ship from England, tried to start the colony, and then began to die of yellow fever.  He then added that the remaining colonists had been saved by a boatload of Jews arriving with a doctor, Samuel Nunez, on board. As he prepared to launch further into his description of how the Jews had fought hard to stay in Savannah and how Dr. Sam had negotiated, I interrupted and said, "You mean the Nunez and de Lyon families who arrived on the second ship?"  And when the bus driver said yes, I pointed to Dodie and said, "Well, here's their living descendant, Dorothy de Lyon!".

BUS DRIVER TELLS ALL

The bus driver parked the bus and proceeded to interview us about what happened to the family after they got burned out by Sherman in the Civil War.  We regaled the busload with the mad dash by ship to Galveston, the way the local Confederates had welcomed them and helped them settle, and up to the end of the Reconstruction Era.

Most of the tour members said it made their experience of Savannah much more interesting while others continued their naps.

Word got back to the Rabbi and the Historical Society and we were contacted by the Rabbi.  He said the city of Savannah had some kind of historical celebration coming up in (I think he said) 2003 and would we be willing to come back for it so he could introduce Dorothy de Lyon to the local populace.

I offered to pay for the trip if she wanted to go, but years later when that festival was coming up, she was already too ill to travel.  Plus I think she really did not want to have to ride on top of a parade float for hours in the hot sun, probably wearing some antebellum gown and a parasol.

AFTERMATH:

I don't know if she had as much fun telling all her children and grand-children about those experiences as I did when telling mine.  "Brace yourselves, kids.  You are Jewish!".  We also threatened to send Channukah cards every December to all friends and family members.  Trying to put on a seder for Passover was beyond both of us.