Tyle or Tyler Lawson

Tyle or Tyler Lawson was born around 1840 in New York.

Tyle eventually left New York and moved west, settling in Western Michigan. In 1860 there was one “Gard” Lawson, a 21-year-old born in New York, living with Abel and Mary Camp and their family in Moorland, Muskegon County. Next door lived the Ackerman family. Also from New York, they would be Tyle’s neighbors in Moorland in 1870.

In any case, Tyle stood 5’10” with gray eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 21 years old when he enlisted in Company B on May 13, 1861. (Curiously he did not join Company H, formerly the “Muskegon Rangers,” which was made up largely of men from the vicinity of Muskegon and Newaygo counties.) He was admitted to Washington Street branch of general hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 5, 1862, suffering from lung disease and sent to Annapolis, Maryland on March 7, admitted on March 9. He remained hospitalized until he was discharged for consumption on April 1, 1862, at Camp Michigan, Virginia.

After he left the army Tyle eventually returned to Muskegon County.

He was probably living in Ravenna when he married New York native Susan Packard (1838-1906) on July 4, 1864, in Muskegon, and they had at least two children: Jennie (b. December 1869) and Anna Belle (b. 1871).

By 1870 Tyle was working as a farmer and living in Moorland in 1870 with his wife and one daughter Jennie. By 1877 he was working as a laborer and living in Muskegon on Webster Avenue, but by 1880 he was farming and living in Moorland with his wife and daughter Anna.

From 1887 to 1890 he was living at 32 Elizabeth Street and working as a laborer in Muskegon, and he was living in the Second Ward in 1894, but sometime after 1894 he moved to Grand Rapids. By 1900 he was living in Grand Rapids when he sought an increase to his pension.

In 1862 he applied for and eventually received a pension (no. 345285), drawing $12 per month by 1906; when he sought an increase in 1900 he hired former Third Michigan soldier Elisha Stevens to pursue the claim.

Although not a member of the Michigan Soldiers’ Home, Tyle nevertheless died a widower of apoplexy at the Home on May 16, 1906, and was buried in the Home cemetery: section 4 row 20 grave 33. His wife Susan was also buried in the Home cemetery.