Long Valley advocate (Lardo, Idaho), September 14, 1905
New York Sun.
Capt. George W. Lloyd, the aged custodian of the monument of Thomas Paine in North street, New Rochelle, is circulating a petition asking that the city of New Rochelle assume the task that he has been performing gratuitously for many years. Capt. Lloyd has reached his 86th year, and now that the infirmities of age are beginning to tell on his once rugged constitution he feels himself compelled to retire.
Yet he is unwilling to give up his self-imposed duty until he is assured that it shall be attended to by some other responsible party. His desire is that the municipality of New Rochelle shall accept the monument of the author of “The Age of Reason” as a public charge and care for it in perpetuity.
A great change has taken place in public opinion since Paine was buried in New Rochelle at the beginning of the last century. Then such a feeling prevailed against his teachings that the Episcopalians of the city would not allow a grave to be dug for him in the churchyard, and his followers buried his body near his old farm in North street. The funeral procession as it passed along the highway was derided by church people, and the church bells were rung in jubilation over his death.
Now all of this spirit has melted away. It is probable that the Board of Aldermen will accept the monument and see that it is properly preserved as one of the landmarks of the city.
Recently the city authorities, in improving North street and converting it into a boulevard, moved the monument to a better location and enclosed it with an iron fence, adding greatly to the appearance of the plot. The monument marks the supposed location of the grave in which Paine’s remains were laid in 1809 and from which they were stolen by direction of Cobbett, the English radical, ten years later.
If the petition of Capt. Lloyd prevails, it is proposed to have the ceremony of turning the monument over to the city take place on July 4.
For nearly forty years Capt. Lloyd has guarded the tomb and been the chief apostle of the doctrines of Paine in New Rochelle. There has never been any pay attached to his duties. Capt. Lloyd has visited the monument regularly during all these years to see that it was not desecrated by religious fanatics, and on holiday occasions he has decorated it with flowers.
Capt. Lloyd is an extremist on the subject of personal liberty and, like Paine, has risked his life in the defense of his convictions. In the days of the civil war he was so radical on the question of States’ rights that he actually ran for office in New Rochelle on a ticket indorsing the Confederate Constitution, and so angered the citizens that a mob attempted to hang him, and failing in this, drove him out of town.
Horace Greeley, writing of the incident at the time, denounced Lloyd and said that he was “hungering for some of Jeff Davis’ rations.” The surmise proved to be correct, for Lloyd, after fleeing from New Rochelle, joined the Confederates and became a spy. Until this day he is accused by some of the veterans of New Rochelle of having been one of the keepers of Libby prison, but he has always vigorously denied this charge.
Capt. Lloyd’s own account of his career is interesting. He says that he was born in Providence and attended school only two weeks, when he was turned out for kissing a girl in the classroom. His only subsequent education was obtained by reading the dictionary.
A few years later his radical spirit burst forth and he became one of the leaders of the Dorr rebellion against property qualifications in Rhode Island. For his prominence in this affair he was obliged to flee to New York.
The feeling against him became so intense that on Oct. 16, 1861, a band of citizens visited his home at night and told him that he would have to hoist the Stars and Stripes or they would hang him and burn the house. Lloyd refused to comply with the demand. Despite the assistance of his wife, who attempted to defend the house with a small ship’s cannon, the mob broke in and dragged him out. Lloyd fought with his captors and managed to escape to New York.
This experience so enraged him that he decided to join the Confederate army as a spy. Hastening to Washington, he was introduced to John C. Breckenridge by a relative, and was told where he could join the Confederates.
Capt. Lloyd walked seven days and seven nights until he reached Green River, in Kentucky. When within twenty-five miles of Polk’s camp he met a party of cavalrymen and saluted them. The cavalrymen at once suspected him of being a Yankee spy and demanded his pass. Lloyd had forgotten to obtain a pass from Breckenridge and despite his protests he was arrested and taken into camp. There he was taken before Roger Hanson, commander of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, who after hearing his story, asked him to prove his loyalty by swearing himself into the Confederate army.
This the prisoner declined to do, on the ground that Kentucky was not a Confederate state because she had not seceded. The cavalry leader was so angered by Lloyd’s obstinacy that he threw him into the guard house. One of his companions in the guard house was W. P. Breckenridge, then a private, who had been court-martialed for sleeping while on sentry duty.
For several days before the Confederates received a telegram from the Secretary of War saying that Lloyd was all right he was kept busy helping the cook and playing the fife at guard mount. He then went to Richmond.
On the way he stopped a week at Nashville, where he was the guest of the widow of President James K. Polk, whom Lloyd describes as one of the most accomplished women he ever met.
In the siege of Richmond Lloyd did duty for various generals as a spy, often personating a pedler and going within the Union lines. He was arrested on several occasions, but was so successful in his role that he was released from custody.
In the great seven days fight he drove an ambulance and helped to bring in the wounded to the hospitals. It is during this period that Lloyd has been accused of having been a keeper in Libby prison, and there are old soldiers in New Rochelle who declare to this day that they saw him peering into the prison pen at them. Capt. Lloyd denies this, but it is certain that he knows more about the prison than he has ever told.
During his stay in Richmond Lloyd took a contract to make 10,000 crutches, for which he received $1,000 in Confederate money. With his earnings sewed in a belt he set out for New York in 1864 in disguise, carrying also 500 letters from the Provost Marshal of Richmond to Northern sympathizers of the Confederacy. He remained in New York, making secret visits to his wife and family, until the war closed and it was safe for him to return to New Rochelle.
For many years Lloyd followed the sea for a living, running a fishing smack on Long Island Sound and renting boats. A few years ago his fishing boat was sunk by some mischievous boys, and the old man, “sick and torn to pieces,” as he expressed it, gave up seafaring.
Capt. Lloyd is a well-read man. He has numbered among his acquaintances George Francis Train, Senator Tillman, Tom Watson and William Jennings Bryan.
When Capt. Lloyd appeared at the Populist convention in Cincinnati a few years ago he was so patriarchal in appearance that the delegates seized on him and attired him to represent Uncle Sam. Lloyd accepted the part with his characteristic good nature. He was so bitter against the gold standard at that time that he paid his fare to Cincinnati and returned with silver dollars.