The son of a U.S. president who lived to see the twentieth century

Wars & Conflicts · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, born in 1853 to the tenth U.S. president, lived a life that spanned from the American Civil War to the Great Depression. As a historian and educator, he spent his later years in a fierce, public crusade to dismantle the legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

Born at the Sherwood Forest plantation in 1853, Lyon Gardiner Tyler was the son of John Tyler and Julia Gardiner Tyler. His early life was defined by the Civil War, which saw his father pass away in 1862 and Union troops occupy his family home. After the war, Tyler pursued a legal education at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1875. His career eventually led him to the presidency of the College of William & Mary in 1888, a position he held for over three decades. During his tenure, he transformed the struggling institution into a public college, significantly increasing enrollment and expanding the campus infrastructure.

Beyond his administrative work, Tyler was a dedicated historian who championed the preservation of Virginia’s records. He successfully lobbied the Virginia General Assembly in 1896 to fund the copying of 17th-century court documents, establishing a precedent for state-funded historical preservation. However, his intellectual legacy is complex. While he was a pioneer in advocating for the significance of Jamestown and Williamsburg, his historical philosophy was deeply rooted in a defense of the Confederacy. He frequently published critiques of Abraham Lincoln, arguing that the sixteenth president was a tyrant who suppressed the rights of self-determination.

Tyler’s views on Lincoln became increasingly notorious in his retirement. He engaged in public debates with publications like Time, insisting that Lincoln was a 'dwarf' compared to his own father. He even authored A Confederate Catechism, a pamphlet that blamed the Civil War on the anti-slavery movement rather than slavery itself. These perspectives eventually led the College of William & Mary to remove his name from campus buildings in 2020. Despite his controversial stances, his family lineage remains remarkable; his son Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born in 1928, lived into the 21st century, creating a direct personal link between the era of the early American presidency and the modern day.

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