The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-10
FUNERAL OF COL. LILLY
TOUCHING SCENES AT THE HOUSE
AND AT THE CEMETERY.
The House Services Attended by a
Large Number of Friends from
All Walks OF Life.

yesterday afternoon at O'Clock and shortly
after o'clock the interment was made at
Grown Hill by the side of his daughter.
The great hall and the rooms adjoining it
In the Lilly home on North Meridian street
were flied with five hundred people. The
house was dark and those on the cool shad-
ed porch could hardly see what was GO
irg on inside. The words of the preacher
and the singing of the quartet were subdued
as they foated out of the door and the
windows. The crowd inside the house was
still and the laughing of children on tennis
court square down the street broke in
painfully on the quiet reading of the Epis-
copal funeral service by Rev. A. J. Graham,
of Christ Church. and his assistant, Mr..
Parkman.
Before the service was begun a farmer
drove up in front of the house in a wagon.
He was tall and gaunt and roughly dressed.
He stepped up the walk and entered the
door his hat rolled up in his hands. He
walked to the side of the coffin and looked
on the face OF the dead man. Then he
turned and with tears rolling down his face
he said, in a broken voice. MY dear old
colonel" Without another word he turned
and left the house and drove away in his
wagon. No one knew who he was or had
gone.
AS Mr.. Graham told of the virtues of the
dead man and of the number of his friends
old men who had known him before and
since the civil war bowed their heads in
their hands in silent grief There was no
demonstration during the service. Those
who wept wept silently. Rapt attention
was paid to the words of the preacher. He
said that though he had known Colonel
Lilly and had loved him the words he spoke
of him were weak in comparison with
the emotions Of the hearts and
minds of others present who had
felt the benefit of his life for many,
many years. The preachers voice was
clear and strong and the effect of his words
was a calm among his auditors more elo-
quent than tears could be. The inspiration
of the preachers words was carried along
in the singing of Lead. Kindly Light and
Hank, Hark My Soul and the burial chant
by quartet composed of Misses Ketcham
and Fischer and Messrs. Geiger and Lynn.
When the last words of the sermon were
spoken and those inside the house came out
in long procession the words of the
preacher of the number and different con-
ditions of Colonel Lilly's friends were veri-
fled with startling clearness. At the head
and behind him General McGinnis and Ad-
miral Brown. short distance back an old
machinist walked at the side of the pro-
prietor of drug store. And so on down the
line as the long procession passed out on
the walk. All looked on him as a near
friend.
Among the visitors were twelve of the
members of the battery commanded by Col.
Lilly and afterward of his regiment. DR..
TUCKER, of Noblesvtlle; Lieutenant Camp
bell, of Charlottesville, and Judge Com
stock, who commanded company in Col.
Lilly's regiment, were among the twelve.
The carriages passed around the house on
the driveway and the hearse stopped across
the lawn. from the door. The casket was
borne out by Chaplin c. Foster, Thomas III.
Spann, William Fortune Bement Lyman,
Colonel Ta,; z A. Smith It'll Dr. j. N Hurry Cyrus
draped around "A wreath. The coffin
was placed in the hearse and those who
riages.
Before the funeral procession reached the
cemetery rain began to fall and when the
bell struck announcing that the procession
had entered the gates a thunderstorm had
broken. Lightning played between the trees
and the cracking of nearby thunder broke
into the solemn stiffness of the place every
minute. The soldiers plat looked from the
driveway like a garden of gorgeously
colored flowers-the flags that had been
thrust into the ground at each headstone
on Memorial day. had not been removed.
many a SOluleT DufleO unOeT InOSe IaSS
knew Colonel Lilly and his part in the war.
The carriages following the hearse rolled
through the tortuous drives of the cemetery
until the Lilly lot was reached. The rain
was falling in downpour and thunder
rolled almost increasingly. The carriages
were left behind and the occupants stepped
across the wet grass to the awnings that
covered the ground around the grave. At
each end of the grave was a mound of ever
green covering the earth from the grave.
The walls of the grave were lined with ever
green.
The services were very simple there. Mr..
Graham read from the prayer book and
there was no singing. The CONN was low
cred into the grave and the family and
friends Of the dead man looked their last
at the box which held his body. After the
of low weeping. few feet north of the
grave of Colonel Lilly is that of his daugh-
ter. On the headstone is carved, Eleanor
Wallace. daughter of Eli and Maria Lilly,
age fourteen years"