The Brutal Tom Lyons Poem by Marilyn Lott

I’d like to tell you a story of a man
Filled with rage was why he killed
He was an Indian named Tom Lions
Inside of him was revenge unfulfilled

It’s the story of Jacob Hochstetler’s family
In the seventeen hundreds, it was
Their house was burned to the ground
The Indians had no reason and no cause

It was many generations ago now
In the Pennsylvania Amish community
The brutal, horrible massacre took place
Of my ancestor grandmother, you see

She and two of her children were murdered
Her husband and son were dragged along
By Tom Lyons and his companions
For his hated for white folks was so strong

Tom Lyons continued to raid and kill
That was the way he spent his days
With his mean spirit and evil disposition
He threatened whites in so many ways

Eventually Jacob and his son escaped
Can you imagine their future from there?
For their lives were ruined forever
By a man who just plain didn’t care

At eighty years of age it was said
Tom disappeared without a trace
Many stories surfaced but
His brutality cannot be erased!