Francis Lithgow Payson – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

Francis Lithgow Payson of New York
Appointed from New York as Captain, 111th U. S. VOlunteers, 18 September 1899
Honorably discharged 22 March 1900
Major, Paymaster, U. S. Army, 5 March 1900

COLONEL PAYSON IS DEAD; RETIRED OFFICER
Commissioned In Regular Army After Spanish War
Succumbs In Italy

FLORENCE, Italy – March 13, 1936 – Lieutenant Colonel Francis L. Payson, U. S. A., retired, a native of New York, died today of pneunomia.  Colonel Payson had lived in Italy for ten years.  He will be buried in the Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Colonel Payson, who was 73 years old, is survived by his wife, the former Maybelle Stewart, who was with him.  A daughter, Mrs. Auguste Dauphine, and two brothers, Harold and William Farquhar Payson, and Mrs. Stephen Baker, wife of the chairman of the board of the Bank of Manhattan Company.

After preparing for college at Harrow, England, Colonel Payson entered Harvard, wherehe receivedh is A. B. degree in 1884.  He did not go to West Point, but became a regular officer after serving in the War with Spain as a Captain. He was in the Philippines for several years, and was sent to Japan on a special mission by President Theodore Roosevelt.  From 1908 until his retirement in 1911, he wa in the Paymaster’s Department. He belonged to the Society of the Cincinnati.

PAYSON, FRANCIS L
LIEUT COL U S ARMY RET

• DATE OF DEATH: 03/13/1936
• BURIED AT: SECTION 1  SITE 452-LH
  ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard