Winifred Lee Brent Lyster (15 Mar 1842 - 7 May 1930)

picture source: Michigan Historical Collections, vol. 35, facing p. 155
                             Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
                             Lansing, MI: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers, 1907
      Winifred was the eldest child of Thomas Lee Brent and Jane Duncan Wilkins. As the daughter of a career Army officer, she maintained a close interest in military issues and in the well-being of those in service.
      Her paternal ancestry was Virginia and Maryland gentry, descending from Giles Brent, deputy governor of Maryland and later one of the early settlers of Stafford county, Virginia, the Carrolls of Maryland (Daniel Carroll, the framer of the U.S. Constitution, was her great-great-grand-uncle), and the Lees of Virginia through both her paternal grandmother, Winifred Beale Lee, and grand-paternal great-grandmother, Ann Fenton Lee; General Robert E. Lee was her second cousin.  Her maternal ancestry, however, was from an old Welsh family that had first settled in Pennsylvania sometime in the period 1694-1700.  Several of them had been prominent in the Revolution and the early days of the U.S. Army, and were prominent in the early history of Pittsburgh, the borough of Wilkinsburg adjoining that city being named for Winifred's great-grand-uncle, William Wilkins, who was a businessman, politician, and judge from that area.
      After the death of her father in 1858, Winifred's family went to live with her maternal grandfather, Judge Ross Wilkins, in Detroit.  Judge Wilkins was an opponent of slavery and of secession.  In Detroit, she met a medical student named Henry Francis LeHunte Lyster.  Receiving his medical degree in 1861, Dr. Lyster joined the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry as a regimental surgeon.
      During the war, Winifred composed the original verses of "Michigan, My Michigan", celebrating the achievements of Michiganders in defense of the Union.  These verses were initially published anonymously, and soon openly claimed by others as the song became popular.  The earliest publications crediting Winifred also credited her mother, who had arranged for the initial publication and may have assisted with the editing.  Her version would be discarded in 1886 when a new set of lyrics was written by Major James W. Long, whose version gave much more emphasis to Michigan's natural beauty and resources, and making only a few references to Civil War veterans.  The current version of the song was written in 1902 by Douglas Malloch, after both earlier versions had come to be considered inappropriate for peacetime; Malloch's makes no reference to soldiers or those injured in protecting the state, and is also set to a slightly altered melody.
      After the war, Winifred and Henry were married in 1867.  They returned to Detroit, where Henry became a prominent physician.  A woman of strong beliefs, she entered the political arena in the early years of the 20th century as a leader of the anti-suffrage movement in Michigan.  Following the controversial defeat of an equal suffrage amendment to the Michigan constitution in 1912, marked by significant irregularities and the strong belief that the 'No' forces won only through fraud, Winifred became president of Michigan's Association Opposed to Equal Suffrage in 1913, with a particularly nasty rematch expected.  Lacking both a national election to help turnout and the pro-suffrage support of someone as prominent as Theodore Roosevelt, who had championed the cause in 1912, the 1913 campaign was something of an anti-climax, with the amendment again going down to defeat, this time legitimately.
      During World War I, with all of her sons in service, Winifred continued her support of those serving in the military.  In recognition of this, she was made an honorary member of the defense committee of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce.

DOCUMENTS     HOME
Michigan, My Michigan
Sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree)*
Click here to view the 1886 and 1902 lyrics (PDF).
A tribute to those Michiganders who served in the Civil War, with a performance of "Michigan, My Michigan" on YouTube.
{I think Winifred would have approved that the memory lives on.}

Michigan, My Michigan—1862
Winifred Lee Brent (Mrs. Henry F. Lyster)
-source: Michigan Historical Museum
Home of my heart, I sing of thee!
    Michigan, My Michigan,
Thy lake-bound shores I long to see,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
From Saginaw’s tall whispering pines
To Lake Superior’s farthest mines,
Fair in the light of memory shines
    Michigan, my Michigan.

Thou gav’st thy sons without a sigh,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
And sent thy bravest forth to die,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
Beneath a hostile southern sky
They bore thy banner proud and high,
Ready to fight but never fly,
    Michigan, my Michigan.

From Yorktown on to Richmond’s wall,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
They bravely fight, as bravely fall,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
To Williamsburgh we point with pride—
Our Fifth and Second, side by side,
There stemmed and stayed the battle’s tide,
    Michigan, my Michigan.

When worn with watching traitor foes,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
The welcome night brought sweet repose,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
The soldier, weary from the fight,
Sleeps sound, nor fears the rebels’ might,
For “Michigan’s on guard tonight!”
    Michigan, my Michigan.

Afar on Shiloh’s fatal plain,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
Again behold thy heroes slain,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
“Their strong arms crumble in the dust,
And their bright swords have gathered rust;
Their memory is our sacred trust,”
    Michigan, my Michigan.
 And often in the coming years,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
Some widowed mother ‘ll dry her tears,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
And turning with a thrill of pride,
Say to the children at her side,
At Antietam your father died,
    For Michigan, our Michigan.

With General Grant’s victorious name,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
Thy sons still onward march to fame,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
And foremost in the fight we see,
Where e’er the bravest dare to be,
The sabres of thy cavalry,
    Michigan, my Michigan.

Dark rolled the Rappahannock’s flood,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
The tide was crimsoned with thy blood,
    Michigan, my Michigan.
Although for us the day was lost,
Still it shall be our broadest boast:
At Fredericksburg our Seventh crossed!
    Michigan, my Michigan.

And when the happy time shall come,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
That brings thy war-worn heroes home,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
What welcome from their own proud shore,
What honors at their feet we’ll pour,
What tears for those who’ll come no more,
    Michigan, my Michigan.

A grateful country claims them now,
    Michigan, my Michigan,
And deathless laurel binds each brow,
    Michigan, my Michigan;
And history the tale will tell,
Of how they fought and how they fell,
For that dear land they loved so well,
    Michigan, my Michigan.











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