Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the Emory Upton Historical Marker
By
Michael J. Eula, Ph.D.
Genesee County Historian
We are here today to commemorate the memory of one of Genesee County’s
most illustrious people, General Emory Upton, who lived between 1839 and 1881.
A brilliant and courageous Army officer who graduated from West Point the year
that the Civil War broke out, he rose to the astonishing rank of Major General by
the young age of twenty-five. A prolific author, he contributed much to the
scholarship on military policy and military tactics. A world traveler and a devoted
husband in an all too brief marriage to Emily Throop Martin, he lived a rich and
meaningful life until it ended all too soon by suicide in San Francisco in 1881.
This historical marker signifies two important points. The first of these is the
important place that Emory Upton occupies in the history of Genesee County. His
life is embedded in the county’s history and in its understanding of itself. General
Upton’s most visible traits – the primacy of religious values; his patriotism; his
devotion to family and tradition – along with his courage – are all values deeply
rooted in a county justifiably proud of its pioneering experience and commitment
to the sanctity of individual liberty. This was a professional officer who never lost
sight of the society he was sworn to defend – hence his personal ethics were
always and everywhere above reproach.
The second point signified by this memorial to General Upton’s birthplace is
what his life means to America at large. His life is enshrined in that national
history no less than it is in that of Genesee County. In his courageous stand as an
abolitionist, no less than in his struggles with an entrenched Army bureaucracy
designed to bring needed changes to the Army, we are reminded that his success
is, in part, his effort to improve American society by admitting to what is
questionable in our society and hence, what should be challenged and changed.
His views are what were called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s a
“dynamic conservatism” fashioned to improve the lives of all Americans while
upholding the values of an individual freedom lying at the foundation of national
greatness. Our remembrance of Emory Upton conjures up images of that other
great general in the 1950s, and it is one that will rightfully live on for some time to
come in the collective memory of Genesee County.