WEDNESDAY, MAY 24,1995    THE MEADE COUNTY MESSENGER,

"A youth is remembered on the land he loved"
By JON A. WHITFIELD Messenger Staff Writer

(Jack, If you have a color photo, I could replace this copy from the newspaper.   Jess)

     Although Memorial Day was originally established to honor fallen soldiers from the Civil War by decorating their graves with flowers, it is now more than that, a day to remember relatives and friends who have died.
     At Woodspoint, the farm of Alice and Jack Scott, there is one of the most fitting memorials of all. One of their grandsons, Lucien Dow Robey, died in 1992 when he was helping friends dig a basement under a house in Lexington. The 17 year old youth had always loved this Meade County woodland retreat and had camped out there with friends just a short time before his death. On his way home to Lexington, he had stopped to talk to his grandmother about his time there, and they'd talked together before, about the farm and nature. Scott, who is a Methodist minister, said the idea for a memorial bench came from the men of the family who seemed to have the most trouble dealing with his death. So, there overlooking the Ohio River are two rough cedar benches made from local lumber. On one of them is a bronze plaque with this inscription:
     Lucien Dow Robey
     1974-1992
     A son of this land
     Where the eagle soars, and
     Deer run free forever.
     They've set out evergreen seedlings which some sort of wild life has eaten, maybe Dow would have liked that. The Scotts feel this memorial is especially appropriate since young Dow was named for his Dow ancestors and he was proud of his Scottish name. His great-great grandmother, mother of the late Zula Powell Bondurant, was a Dow, and there is a Dow cemetery on the place. (The Scotts have placed a sign in the cemetery with the Dow name on it. Not many years ago the graveyard markers could be read, but no longer and they wonder if even here the air quality is responsible for the damage.)
     Dow's mother Joan Scott Robey, spent time here after his death, dealing with the situation. His father, Lyle Robey, died later in the year. (If you ever question the value of Sunday School, Alice Scott said that during the funeral she held Lyle Robey's hand and that each time the minister began a Bible verse, Robey would complete it and seemed to find a solace there. She later learned that he had memorized these verses as a boy in Sunday School.)
       Lucien Dow Robey is also remembered with a dogwood tree on the Lafayette High School campus in Lexington. His mother tends the tree. Also there is a memorial scholarship in debate and speech in his memory.
      His brother, Matthew Robey, is graduating with honors from the law school of the American University in Washington, D.C.
       The Scott farm is not open to the public. However, family, friends and church groups are often at Woodspoint and Jack Scott often is there working.