Lemuel Kayhart

Born on July 6, 1845, in old Pequannock Township, New Jersey, he was raised on the family farm and educated in local schools. As a young man he learned wagon making and worked in that trade for about twenty-five years before establishing himself in business in Montville, where he became a well-known local figure.

Alongside his business life, he wrote poetry. His best-known book, Childhood's Happy Home, and Other Verses (1921), gathers poems centered on nostalgia, love, loss, patriotism, and spiritual reflection. The tone is direct and heartfelt, with a strong attachment to home, memory, and community.

He died on June 15, 1926. Though not a widely famous literary name, his work offers a vivid glimpse of regional life and the kind of personal, sentimental verse that found devoted readers in the early twentieth century.