On January 17, 1899, the first military funeral for a woman in Michigan occurred when Ellen May Tower, a Byron native and a veteran of the Spanish-American War, received one. The daughter of a Civil War captain, Tower volunteered as an army nurse and cared for soldiers who returned from the war with injuries and disease. At one point, she was sent to Puerto Rico, where she died within three months. As was the case in 90 percent of American casualties in that war, Tower died of disease — typhoid fever.
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
Ellen May Tower Michigan Historical Marker
Byron to Remember Ellen May Tower, Argus Press (Owosso, Michigan), April 4, 1989.
The village of Byron and its heroine, Ellen May Tower / Kathryn E. Seward and Jennifer D. Freese Walkling. 72pp. Library of Michigan 2N F574.B97 S4 1980z