Southerner Mr Francis enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and even marched at the funeral of US President Abraham Lincoln.

In a nation divided and then re-united by bloodshed, his future lay abroad and in 1879 he took up a run on the Bogan

River between Dandaloo and Mungery.

On October 2 the descendants of Thomas Mason Francis and the community will attend a thanksgiving service to honour his life.

Anglican Bishop of Bathurst Richard Hurford and the Reverend Michael Birch will preside at the dedication ceremony for the grave that was unmarked until 1989.

Great-great-grandson Lyndon Garbutt has spent months researching and will give an account of his ancestor’s life to relations from Dubbo and across western NSW and beyond.

They will be told that the first Francis in Australia was born in North Carolina on January 6, 1839.

Fatherless at 14, he then went to sea as an apprentice ship’s carpenter.

A month after the Civil War broke out, Mr Francis, 22, enlisted in the Union navy.

Mr Francis marched at the assassinated president’s funeral and later that year he first came to Australia, where he would later settle.

Throughout his long life and travels Mr Francis kept the ribbons he wore at the president’s funeral and a Confederate note from his home county.

After the war he continued to work on various vessels travelling across the globe.

Mr Francis was in his 40s when he came to Australia to settle permanently.

He acquired rights and bought land along the Bogan River, building his holding to 3480 acres.

The veteran married Eva Judd at the Wesleyan Parsonage at Dubbo in 1888.

They were to have 11 children together, but the marriage ended in separation about 1912 and Mr Francis became a single father.

He never saw his youngest son again and his youngest daughter he only saw once more because they went to live with their mother.

He and the family moved from the property to Dandaloo and Cobar.

He spent his twilight years in Gilgandra and eldest daughter Ruth cared for him.

A granddaughter remembered him for his American accent and for taking them to see American movies.

Family accounts record that in his old age he would cry bitterly at not knowing what happened to his American family after the war - inquiries to authorities yielded no results.

Mr Francis died in the family home in 1927 shortly after telling his granddaughter not to cry.

“I have had a good life, seen everything, done everything and I want now to die,” he said.