Leander D. Lyon Biography

	This biography appears on pages 960-961 in "History of South Dakota" 
	by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited 
	by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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LEANDER D. LYON, deceased. was a native of  the state of 
Michigan, having been born in Hudson,  Lenawee county, on the 
9TH of November, 1847, and  being a son of Lyman J. and Amanda 
(Davenport)  Lyon. His father was a soldier in the Mexican war 
and  died when the subject was a child so that the latter  was 
early thrown upon his own resources his  educational advantages 
having been those afforded  in the common schools of his native 
state. When but  twelve years of age he entered a newspaper 
office  and finally completed a full apprenticeship at the  
printing trade, becoming a very skilled workman. He  proved the 
truth of the statement that the discipline  of a newspaper 
office is equal to a liberal education,  and became a man of 
broad information and  distinctive intellectuality, while he 
gained recognition  as an able and forceful writer. He was for a 
time editor  of a paper in his native town, and later published 
a  paper in Fayette, Ohio, from which place he removed to  
Circleville, Ohio, where he became editor and  publisher of the 
Union Herald. He was also for some  time identified with 
newspaper work in Detroit,  Michigan, and Buffalo, New York. In 
the former city  he was awarded a diploma for having executed 
the  finest specimen of job printing among a large number of 
contestants having been specially capable in this  line, while 
throughout his life he ever aimed to attain perfection in all 
that he undertook. In 1882 Mr. Lyon  left Circleville. Ohio, and 
came to the territory of  Dakota, locating in Watertown, where 
he became  associated with Messrs. C. G. Church and F. A. Barr 
in the publishing and editing of the Courier-News,  which issued 
daily and weekly editions. He eventually  purchased the 
interests of his two partners and  continued the enterprise 
individually for a number of  years. He then established here a 
paper to which he  gave the name of Public Opinion, and made the 
same  a powerful factor in the community. He was a man of  
strong individuality and decided views, and was  fearless in 
the-expression of his opinions through his  paper. and thus he 
naturally created some enmities in  his efforts to promote the 
best interests of the  community and though antagonism was 
created, his  views were finally widely recognized and approved  
by the better element in the community and state his  paper 
becoming one of the most valuable and  successful properties of 
Watertown. He finally sold  the plant and business of the Public 
Opinion to the  firm of Ransom & Corey, and shortly afterward  
became superintendent of the Watertown Water.  Light and Power 
Company. At the time of his  assuming this office the affairs of 
the company were  in a deplorable condition and the service was 
far from  what it should have been. Though new to the work,  Mr. 
Lyon brought to bear his excellent business  judgment and 
dominating energy and soon the effects  became evident in the 
improvement of the system and  in the placing of the business 
upon a profitable basis.  Of this position he continued 
incumbent until his  death. He served in various offices of 
local order, and politics gave an uncompromising allegiance to 
the Republican party. During the war of the Rebellion Mr. Lyon 
rendered valiant service in defense of the Union, having been a 
member of a regiment of Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and he ever 
afterward maintained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms 
and was a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. As 
his father was a soldier in the Mexican war, he also became 
affiliated with the Sons of Veterans, having served as colonel 
of the state organization of the same in South Dakota, while the 
camp of the order at Blunt was named in his honor. He was also 
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he attained the 
Knight Templar degrees, while he was a charter member of the 
lodge in Watertown. He was also a member of various other 
fraternal and social organizations, while he was one of the 
organizers of the Watertown Business Men's Union, of which he 
was secretary for a number of years. While he was publishing the 
Public Opinion his paper was the first in the state to suggest 
the name of Benjamin Harrison in connection with the nomination 
for President of the United States, and in recognition of this 
fact he received a most gracious and appreciative personal 
letter of thanks from Mr. Harrison. He was one of the most 
insistent advocates of the division of the territory of Dakota 
and did most effective service in securing the admission of 
South Dakota to the Union. Mr. Lyon was summoned into eternal 
rest on the 30th of January, 1903, after a brief illness, and 
his death came as a personal bereavement to the people of 
Watertown while throughout the state the press gave high tribute 
to his memory and to the work which he had accomplished as a 
public-spirited and progressive citizen and as a man of exalted 
integrity. His funeral was one of the most notable ever held in 
Watertown business being practically suspended at the time while 
many of the prominent citizens from divers parts of the state 
came to pay a last mark of respect to one whose life had been 
altogether worthy.
In the city of Detroit, Michigan, on the 13th of August, 1866, 
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lyon to Miss Anna R. Baker, 
who was born in Buffalo, New York, whose death occurred November 
15, 1886. His second wife, who survives, was Miss Emma Anderson, 
of Janesville, Wisconsin. His daughter, Mirriam, is now the wife 
of W. J. McMath, who is the local representative of the New York 
Mutual Life Insurance Company. They have three children, Ralph, 
Dwight and Miriam. Frank W., the younger of the two children, 
was born in Buffalo New York, on the 13th of April, 1871 and is 
now a jobber and retail dealer in crockery, stoneware, 
glassware, lamps, etc., in Watertown, being one of the 
progressive and successful business men of the place. For five 
years he held the office of sub-agent at the Standing Rock 
Indian agency, in North Dakota, and for three years had a 
similar incumbency at the Cheyenne agency, in South Dakota. He 
had previously been a traveling salesman for a leading wholesale 
crockery house in the city of Minneapolis. In politics he is a 
Republican, and is the present city treasurer.

On the 19th of November, 1895, Frank W. Lyon was united in 
marriage to Miss Imelda Marie McLaughlin, the daughter of 
Colonel James McLaughlin, who was chief inspector in the Indian 
service, having been appointed during the administration of 
General Grant. Mrs. Lyon passed away on the 14th of February, 
1898, leaving one child, James R. S. On the 15th of April, 1901, 
at the Cheyenne River agency, Mr. Lyon married Miss Helen May 
Crane, who was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and who was at 
the time of her marriage in the government service, having 
charge of the hospital at the government agency mentioned, her 
professional training having been secured in one of the leading 
hospitals of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Of this union were 
born two children, Elizabeth, who died in infancy, and Ramona 
Martha, born July 28, 1903.