Richard J. Lyons Biography


	This biography appears on page 550 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				RICHARD J. LYONS. 

	Richard J. Lyons is an active member of the South Dakota bar, 
practicing at Madison, in which city he was born on the 1st of March, 
1887, his parents being J. J. and Mary (Harrington) Lyons. The father 
was a farmer by occupation and after residing for some time in Iowa 
came to Dakota territory in 1880. Lake county was at that time still a 
frontier district, much of the land being in possession of the 
government and in consequence destitute of all improvements. Mr. Lyons 
homesteaded, securing the southeast quarter of section 8 and the 
southwest quarter of section 9, and also obtained a tree claim in Lake 
county. He at once began to till the soil, finding it an arduous, 
difficult and wearisome task to break the sod and prepare the land for 
cultivation. His work, however, was carefully and systematically 
continued for a number of years and his labors were crowned with good 
results. He died in the year 1893 and the community thereby lost one of 
its representative citizens. The mother survives and is residing on the 
old homestead. 

	Richard J. Lyons supplemented a public school course, in which he 
mastered the common branches of learning, by study in the Madison State 
Normal School and later entered the University of South Dakota at 
Vermillion, where he prepared for the bar, being graduated on the 
completion of the law course with the class of 1912. It was his desire 
to enter upon a professional career and the same year he was admitted 
to the bar. He afterward spent a year in the law office of Winsor & 
Keite, able attorneys at Sioux Falls, and then returned to his native 
city, where he opened an office for the independent practice of his 
profession. He has met with a fair measure of success, has been found 
thorough and painstaking in the preparation of his cases and 
resourceful in the presentation of his cause before the courts, where 
he has won many notable verdicts that have furthered the interests of 
his clients. 

	Mr. Lyons exercises his right of franchise in support of the men 
and measures of the democratic party and has been its candidate for 
states attorney. His religious belief is that of the Catholic church 
and he is a member of the Commercial Club of Madison. He is still a 
young man, alert, progressive and determined, and already he has 
attained a position in professional circles that many an older 
representative of the bar might well envy.