Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/87

Rh March, 1845. From 1837 till 1839 he was a regent of the University of Michigan. His last public office was that of surveyor-general of the states of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

LYON, Mary, educator, b. in Buckland, Mass., 28 Feb., 1797; d. in South Hadley, Mass., 5 March, 1849. Her early education was received at district- schools, and in 1814 she began to teach at Shel- burne Falls. At the age of twenty she became a pupil at the Sanderson academy in Ashfield, where she studied twenty hours each day, and in three days committed to memory Adams's Latin gram- mar. In 1821 she entered the school of the Rev. Joseph Emerson at Byfield, near Newburyport, and in 1824 studied at Amherst, under Prof. Eaton, to become qualified for giving experimental instruc- tion in chemistry. From 1824 till 1828 she assisted Miss Grant in the Adams's female seminary in Londonderry, N. H. During the winter, when this school was closed, owing to the severity of the climate, she taught in Ashfield and Buckland, and subsequently at Ipswich. Her great work was the founding of Mount Holyoke seminary, at South Hadley. Mass., on 8 Nov., 1837. and from that date until her death she served as its principal. One feature of her system, to which there was much opposition, was that the entire domestic labor of the institution was performed by the pupils and teachers, in order to promote interest in these tasks. In the course of her life Miss Lyon in- structed more than 3,000 pupils, many of whom became missionaries. She published a pamphlet entitled " Tendencies of the Principles embraced and the System adopted in the Mount Holyoke Seminary " (1840), and also the " Missionary Offer- ing " (Boston, 1843). See " Power of Christian Benevolence, illustrated in the Life and Labors of Mary Lyon," by Edward Hitchcock (Northamp- ton, Mass., 1851), and " Recollections of Mary Lyon," by Fidelia Fiske (Boston, 1866).

LYON, Matthew, politician, b. in County Wick- low, Ireland, in 1746 ; d. in Spadra Bluff, Ark., 1 Aug., 1822. He emigrated at the age of thirteen to New York, and, as he was unable to pay for his passage, the captain of the, ship, in accordance with the custom of the time, assigned him for a sum of money to a farmer in Litchfield county, Conn., in whose service he remained for several years. He then became a citizen of Vermont, and in July, 1776, was commissioned as lieutenant in a company of " Green Mountain Boys." In the latter part of the same year he was cashiered for deserting a post on Onion river, but subsequently served as commissary-general, and eventually be- came colonel of militia. He was made deputy secretary in 1778, and subsequently clerk of the court of confiscation. After the war he settled in Vermont and was elected to the state legislature, where he served for four successive years. He founded the town of Fair Haven, Vt., in 1783, built saw-mills and grist-mills, established an iron- foundry, manufactured paper from bass-wood, and issued a Democratic newspaper entitled '• The Scourge of Aristocracy, and Repository of Impor- tant Political Truth," of which the types and pa- per were manufactured by himself. He represented Fair Haven in the legislature for ten years, and in 1786 was assistant judge of Rutland county court. He married a daughter of Gov. Thomas Chitten- den, became an active political leader, and was elected to congress by the anti-Federal party, serv- ing from 15 May, 1797, till 3 March, 1801. In Oc- tober, 1798, he was indicted in Vermont for writing for publication a letter calculated " to stir up sedi- tion and to bring the president and the government of the United States into contempt." He was con- victed, confined for four months in the Vergennes jail, and fined $1,000, which was paid by his friends. Mr. Lyon is said to have, revenged his wrongs by giving the decisive vote for Jefferson. While in prison he was re-elected to congress, and after the expiration of his term removed to Kentucky, where he established the first printing-office, transporting the type on horseback across the mountains. He served two years in the Kentucky legislature, and was elected to congress from that state, serving from 17 Oct., 1803, till 3 March. 1811. After his final retirement from congress the speaker of the house presented his petition to have the fine re- funded to him that he had paid in Vermont, and on 4 July, 1840, an act was passed paying the sum to his heirs with interest. He was employed to build a fleet of gun-boats for service in the war of 1812, but was made bankrupt by his attempt. In 1820 he was appointed a United States factor among the Cherokee Indians in Arkansas, removed to that territory, and was elected its first delegate to con- gress, but did not live to take his seat. A sketch of his life was published by Pliny H. White, of Vermont, in 1858. — His son, Chittenden, con- gressman, b. in Vermont in 1786 ; d. in Caldwell county, Ky., 8 Nov., 1842, received a public-school education, and removed with his father to Ken- tucky in 1801. He was a member of both houses of the Kentucky legislature, and afterward elected a representative from Kentucky to congress as a Jackson Democrat, serving from 3 Dec, 1827, till 3 March, 1835. He was defeated as a candidate for presidential elector on the Van Buren ticket in 1886. Lyon county, Ky., was named in his honor. He inherited the impetuous Irish temper of the father, and was a man of gigantic stature, strength, and prowess, being fully six and a half feet in height, and weighing 350 pounds. He was more than a match for any antagonist, and bore the repu- tation of " champion " among the border people.

LYON, Nathaniel, soldier, b. in Ashford, Conn., 14 July, 1818 ; d. near Wilson's Creek, Mo., 10 Aug., 1861. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1841, assigned to the 2d infantry, and served in Florida during the latter part of the Seminole war. He was engaged at the siege of Vera Cruz, promoted 1st lieutenant while on the march to the city of Mexico, and commanded his company through- out the subsequent campaign, receiv- ing the brevet of captain for gal- lantry at Contreras and Churubusco. In the assault on the city of Mexico he was wounded at the Belen Gate. At the close of the war he was ordered to California, and in 1850 he con- ducted a success- ful expedition against the Indians of Clear lake and Russian river in northern California, receiving the praise of Gen. Persifer F. Smith for the rapidity and secrecy of his marches, and his skilful dispositions on the ground. He was promoted captain on 11 June, 1851, and in 1853 returned with his regiment to the east. While