California Biographies, Alameda County 
John L. Lyon

History of Alameda County, California
Publisher: Oakland, Calif : M. W. Wood

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 


John L. Lyon.�Was born in Ogdensburgh, St. Lawrence County, New York,
April 7, 1842. Was educated at the High School of chat place and there resided until
he attained the age of nineteen years. He then entered the army. On the day after
the fall of Fort Sumter he enlisted as a private for six months, afterwards, however,
enlisting for two years in Company A, Sixteenth New York Volunteer Infantry, and
serving with his corps in all the principal engagements of that sanguinary conflict. He
was with the Sixteenth at the first and second battles of Bull's Run, the seven days'
fight on the Peninsula, the first fight at Fredericksburg at Antietam, and at the
second battle of Fredericksburg, eighteen battles in all, in many of which he carried
the national colors, and as a matter of course was always in the thickest of the fray,
while his "hair-breadth 'scapes" are to be counted by tens. While at Salem Heights
he received three bullet holes through his pants and had his haversack shot off, while
two of the stars were carried away by bullets out of the banner he bore. On September
29 1862, he was promoted to be a sergeant of his company. On January i, 1863,
he was told off as permanent color-bearer of his regiment, a distinguished but
hazardous position he occupied until the expiration of his time, when he brought home
the bullet-riddled flag and presented it to Governor Seymour. On May 22, 1863,
receiving his honorable discharge, he returned home to Ogdensburgh, and in that
town Potsdam, and Watertown recruited a full company for the Fourteenth Heavy
Artillery with which he proceeded to Albany, but did not receive his commission as
Captain on account of having taken a rather prominent part in the Valandingham
Indignation meeting, to which Governor Seymour sent a friendly communication.
Thus not only was he officially shelved, but never received a dollar towards paying
his expenses in raising the aforesaid company of artillery. Returning to Ogdensburgh,
September 19, 1864, he stayed there only a short time, and soon proceeded to
Syracuse in search of employment as a clerk, armed with a laudatory letter from Mr.
Preston King, recommending him as "a young gentleman in whose good character,
integrity, and good qualities the writer, who had known him from boyhood, had the
fullest confidence." This gentleman was a prominent citizen of Ogdensburgh, and had
been for sixteen years the Representative from St. Lawrence County. Finding a
position in Syracuse he there remained about six months, when he proceeded to St.
Joseph Missouri, and embarked in the lumber trade, organizing during the year he
resided there the first fire company in the town, and becoming foreman of the Iroquois
Hook and Ladder Company. Mr. Lyon now returned to Brooklyn, New York, and
entered the brick and lime business,, being associated with the firm of Reeve & Co.,
for a year, when, upon the dissolution of the partnership, our subject carried on the
same business for a period of seven years. During the panic of 1872, Mr. Lyon was
one of its victims, therefore, having lost all, he turned towards California to retrieve
his fortunes. Sailing from New York, December 1, 1872, he arrived in San Francisco
on January 2, 1873, and commenced an auction business under the style and
firm of Chamberlain & Lyon, at No. 539 California Street. This partnership was dissolved
at the end of a twelvemonth, and the style became Lyon & Fowler, the two
gentlemen being associated until the removal of our subject to Oakland. In August,
1B76, he then established the now well-known house of Lyon & Kinsey, at the corner
of Washington and Ninth Streets, and at the end of three years leased their present
extensive establishment at Nos. 912 and 916 Washington Street, Oakland, where they
carry on a general auction business in all its branches. Mr. Lyon holds the several
offices of First Vice-President of the Home Protection Association of California;
Vice-President of the Home Protection Association of the city of Oakland; and
President of the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Oakland; President
of a mutual insurance society, known as the National Temperance Relief
Union; Trustee in the Cosmopolitan Mutual Building and Loan Association; Director
of Young Men's Christian Association; and ex-President of Oakland Reform Club;
and, as a reformer, an incident occurred at the Republican State Convention (of which
he was a delegate in the fall of 1882), which is told of him. Some two or three hundred
delegates were smoking in the hall, when Mr. Lyon arose and addressing the
Chair, said: "Mr. President�If I understand it aright, the Republican Party is a party
of reform, and if we expect to accomplish anything in that line we must set the
example; and as I look about me to-day I would take this to be a Democratic Convention
did I not know to the contrary. Now, Mr. President, tobacco is a poisonous
weed. It was the Devil that sowed the seed. It robs the pockets. It spoils the
clothes. It makes a chimney of a man's nose. Therefore, Mr. President, I move that
smoking be strictly prohibited during the balance of the session of this convention."
Which motion was carried unanimously, amid great applause. He is also a member of
Lyon Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of the Patriotic Sons of
America. Married in Fayetteville, Onondaga County, New York, October 12, 1864,
Miss Mary E., only daughter of Julia A., Parker, a native of that State, by which
union there are two sons, viz.: William P. and Edward C. A portrait of Mr. Lyon
appears in this work.