Greene County, Indiana

Lyons, A History

Lyons was named by the proprietor, Squire Joe Lyon of Bloomfield, who for years had been treasurer and auditor of the county. It was platted in 1868 before that time it was known as Mudsock. The name was derived because of the mud was knee deep on the horses legs.

From the beginning Lyons was a railroad town. It came into being with the building of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad and grew from but a settlement of working men who labored through the muck and mud for $1 a day. The camp-car life they lead was on a par with what the early settlers called home, a floor, four walls, and a roof and no privacy as there was no partitions in either as a rule. So life wasn't too much of a drag on the builders. Some of whom remained in the settlement.

A depot was built and passenger trains or combination enough to draw a few settlers to choose Lyons, regardless of the muck and mud that they had to wade through. In the heyday of the railroad there were five passenger trains on the route between Indianapolis and Vincennes: 6:18 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2:15 p.m., and 8 p.m. A drayman would haul the freight from the depot.

The railroad repair and service yards were located just one and one-half miles south at a spot that became known as Bushrod. The men who worked there would ride the hand car to work.

Two years after the town was laid out a schoolhouse was built, in 1871.

By 1875 Lyons according to Uncle Jack Baber's history was a small village with a busy and bustling population of about one hundred, with two dry goods stores, one drug store, one church, one blacksmith shop and one boarding house.

The 1879 atlas of Greene county. provides four business references: Job Ashbaugh, Justice of the Peace of Washington Twp.; Joel Benham, Trustee of Washington Twp.; Akman & Son, Furniture Dealers and Undertakers. They are skillfull in their profession, and guarantee perfect satisfaction in all their undertaking; Isaac Halstead, Proprietor of Hotel. Good accommodations for man and beast. Forget him not.

Lyons was growing by leaps and bounds. At one time the population was said to have been 2,200 before 1922. There was four doctors, three churches, two livery stables, four or five lodges of which were: Mason, Odd Fellows, Redmen, K of P and Modern Woodmen with attendant women's lodges.

Soon there was a brick yard, a saw mill, a title factory, and a much used road going north and south for use by the wagoners who were hauling the building materials from parts of the country not yet serviced by the railroad.

The Morgans had came in at Marco and drained a few thousand acres of land for crops and cereal grains and the open ditching law was encouraging firms to run ditching machines and the land was taking on new look - the miles of marshes around Lyons were becoming farms.

In 1883 Will E. Stacy opened up a nursery east of Lyons and where thousand of fruit trees, vines and plants were grown. The soil seemed to be suited for it. He grew many varieties of fruits and was considered an authority in all the various parts that went into the art of pomogy. He had available also for buyers from a distance, who requested shipments. He had to his credit a background in teaching and had in his tests of thirteen subjects made twelve straight A's. He later on conducted a poultry yard where exotic chickens and hatching eggs were shipped from to all parts of the country.

T. E. Harris was a Lyons contractor around the 1900's. He built the Bee Hunter Elevator the Stein Block and many other. He also had a office and supply yard in Jasonville.

But Lyons did differ in one respect from many small towns that sprang up along the Indianapolis and Vincennes in those years of 1867-69 it held a fair annually, and attracted huge crowds.

1870 the postoffice was established on 26 April and Edgar N. Hall was appointed as the first postmaster.

In 1875 the First Christian Church was organized in an old school house and then moved to the present location in 1890. During the church service on 2 Feb. 1947 it was discovered that the church was burning. It was rebuilt and rededication on 4 Apr. 1948.

1879-1880 the Lyons Methodist Church was organized in the same school housethe First Christian Church had used. They used this building till 1888 when they built their own building also. Sometime in the 1940's remodeling took place when the farm of Mrs. Ella Webster was willed to the church. In 1938 the parsonage was built and each farmer donated an acre of corn and other member donated a week's wages.

Jacob Washington Sappenfield and his wife Bertie Mynes came to Lyons in the early 1880's. They spent about a year there before wandering westward to Nevada and Missouri but they came back and he opened a small coal mine.

From the: Indiana State Gazetter and Business Directory, R. L. Polk & Company, 1882-3

Lyons - Eighty-two miles southwest of Indianapolis, contains 100 inhabitants, and is situated on the I.& V. R .R., 12 miles southwest of Bloomfield, the county seat and banking town. Christian and Methodist churches are supported, and wheat shipped. Ex., Adams. Emil Stein, postmaster.

Lyons Fair

hand bill

E. & M. Stein

John Davidson was another prominent business man who had clerked in the E. & M. Stein store for five years before he went into business as an undertaker, furniture dealer and insurance agent. He too erected a fine building for his business the furniture and insurance was on the first floor; caskets were on the second floor. He also had a fine funeral hearse.

1900 Lyons was incorporated.

What is believed to be the first bank was the Corn Exchange Bank and as many banks during the 1920's fell victim of the poorly organized banks of that era.

1901 the Masonic Lodge of Lyons was chartered. The Oak Grove Poultry Yards was advertised in the Bloomfield News but no name was associated with it; but as earlier mentioned it is said to have been owned by Will E. Stacey. This business also circulated catalogs for buyers.

In 1902 the Church of Christ was built by a number of members who broke from the First Christian Church who were opposed to the use of instrumental music in worship services.

In 1904 Jacob Sappenfield entered the hardware business with Lewis Hall, but shortly afterwards he bought Hall out. In 1911 he bought out the Lyons Herald and operated both business until 1933. Jacob Sappenfield entered politics serving on the town board once, and was elected township trustee in 1918. He was re-elected in 1922. During his terms, Memorial Hall the gymnasium of Lyons school of was built and the rural schools were closed and consolidated.

John Davidson has been president of the town board ever since Lyons was incorporated, in 1900 The town is in good financial condition, not owing a cent, due very largely to Mr. Davidson’s splendid executive ability
1908 Benjamin Franklin Winters successfully operated the elevator at Lyons.

1908 - The school was

condemed

Last updated 22.10.2009