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Descendants of Matthew Lyon

Generation No. 1

1. COL. MATTHEW¹ LYON was born July 14, 1750 in Wicklow County, Ireland, and died August 01, 1822 in Spadra Bluff, Cherokee Indian Tract, Arkansas Territory. He married (1) MARY HORSFORD June 23, 1772 in Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, daughter of SAMUEL HORSFORD and MARY GRANT. She was born October 27, 1751 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, and died April 29, 1782 in Wallingford, Rutland Co., Vermont. He married (2) BEULAH M CHITTENDEN 1784 in Vermont, daughter of THOMAS CHITTENDEN and ELIZABETH MEIGS. She was born May 15, 1764 in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and died February 06, 1824 in Eddyville, Lyon Co, KY.

Notes for COL. MATTHEW LYON:
THE MATTHEW LYON FAMILY - MATTHEW LYON

"No other American has illustrated more thoroughly than Matthew Lyon the excellence of democratic institutions in affording to every man of character and talents a fair field for honorable distinction. But so fleeting is political eminence, so evanescent are the highest distinctions of government, that it is doubtful whether the name of Lyon who in his day and generation filled conspicuous places as soldier, civilian and congressman, and was as well known as any man in America, has now been entirely forgotten."

Such is fame.

"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones."

A native of Ireland, born in the year 1750, in the Golden Belt of Wicklow, Matthew Lyon had the misfortune of losing his father in the insurrection of the White Boys, who was cruelly put to death by the English because he loved his country and took up arms against the intolerable oppression of its invaders.

The manners, customs, and highly imaginative legends of Lyon's native country exercised an influence in the formation of his character, and to some extent afford a key to the numerous romantic episodes in his after life.

Young Matthew Lyon was taken from school and put in a Dublin printing office at the age of thirteen. Here he learned the trades of printer and bookbinder, which afterwards proved of great advantage to him in America. Matthew, while living in Dublin had read a great deal about the new world. To his mother he often expressed the wish to come to America, but she invariably refused her consent. Having resolved to quit the down trodden land of his birth, his resolution became more fixed by opposition, and at length he determined to put it into execution at the first opportunity. That opportunity soon offered.

American sea-captains were always on the look out for Irish youths, and Lyon met one of them at Dublin in 1765. The captain offered Lyon a free passage in place of wages, in consideration of which the youth was to serve as cabin boy during the trip across the Atlantic. It was a fine vessel about to sail for New York. These terms were accepted by Lyon. He was the possessor of a guinea, which he placed in the captain's hands for safe keeping until they should arrive in New York.

The day before the vessel sailed he went in the gray of the morning to his mother's room to gaze for the last time upon his beloved parent. Long and sadly he gazed upon the sleeping woman, the solitary link that bound him to his home. Gathering up a small parcel of his clothing he hastened to the vessel, and placed himself under the captain's orders. The latter suspecting that a rescue might be attempted by the boy's friends, secreted him in the hold of the vessel, where he remained concealed all that day. The vessel sailed next morning and bore him out of port, and he never saw his mother again.

When he reached New York the captain kept the guinea and indentured the boy to the highest bidder, passing him off for eighteen years of age, as he was such a large fine looking youth. Matthew Lyon was assigned on his arrival in New York to Jabez Bacon of Woodbury, Connecticut, who brought him home. Mr. Bacon made frequent visits to New York, where he was a lion among the merchants in those primitive days. The leading trait of his character seems to have been extraordinary self-reliance. He was known to have struck bargains in five minutes upon which the loss or gain of a fortune gained.

It was with this enterprising man that Matthew Lyon's destiny brought him face to face upon his arrival at New York. Woodbury, Connecticut, was the birthplace of many revolutionary heroes. The note of preparation for the great struggle was already heard in ancient Woodbury, and Matthew Lyon began to learn his first lessons in the cause of freedom among the hardy sons of the Connecticut mountains.

After a year's residence in Woodbury, Matthew Lyon was assigned to Hugh Hannah of Litchfield. The consideration paid by Hannah was a pair of stags of the value of twelve pounds. Mr. Hannah, like Bacon, was a country merchant, and history states that Matthew Lyon was now allowed to improve his leisure hours by a diligent course of study and reading. He worked out part of his time and bought the rest of it, and commenced life for himself in 1768 at the age of 18. At twenty-one he married Mary Hosford, a niece by marriage of Ethan Allen. In 1774 Matthew Lyon moved to Wallingford, Vermont, and his family were friends and neighbors of the Allens' and the Chittendens', and the name of Lyon became a growing figure the whole time he resided in that Colony. He marched with Ethan Allen to the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775, and later served in the American army as pay-master, lieutenant and captain.

During the summer of 1777 Matthew Lyon's wife and children were driven from their farm in Wallingford and fled southward to seek refuge with their friends out of the track of the British invaders. The following spring the family returned and settled at Arlington, where they remained for five years. Mrs. Lyon died April 29, 1782. By this marriage there were four children.

      Ann, who afterwards married John Messenger.
      Pamelia, who married Dr. George Cadwell.
      James, who married Phila Risley.
      Loraine, who died at Eddyville, Kentucky, aged seventeen.

Matthew Lyon, at this time, was a member of the Vermont legislature. He was intimate with the family of Governor Chittenden and a close neighbor. The governor's third daughter, Beulah, had just become a widow. Her husband had been George Galusha. His grave and that of Mary Lyon lie twenty feet apart in Arlington Cemetery.

It was only natural that Matthew Lyon and the beautiful nineteen year old widow should fall in love, and a year later they were married. They lived a happy life of forty years together and of this marriage there were eight children.

In 1783 Matthew Lyon founded the town of Fair Haven, Vermont, and located his family there. He at once took the leading part in affairs. He built a forge, a gristmill, a paper mill and sawmill, and became an extensive manufacturer in iron as well as in paper and lumber. He was well acquainted with the business of ship-building. In a letter to President Monroe many years later, June 7, 1817, he wrote:
"I have built many sea vessels on my own account, for which I have searched and selected the timber. The construction of ships has been a subject on which I have read much and thought much. I have conversed with ship-builders, ship-owners, and timber-getters. I for many years followed getting ship timber on Lake Champlain for the London market."

In 1793 Matthew Lyon commenced a small-sized newspaper, changing its name from time to time. In 1798 his paper contained a criticism of the president, John Adams, and Lyon's indictment under the Sedition Law was the result. John Adams procured the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws chiefly to get rid of Matthew Lyon, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment, and to pay a fine of one thousand dollars under the odious sedition act. But Lyon proved stronger in his cell than Adams in his presidential chair. The people of Vermont re-elected Lyon to Congress (1779-83) while he was incarcerated, and he came out of his prison door for a triumphal progress to the seat of government, attended by a multitude larger than was ever before brought together in the Green Mountain state, extending a distance of twelve miles.

President Adams' term was now at an end and he was a candidate for a second term. The Alien and Sedition laws had made him very unpopular. Thomas Jefferson was the Republican candidate for president with Aaron Burr for vice-president. As both names were written on each ballot by the republican electors, the two men were technically tied for first place and according to the law at that time. It was necessary for a member of the house to cast the vote to elect the president. Matthew Lyon arrived just in time to cast the vote which made Thomas Jefferson the third president of the United States.

Lyon served as a member of Congress from Vermont for four years. Later he emigrated to Kentucky where he founded the town of Eddyville on the Cumberland River, and he was sent back to Congress from Kentucky for eight years.

At Eddyville, Matthew Lyon exercised the same leadership as at Fair Haven. His immense shipyards were on the banks of the river. It was a thriving, industrious community. He owned a most pretentious home and a number of slaves. His sons were men of wealth, his wife and daughters leaders in fashion and society. But now reverses were beginning for this famous, dynamic, soldier, statesman and pioneer. Gradually his popularity was waning. He had not been in favor of the war of 1812 and he did not hesitate to voice his criticism of President Madison. This probably lost him his seat for the 12th Congress.

Lyon, Matthew (1749-1822) Father of Chittenden Lyon; great-grandfather of William Peters Hepburn. Born in County Wicklow, Ireland, July 14, 1749. Served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; member of Vermont state house of representatives, 1779-83; U.S. Representative from Vermont 1st District, 1797-1801; member of Kentucky state house of representatives, 1802; U.S. Representative from Kentucky 1st District, 1803-11; defeated, 1810. Convicted and jailed in 1789 under the Sedition Act. Died in Spadra Bluff, Ark., August 1, 1822. Original interment at Spadra Bluff Cemetery, Spadra Bluff, Ark.; reinterment in 1833 at Eddyville Cemetery, Eddyville, Ky. (See also his congressional biography.)

More About COL. MATTHEW LYON:
Burial: April 21, 1833, River View Cemetery, Eddyville, Kentucky.
Emigrated: 1765, From Dublin to New York as a cabin boy.
Military service: May 10, 1775, Green Mountain Boys at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga.
Military service 1: Bet. 1777 - April 01 1778, Capt. in Warner's Regiment under Gen. Schuyler.
Military service 2: Capt. in Col. Ira Allen's Reg. of Vermont Militia
Military service 3: Colonel in 16th Regiment in Vermont Militia.
Military service 4: Also a civil officer.
Occupation: Publisher, Boat Builder, Congressman.

More About MARY HORSFORD:
Burial: Unknown, St. James Cemetery, Arlington, Vermont
Fact 1: niece by marriage to Ethan Allen

More About BEULAH M CHITTENDEN:
Burial: Unknown, River View Cemetery, Eddyville, Kentucky

Children of MATTHEW LYON and MARY HORSFORD are:

2.	i.	ANN² LYON, b. January 14, 1774, Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut; d. October 16, 1842, Belleville, St. Clair Co., Illinois.
3.	ii.	JAMES LYON, b. April 15, 1776, Wallinford, Rutland County, Vermont; d. April 13, 1824, Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.
4.	iii.	PAMELIA LYON, b. 1778, Wallingford, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. March 11, 1857, Cadwell Farm, Morgan County, Illinois.
	iv.	LORRAINE LYON, b. Bef. April 1782, Wallingford, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. August 1800, Eddyville, Livingston Co., Kentucky.

Notes for LORRAINE LYON:
First person buried in the River View Cemetery, Eddyville, Kentucky.

Children of MATTHEW LYON and BEULAH CHITTENDEN are:

5.	v.	MINERVA² LYON, b. May 25, 1785, Fair Haven, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. 1857, Beavertown, Pennsylvania.
6.	vi.	COL. CHITTENDEN LYON, b. February 22, 1787, Fair Haven, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. October 23, 1842, Eddyville, Caldwell Co., Kentucky.
7.	vii.	AURELIA LYON, b. June 27, 1790, Fair Haven, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. September 22, 1821, Eddyville, Caldwell Co., Kentucky.
8.	viii.	MATTHEW LYON, JR., b. April 18, 1792, Fair Haven, Rutland Co., Vermont; d. January 27, 1839, Eddyville, Caldwell (now Lyon) County, Kentucky.
	ix.	NOAH CITTENDON LYON, b. March 22, 1794; d. Unknown, infancy.
	x.	BEULAH LYON, b. July 26, 1796; d. July 12, 1804.
	xi.	GILES LYON, b. January 27, 1803; d. September 22, 1823.
9.	xii.	ELIZABETH ANN LYON, b. June 11, 1805, Eddyville, Livingston Co., Kentucky; d. December 26, 1884, Chana, Ogle Co, IL.

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