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Town of Lyons

Town 2 north, range 18 east, was set off from the town of Geneva 23 January, 1844 and was named Hudson. James C. and Thomas K. HUDSON came in 1846 and William HUDSON lived there before 1860. In 1865, the name was changed to Lyons to avoid confusion of Columbia county's town by the name of Hudson. Burlington and Wheatland lie next eastward, one in Racine county and one in Kenosha.

Allen PERKINS (1802-1882), who had left his claim of 1836 on Turtle creek and returned to Spring Prairie, settled in 1837 near the mill site in sections 10 and 15; and disputed with the Lyons family the ownership of the water power.

The LYONS were Thomas (1766-1847) and wife, Benjamina Valentine, and their sons, David, Isaac, Thomas and William Fletcher LYON.

Others early settlers include John BROWN, Daniel CAMPBELL, James CURRAN, Peter CAMPBELL, Ebenezer DAYTON, Michael FARLEY, Thomas FOWLSTON, Tompkins MATTESON, William SCHURMAN, Sidney WAIT and Edward WARREN.

At one time named Lyonsdale, the post office was established in 1843 with Thomas LYON, Jr in charge.

There were the following churches, Methodist society, Lutheran society, Catholic parish of St Joseph. This parish also had a cemetery in section 15.

The village was platted in 1868 with these surnames being among the proprietors: BURK, CAMPBELL, CHAPIN, CONE, DAYTON, FRAZER, GOODRICH, HAZEN, HOST, HUDSON, MERRIAM, MORAN, OPENSHAW, PENDLETON, PHINNEY, ROBILLIARD, STRASSEN, TAYLOR, WINSOR, and TAYLOR.

Page 381-383

Rev. Benedict J. SMEDDINCK (1820-1881), then of the parish of St. Francis de Sales, Lake Geneva, came in 1868 to organize twelve families of Lyons as the congregation of St. Joseph, and began at once to build its church. This was a frame building, thirty-two by forty-eight feet, floor dimensions, at an outlay of one thousand seven hundred dollars; and a parsonage, ten by twenty-four feet, was built beside it. Father SMEDDINCK, a builder of churches, divided his time for four years between the parishes of Lake Geneva and Lyons. For twelve years from 1872 service was supplied at Lyons by priests at New Muenster (St. Alphonsus), at Lake Geneva, and by Capuchin fathers at Milwaukee. Among those from St. Alphonsus were that well tried soldier of the Cross, Rev. Franz Xavier PFALLER (1831-1892), and Rev. Leonard BLUM. Rev. August GARDTHAUS was resident priest from 1884 to 1888, after whom came Rev. Charles DREES, under whose direction a school house was built at cost of seven hundred dollars. Rev. William LETTE came in 1890, staying two years. After a short vacancy service was resumed by Rev. Cyrus KUFNER, who came from Milwaukee on alternate Sundays, beginning in March 1873. Rev. John DIEBOLD, an eminent scholar and author, became resident priest from 1894. In his pastorate a new parsonage was built at cost of one thousand two hundred dollars. Rev. Henry John KORFHAGE served at the alter from 1898 to 1902.

Rev. Frederick J. HILLENBRAND was sent here from Kenosha in July, 1903, and the next year a new school house, its cost three thousand dollars, replaced the old one. Under direction of two Sisters of the Order of St. Francis, forty pupils are taught in all the study courses of the eight grades of public schools and instruction in the German language is given to such as wish it. In 1910 a wholly new church was built at expense of twelve thousand five hundred dollars and furnished at nearly one thousand dollars. The parish now has about fifty families, among which are some of the most substantial of the township.

In 1856 a mission was established in section 34, a nearly five-mile ride due southward from the village, and was named St. Kilian's. Its service was long supplied by Rev. Carl Josef Franz SCHRAUDENBACH and others of New Muenster, occasionally by priests of Lake Geneva, and for the last quarter century by those of Lyons. The parish has about twenty families of Lyons and Bloomfield. Father HILLENBRAND, a well-trained and true servant of the church, goes to the little chapel in the fields every Sunday, let the weather be what it may.

The Methodist Episcopal society of Lyons was organized early and a church was built at the village in 1857. The names of the early clergy are not clearly shown, but those of Joseph C. PARKS, Aurora CALLENDER, and Joseph M. WALKER, without dates, are followed, with occasional vacancies or uncertainties, by those of John H. HAZELTINE, 1858-9; John Edwin GRANT, 1861-2; W. CARVER, 1863; G. A. SMITH, 1864-5; William STURGES, 1866-7; William AVERILL, 1868; S. M. MERRILL, 1869; Andrew J. MEAD, 1871; Joseph Hayden JENNE, 1872; Gideon W. BURTCH, 1873; Samuel C. THOMAS, 1874-6; Rossiter C. PARSON, 187__; Alonzo Mansfield BULLOCK, 1880; John Howard BROOKS, 1881-2; Wilson J. FISHER, 1883-5; George W. WHITE, 1886-7; I. M. WOLVERTON, 1888-9; William R. MELLOTT, 1890-1; Robert DAVIDSON, 1892; Mark A. DREW, 1895-7; Orlando P. CHRISTIAN, 1898; John J. LUGG, 1899-1900; Edgar J. SYMONS, 1901-3; George Kenneth McINIS, 1905-7; Jeremiah H. HICKS, 1808; David N. PHILLIPS, 1909; Forest H. WOODSIDE, 1910.

Township Map circa 1900

Township Map circa 1907

Township Map circa 1923

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