The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Thursday, April 10, 1913, front page
COL. D. E LYON, PIONEER LAWYER IS SUMMONED
Passes Away at Home of Bluff Street Thursday Morning
IN PRACTICE 54 YEARS
Splendid Career of Integrity and Achievement is Rounded Out
Col. D. E. Lyon, longest in active practice at the Dubuque bar of any attorney living passed away Thursday morning at 7:30.
For two years past Col. Lyon had been failing. He succumbed peacefully at his home at 1005 Bluff Street having been in a state of como for several days.
No man in Dubuque had been more active or more vigorous than he. Throughout his long and eventful career of seventy-nine years no detail of his professional or public career was too small to receive exhaustive attention and no client ever had a more competent or painstaking attorney. He lived in every sense a full and profitable life. There was no time wasted, no energy expended unproductive in his life. Every movement was one well ordered and plan with a view to greater results.
REFUSED TO RETIRE
In the fulness of time, after a life rounded out with results, the break came, and he answered, the final summons. Eight years ago he declared to the writer that the idea of retiring from business was repugnant to him. "I shall never quit as long as my strength and faculties are with me." "Rust," he asserted, "consumes faster than labor wears, and to lay aside the activities of nearly fifty years of practice with its mental and physical activities, would mean quick dissolution." "Read," he said, "the record of men who quit before the forces of nature demand it and you will find that there ends a matter of but a short time."
Col. Lyon followed out this idea. He followed it even after the forces of nature, nearly four score years in constant operation, had begun to show signs of failure. Necessity alone forced a slowing up.
--------
Delos was the son of Jonathan and Harriet Perkins Lyon, and a grandson of Joseph Lyon, who served in the Continental Army. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he met and fell in love with Cecelia Howard, of Concord, Ohio, who was a student of music at the college. He earned a law degree and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1857.
He and Cecelia were married on July 30, 1857 in Mansfield, Ohio. In response to the urging of James Burt, a family friend and native of Cayahoga County, New York, they came to Dubuque and Delos began his practice of the law in the firm of Burt and Angel with an office at 5th & Main Streets. The couple resided at 1005 Bluff Street in a red brick house which eventually remained in the Lyon family for three generations.
Delos was a very energetic young man and he had strong political opinions. In 1858 he attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois. As the delegate from Dubuque County he attended the Republican National Conventions of 1860 and 1864 both of which nominated Abe Lincoln for the Presidency.
During the "Rebellion", as many in the North referred to the Civil War, he served as Recruitment Officer and Aide-de-Camp to Governor Kirkwood and was accorded the title "Colonel".
By 1866 Cecelia had born two daughters, Annie (Lyon) Tileston and Jessie (Lyon) Grosvenor and a son, Charlie. During the course of her fourth pregnancy, Cecelia, perhaps experiencing a sense of foreboding, told Delos that, should she not survive, she wished him to marry her friend, Eunice Taylor because she said Eunice would be kind to their babies.
Cecelia died November 29, 1866 and infant, Henry, survived barely a month. For 25 years they rested alone in the family burial plot. A tall stone obelisk beside the graves bears the inscription:
A Husband's Tribute
In Memory of
Cecelia A.
Wife Of
D. E. Lyon
Who Died on November 29, 1866
Age 33 years & 8 months
Delos married Eunice Ann Taylor on January 8, 1868. Two children, George and Abby (Lyon MacDonald) were born to this second marriage.
During his long career, Delos practiced before county, state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served for a time as City Attorney and in 1871 President Grant appointed him Surveyor and Collector of Customs for the Port of Dubuque.
When he died in 1913 at the age of 81 the Telegraph Herald, in a front page eulogy, said of him: "Colonel Lyon's personality was unique. No member of the Dubuque bar nor any citizen of Dubuque was quicker with retort, more picturesque in expression, more resourceful in his mental qualities than he. He knew men, he knew nature. Fundamentally he was sound. The truth was in him: his love of his profession and his patriotism both as it applied to the nation and to the city, were marked characteristics."
COL. D. E LYON, PIONEER LAWYER IS SUMMONED
Passes Away at Home of Bluff Street Thursday Morning
IN PRACTICE 54 YEARS
Splendid Career of Integrity and Achievement is Rounded Out
Col. D. E. Lyon, longest in active practice at the Dubuque bar of any attorney living passed away Thursday morning at 7:30.
For two years past Col. Lyon had been failing. He succumbed peacefully at his home at 1005 Bluff Street having been in a state of como for several days.
No man in Dubuque had been more active or more vigorous than he. Throughout his long and eventful career of seventy-nine years no detail of his professional or public career was too small to receive exhaustive attention and no client ever had a more competent or painstaking attorney. He lived in every sense a full and profitable life. There was no time wasted, no energy expended unproductive in his life. Every movement was one well ordered and plan with a view to greater results.
REFUSED TO RETIRE
In the fulness of time, after a life rounded out with results, the break came, and he answered, the final summons. Eight years ago he declared to the writer that the idea of retiring from business was repugnant to him. "I shall never quit as long as my strength and faculties are with me." "Rust," he asserted, "consumes faster than labor wears, and to lay aside the activities of nearly fifty years of practice with its mental and physical activities, would mean quick dissolution." "Read," he said, "the record of men who quit before the forces of nature demand it and you will find that there ends a matter of but a short time."
Col. Lyon followed out this idea. He followed it even after the forces of nature, nearly four score years in constant operation, had begun to show signs of failure. Necessity alone forced a slowing up.
--------
Delos was the son of Jonathan and Harriet Perkins Lyon, and a grandson of Joseph Lyon, who served in the Continental Army. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he met and fell in love with Cecelia Howard, of Concord, Ohio, who was a student of music at the college. He earned a law degree and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1857.
He and Cecelia were married on July 30, 1857 in Mansfield, Ohio. In response to the urging of James Burt, a family friend and native of Cayahoga County, New York, they came to Dubuque and Delos began his practice of the law in the firm of Burt and Angel with an office at 5th & Main Streets. The couple resided at 1005 Bluff Street in a red brick house which eventually remained in the Lyon family for three generations.
Delos was a very energetic young man and he had strong political opinions. In 1858 he attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois. As the delegate from Dubuque County he attended the Republican National Conventions of 1860 and 1864 both of which nominated Abe Lincoln for the Presidency.
During the "Rebellion", as many in the North referred to the Civil War, he served as Recruitment Officer and Aide-de-Camp to Governor Kirkwood and was accorded the title "Colonel".
By 1866 Cecelia had born two daughters, Annie (Lyon) Tileston and Jessie (Lyon) Grosvenor and a son, Charlie. During the course of her fourth pregnancy, Cecelia, perhaps experiencing a sense of foreboding, told Delos that, should she not survive, she wished him to marry her friend, Eunice Taylor because she said Eunice would be kind to their babies.
Cecelia died November 29, 1866 and infant, Henry, survived barely a month. For 25 years they rested alone in the family burial plot. A tall stone obelisk beside the graves bears the inscription:
A Husband's Tribute
In Memory of
Cecelia A.
Wife Of
D. E. Lyon
Who Died on November 29, 1866
Age 33 years & 8 months
Delos married Eunice Ann Taylor on January 8, 1868. Two children, George and Abby (Lyon MacDonald) were born to this second marriage.
During his long career, Delos practiced before county, state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served for a time as City Attorney and in 1871 President Grant appointed him Surveyor and Collector of Customs for the Port of Dubuque.
When he died in 1913 at the age of 81 the Telegraph Herald, in a front page eulogy, said of him: "Colonel Lyon's personality was unique. No member of the Dubuque bar nor any citizen of Dubuque was quicker with retort, more picturesque in expression, more resourceful in his mental qualities than he. He knew men, he knew nature. Fundamentally he was sound. The truth was in him: his love of his profession and his patriotism both as it applied to the nation and to the city, were marked characteristics."
The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Thursday, April 10, 1913, front page
COL. D. E LYON, PIONEER LAWYER IS SUMMONED
Passes Away at Home of Bluff Street Thursday Morning
IN PRACTICE 54 YEARS
Splendid Career of Integrity and Achievement is Rounded Out
Col. D. E. Lyon, longest in active practice at the Dubuque bar of any attorney living passed away Thursday morning at 7:30.
For two years past Col. Lyon had been failing. He succumbed peacefully at his home at 1005 Bluff Street having been in a state of como for several days.
No man in Dubuque had been more active or more vigorous than he. Throughout his long and eventful career of seventy-nine years no detail of his professional or public career was too small to receive exhaustive attention and no client ever had a more competent or painstaking attorney. He lived in every sense a full and profitable life. There was no time wasted, no energy expended unproductive in his life. Every movement was one well ordered and plan with a view to greater results.
REFUSED TO RETIRE
In the fulness of time, after a life rounded out with results, the break came, and he answered, the final summons. Eight years ago he declared to the writer that the idea of retiring from business was repugnant to him. "I shall never quit as long as my strength and faculties are with me." "Rust," he asserted, "consumes faster than labor wears, and to lay aside the activities of nearly fifty years of practice with its mental and physical activities, would mean quick dissolution." "Read," he said, "the record of men who quit before the forces of nature demand it and you will find that there ends a matter of but a short time."
Col. Lyon followed out this idea. He followed it even after the forces of nature, nearly four score years in constant operation, had begun to show signs of failure. Necessity alone forced a slowing up.
--------
Delos was the son of Jonathan and Harriet Perkins Lyon, and a grandson of Joseph Lyon, who served in the Continental Army. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he met and fell in love with Cecelia Howard, of Concord, Ohio, who was a student of music at the college. He earned a law degree and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1857.
He and Cecelia were married on July 30, 1857 in Mansfield, Ohio. In response to the urging of James Burt, a family friend and native of Cayahoga County, New York, they came to Dubuque and Delos began his practice of the law in the firm of Burt and Angel with an office at 5th & Main Streets. The couple resided at 1005 Bluff Street in a red brick house which eventually remained in the Lyon family for three generations.
Delos was a very energetic young man and he had strong political opinions. In 1858 he attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois. As the delegate from Dubuque County he attended the Republican National Conventions of 1860 and 1864 both of which nominated Abe Lincoln for the Presidency.
During the "Rebellion", as many in the North referred to the Civil War, he served as Recruitment Officer and Aide-de-Camp to Governor Kirkwood and was accorded the title "Colonel".
By 1866 Cecelia had born two daughters, Annie (Lyon) Tileston and Jessie (Lyon) Grosvenor and a son, Charlie. During the course of her fourth pregnancy, Cecelia, perhaps experiencing a sense of foreboding, told Delos that, should she not survive, she wished him to marry her friend, Eunice Taylor because she said Eunice would be kind to their babies.
Cecelia died November 29, 1866 and infant, Henry, survived barely a month. For 25 years they rested alone in the family burial plot. A tall stone obelisk beside the graves bears the inscription:
A Husband's Tribute
In Memory of
Cecelia A.
Wife Of
D. E. Lyon
Who Died on November 29, 1866
Age 33 years & 8 months
Delos married Eunice Ann Taylor on January 8, 1868. Two children, George and Abby (Lyon MacDonald) were born to this second marriage.
During his long career, Delos practiced before county, state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served for a time as City Attorney and in 1871 President Grant appointed him Surveyor and Collector of Customs for the Port of Dubuque.
When he died in 1913 at the age of 81 the Telegraph Herald, in a front page eulogy, said of him: "Colonel Lyon's personality was unique. No member of the Dubuque bar nor any citizen of Dubuque was quicker with retort, more picturesque in expression, more resourceful in his mental qualities than he. He knew men, he knew nature. Fundamentally he was sound. The truth was in him: his love of his profession and his patriotism both as it applied to the nation and to the city, were marked characteristics."
COL. D. E LYON, PIONEER LAWYER IS SUMMONED
Passes Away at Home of Bluff Street Thursday Morning
IN PRACTICE 54 YEARS
Splendid Career of Integrity and Achievement is Rounded Out
Col. D. E. Lyon, longest in active practice at the Dubuque bar of any attorney living passed away Thursday morning at 7:30.
For two years past Col. Lyon had been failing. He succumbed peacefully at his home at 1005 Bluff Street having been in a state of como for several days.
No man in Dubuque had been more active or more vigorous than he. Throughout his long and eventful career of seventy-nine years no detail of his professional or public career was too small to receive exhaustive attention and no client ever had a more competent or painstaking attorney. He lived in every sense a full and profitable life. There was no time wasted, no energy expended unproductive in his life. Every movement was one well ordered and plan with a view to greater results.
REFUSED TO RETIRE
In the fulness of time, after a life rounded out with results, the break came, and he answered, the final summons. Eight years ago he declared to the writer that the idea of retiring from business was repugnant to him. "I shall never quit as long as my strength and faculties are with me." "Rust," he asserted, "consumes faster than labor wears, and to lay aside the activities of nearly fifty years of practice with its mental and physical activities, would mean quick dissolution." "Read," he said, "the record of men who quit before the forces of nature demand it and you will find that there ends a matter of but a short time."
Col. Lyon followed out this idea. He followed it even after the forces of nature, nearly four score years in constant operation, had begun to show signs of failure. Necessity alone forced a slowing up.
--------
Delos was the son of Jonathan and Harriet Perkins Lyon, and a grandson of Joseph Lyon, who served in the Continental Army. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he met and fell in love with Cecelia Howard, of Concord, Ohio, who was a student of music at the college. He earned a law degree and was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1857.
He and Cecelia were married on July 30, 1857 in Mansfield, Ohio. In response to the urging of James Burt, a family friend and native of Cayahoga County, New York, they came to Dubuque and Delos began his practice of the law in the firm of Burt and Angel with an office at 5th & Main Streets. The couple resided at 1005 Bluff Street in a red brick house which eventually remained in the Lyon family for three generations.
Delos was a very energetic young man and he had strong political opinions. In 1858 he attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois. As the delegate from Dubuque County he attended the Republican National Conventions of 1860 and 1864 both of which nominated Abe Lincoln for the Presidency.
During the "Rebellion", as many in the North referred to the Civil War, he served as Recruitment Officer and Aide-de-Camp to Governor Kirkwood and was accorded the title "Colonel".
By 1866 Cecelia had born two daughters, Annie (Lyon) Tileston and Jessie (Lyon) Grosvenor and a son, Charlie. During the course of her fourth pregnancy, Cecelia, perhaps experiencing a sense of foreboding, told Delos that, should she not survive, she wished him to marry her friend, Eunice Taylor because she said Eunice would be kind to their babies.
Cecelia died November 29, 1866 and infant, Henry, survived barely a month. For 25 years they rested alone in the family burial plot. A tall stone obelisk beside the graves bears the inscription:
A Husband's Tribute
In Memory of
Cecelia A.
Wife Of
D. E. Lyon
Who Died on November 29, 1866
Age 33 years & 8 months
Delos married Eunice Ann Taylor on January 8, 1868. Two children, George and Abby (Lyon MacDonald) were born to this second marriage.
During his long career, Delos practiced before county, state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served for a time as City Attorney and in 1871 President Grant appointed him Surveyor and Collector of Customs for the Port of Dubuque.
When he died in 1913 at the age of 81 the Telegraph Herald, in a front page eulogy, said of him: "Colonel Lyon's personality was unique. No member of the Dubuque bar nor any citizen of Dubuque was quicker with retort, more picturesque in expression, more resourceful in his mental qualities than he. He knew men, he knew nature. Fundamentally he was sound. The truth was in him: his love of his profession and his patriotism both as it applied to the nation and to the city, were marked characteristics."
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