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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 848
JOHN LYONS (deceased) was one of the pioneers of southwestern Wisconsin. Born in Manchester, England, on Aug. 15, 1801, his early youth and manhood were spent in the land of his birth, where he was reared to the trade of cotton spinner, and in 1822, selected Mary JOHNSON, a native of his own city, to be his life companion. In 1832 he came from England to Philadelphia, and it was not until two years later that he came to Grant county, Wisconsin, locating at Potosi or Snake Hollow, as the locality was then named, on account of some local tradition. In 1836 he was joined by the family, consisting of his wife and four daughters, who had remained most of this time in England.
Mr. LYONS engaged in mining and followed this occupation as long as he was able to labor. His death occurred at Potosi, on April 11, 1874, and the wife and mother passed away on Dec. 8, 1873. She was a devoted Christian woman, and in all respects possessed a most lovable character. Like her husband she had been gifted with a most melodious voice, and this has been inherited by several of her children. Three of the four daughters who accompanied her from the English home yet survive, these being: Mrs. Sarah A. GREENE, of Potosi; Mrs. Elizabeth L. DAVIES, of British Hollow, Grant county; and Mrs. Rachel WOODHOUSE, of Bloomington, Grant county; the eldest, Mrs. Leah Jane MOREING, died in Stockton, Cal., at the home of her son, Cyrus, in 1875. Of the five children born after the family settlement in America, Hugh and Abigail died in infancy; Edward and Jervis died in early manhood; while the eldest, John George, who was the first male white child born in Potosi, is still a resident of that place.
John LYONS was a man of much natural ability, and was the possessor of a high sense of honor and of unswerving integrity. In early life he was a consistent member of the Methodist Church but, owing to the position of the local church on the slavery question, he associated himself with the Primitive Methodist Church, and his eloquent voice was often heard against both slavery and intemperance. Not only was he a man of fine presence, but a forceful and fluent orator. Gifted with a tenor voice and remarkable power and sweetness, he used it for the advancement of morality, and in the interests of those who could neither speak nor sing for themselves. Long will his name live in the hearts of the earnest and thoughtful citizens of Grant county.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck