Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin & Kniffin, 3rd ed. 1886.
Lyon Co.

GEN. HYLAN B. LYON was born in Lyon County, Ky., February 22, 1836.  His
grandfather, Mathew Lyon, was born in Ireland about 1750.  At eight years
of age he ran away from home, and took passage in a vessel for America;
arriving in America the captain of the vessel sold him to a Vermont farmer
for a yoke of oxen, to pay passage money, which Lyon soon refunded to the
farmer from earnings at the printer's trade.  By correct deportment and
industry, he acquired distinction and wealth, and was sent from Vermont to
congress.  There he opposed the foreign policy of President Adams, and
delivered a speech of such bitter denunciation that he was fined $1,000,
and imprisoned.  Vermont endorsed his course, and while yet in prison
elected him to another term in congress (the $1,000, with the interest has
since been returned to his heirs).  Finishing his term in congress about
1799, Mr. Lyon came to Eddyville, Ky.; two years afterward returned to
Vermont and brought out a colony, and at the same time a printing press,
and started a paper.  He built government gun-boats; operated a nail
factory and engaged extensively in shipping between New Orleans and
Eddyville.  He was elected to the State and afterward to the national
legislature, serving in Kentucky from 1803 to 1811, when he was appointed
Indian agent, or as then called, factor, among the Cherokees in Arkansas;
was sent by that territory in 1822, as its first delegate to congress, but
died en route.  His remains were brought to Eddyville and there buried. 
His (Matthew's) wife was Beulah, daughter of Gov. Chittenden, of Vermont.
They had seven children, of whom Chittenden Lyon was elected to congress,
and in honor of whom Lyon County was named; Matthew, Jr., father of
subject, was born in Vermont, and came to Kentucky in 1801; was captain of
State militia, and represented his district in State senate.  He married
Elizabeth Martin, a native of Vermont, and the union was blessed with
eight children, Hylan B., being next to the youngest.  Both parents died
when Hylan B. was yet a child (the father in 1830 and mother in 1844).
Hylan B. was left a large estate, which his guardian, Fred. H. Skinner,
applied in securing him a liberal education.  After the common schools, he
attended the Masonic University of Kentucky, at La Grange, Cumberland
College at Princeton, and at sixteen years of age was admitted as a cadet
at West Point, from which he was graduated in 1856, being the nineteenth
in a class of forty-eight.  Soon after he was brevet second lieutenant of
Second Artillery, and was assigned to duty at Fort Myers during the
Seminole war, and there first met Gen. Hancock.  At the close of the war
he was promoted to full rank of second lieutenant of Third Artillery, and
ordered to Ft. Huyma, Cal. After one year was ordered to Washington
Territory, where he was in two battles with the Indians.  During that
expedition he witnessed an act of treachery on the part of Col. Wright
wholly uncalled for.  Chief Qualshan, the Indian commander, was sent a
polite invitation to visit the soldiers' camp; complying with which he
with his wife were seized and ten minutes hanged.  In 1850, Gen. Lyon was
a volunteer with Col. John Miller's expedition opening a wagon road from
Walla Walla to Ft. Benton.  He was detailed to a special duty with a
Flat-head guide, who deserted him among the hostile Blackfeet; was
captured, but was saved by addressing them in their own tongue.  Returning
to Ft. Vancouver, he secured a leave of absence and returned home; while
there the civil war broke out, and he was appointed first lieutenant of
Third Artillery, but resigned and raised Company F, Third Kentucky
Infantry, and went into the confederate service, which was detached from
the regiment, and organized into an independent battery known as Lyon's -
afterward as Cobb's Battery, which the general himself equipped.  He was
promoted in January 1862, to lieutenant colonel, Eighth Kentucky Infantry;
commanded that regiment at Ft. Donelson, and was there taken prisoner;
first confined in Camp Morton at Indianapolis, then at Camp Chase, Ohio,
and lastly with other confederate officers was taken to Ft. Warren, Mass.,
and was exchanged.  His regiment was reorganized as the Eighth Kentucky,
and he was made colonel.  He was with Van Dorn against Grant at
Coffeyville, Champion Hill, etc.; was assigned to Pemberton and guarded
his retreat to Vicksburg; was in the siege of that place, but with 250 of
his men escaped; joined Johnston, who attempted to relieve Vicksburg;
failing in this went to Jackson, Miss., from whence after a severe battle
fell back and went into camp at Meridian, Miss.  Lyon was placed by Gen. 
Bragg in command of two regiments of cavalry under Wheeler, in the rear of
Longstreet's army at Knoxville; was placed in command of Bragg's artillery
immediately after the battle of Missionary Ridge, during the retreat of
Bragg, and saved the artillery from capture.  He was next placed in charge
of cavalry belonging to Forrest in Mississippi in 1864; then assigned to
command in western Kentucky and Tennessee, his special duty being to
gather provisions and men to facilitate a raid by Hood, but which failing,
he with 800 men retreated south and regained Forrest's command in
Mississippi.  Near the close of the war, Gen. Lyon was surprised in his
tent, and taken prisoner by strategy by a young Lieut. Lyon, of the
Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry; the General succeeded in killing the
Lieutenant and making his escape.  After the close of the war, Gen. Lyon
went with Gov. Harris of Tennessee to Mexico, intending to join
Maximilian, but instead united with a civil engineer corps; was in Mexico
nearly a year.  In the winter of 1865-66 returned to Eddyville.  After
farming for a while he was one of the lessees of the State Penitentiary,
and cleared as his share of the profits $150,000.  He now manages his
various farms, and does a mercantile business in Eddyville.  He was
recently appointed one of the commissioners to build a branch
penitentiary, the location of which he secured for Eddyville.  General
Lyon has been twice married; his first wife, Laura O'Hara, to whom he was
married in 1861, died in 1865, leaving one son:  Hylan F., now deceased;
his second wife was Grace Machen, to whom he was married in August 1869,
died in 1873, leaving four children:  Grace, Frank, Hugh and Earnest. 

Lyon Chittenden Martin O'Hara Machen
=
Ireland VT 

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/lyon/lyon.hb.txt