Warren H. Lyon

WARREN H. LYON came to Smith County when nine years of age and has been an increasing factor in the affairs of Athol and of various other communities in that part of the state. He is a farmer, large land owner, grain dealer, lumberman and at different times has given his time to serve the public.

Mr. Lyon was born in Carroll County, Illinois, July 31, 1865. On his mother's side he is of Holland Dutch ancestry and English in the paternal line. Both branches of the family came to America in colonial days.

Harvey L. Lyon, father of Warren H., is one of the oldest citizens of Smith County. He was born in Ohio in 1835, and, about 1843, his family moved to Carroll County, Illinois, where he grew up and married. His active life has been spent as a farmer. In 1866 he moved to Lynn County, Iowa, lived there eight years, and in 1874 became one of the pioneers of Smith County, Kansas. The homestead of 160 acres which he entered and developed and which he still owns, lies three miles east and 2 1/2 miles south of Athol. Other lands which he accumulated in the same vicinity he has since sold and is now living retired. He is a republican, and all his life has been a very active member of the Radical United Brethren Church. His wife was Catherine Shaffer, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1841 and died in Smith County, Kansas, in 1906. They had a large family of children, noted briefly as follows: P. A. Lyon, a retired farmer at Athol; Annice, wife of W. F. Hicks, a farmer four miles southeast of Athol; Savilla, wife of W. T. Staup, a hotel proprietor at Gypson, Colorado; Eleanor, who died in Smith County in 1891, married Frank Dye, a farmer also deceased; the fifth in age is Warren H.; Elsie, wife of W. T. Panter, a farmer three miles northeast of Athol; Olivia E., whose farm is eleven miles northeast of Athol; Ettie, wife of Ellis Jennings, a farmer three miles north of Smith Center, and they lost a son, Lewis, in the battle of St Mihiel, France; W. W. who owns a farm five miles southeast of Athol; Hayes, a lumberman at Kensington; Altice, in the lumber business at Harlan, Kansas; and Huber, who is a lumberman at Claudell, Kansas. From this record it will be seen that all the living children are substantial and worthy members of their respective communities.

Warren H. Lyon spent his early boyhood in Iowa and Smith County, Kansas, attended the common schools and graduated from the Smith Center High School in 1880. For one year he attended the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott. Mr. Lyon is more widely known as a teacher than as a farmer or a business mam. For twenty-eight consecutive years he taught school in Smith County, and some of his first pupils had grandchildren old enough to attend school before he gave up the work in 1916. In the meantime he was farming for practically an equal length of time. He has one fine farm of 160 acres three miles east of Athol and another farm of equal extent a half mile east of that. His farming is on the diversified plan, and in the way of livestock he breeds pedigreed Shorthorn cattle and Duroc hogs.

June 11, 1918, Mr. Lyon entered the grain business at Athol, being manager and stockholder in the Athol Co-operative Grain Company. He is also president of the Hayes-Lyon Lumber Company, with yards at Kensington, Harlan and Claudell, his brothers being associated with him in this business. He is secretary of the Smith Center Mill Elevator and Light Company, and is a stockholder in the Athol Lumber Company.

In politics W. H. Lyon has always been a democrat and he served one term as county assessor. He is a member of the Radical United Brethren Church. In 1888, in Smith County, he married Miss Lula Kimball, daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Beard) Kimball, the latter now deceased. The father is a retired farmer at Hayes Center, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Lyon are proud of their large family of children. The oldest is Keith, a graduate of the Athol High School, and a farmer five miles northeast of Athol. Amy married Floyd Vanskiver, a farmer four miles southeast of Smith Center. Hazel is the wife of George Locke, who is with the Eighty-ninth Division, in Germany. Ova is the wife of Clifford Shambaugh, a farmer four miles southeast of Athol. Dale is associated with his father on the farm. Glenn is a student in Washburn College at Topeka and a member of the Students Army Training Corps. Leslie is a sophomore in the Smith Center High School. The next child, Max, died at the age of two years. Floy, Perry, Ruby, Leeta, Gene and May, the six youngest children, are all students in the public schools.