LYON, Henry (1796-1872) and Deborah (1796-1874)

Born in New York State, Henry and Deborah Lyon moved to Michigan in the 1820s. When Plymouth Township in Wayne County was organized in 1827, Henry Lyon was elected tax assessor, a position he held on several occasions in the following years, also serving as township clerk for two years. The Lyons were apparently Adventists of the “age-to-come” persuasion, followers of Joseph Marsh prior to becoming Sabbathkeeping Adventists in 1852. The same year they sold their farm in Plymouth and moved to Battle Creek in 1853.1EGWLM 867.1

Henry Lyon is remembered in particular for his contributions to the reorganization of the Review and Herald publishing house and its relocation from Rochester, New York, to Battle Creek in 1855. Financing and promoting the Review single-handedly had taken a heavy toll on James White's health by 1855, and he was determined to bring about change. He suggested, among other things, that a finance committee be appointed to carry full financial responsibility for the publishing work, a committee on which Henry Lyon subsequently served. When the decision was made to relocate the press to Battle Creek, Lyon was one of four Michigan persons who invested $300 of personal money to raise the $1,200 needed to buy a plot of land and erect a building to house the press. Three years earlier the Lyons had sold their Plymouth farm for $4,000, which gave them the means to contribute generously to church projects.1EGWLM 867.2

Henry and Deborah Lyon receive only incidental mention in the writings of Ellen White. The one exception is a testimony, written some months after Henry's death in 1872, directed to their son-in-law, Merritt E. Cornell, and daughter, Angeline Cornell, containing reproof for neglecting to look after Henry and Deborah in their sickness and old age.1EGWLM 867.3

See: Obituary: “Henry Lyon,” Review, May 28, 1872, p. 191; obituary: “Deborah Lyon,” Review, Mar. 10, 1874, p. 103; Sidney Elizabeth Lyon, Lyon Memorial: Families of Connecticut and New Jersey (Detroit: Graham Print Co., 1907), p. 301; Silas Farmer, History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Township and Biographical Edition (Detroit: S. Farmer & Co., 1890), p. 1341; Henry Lyon, “From Bro. Lyon,” Review, Sept. 16, 1852, pp. 79, 80; Uriah Smith, Vindication of the Business Career of Elder James White (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1863), p. 21; Ellen G. White, Lt 29, 1872 (c. 1872). For a survey of events surrounding the move of the press from Rochester to Battle Creek, see Virgil Robinson, James White, pp. 111-115.1EGWLM 867.4