Elijah Buell was born in Utica,
N.Y. in 1809 and died in Lyons in 1888. As a pioneer, he came up the
river from Albany in 1836 right after the Blackhawk War and settled
Lyons, which he named after a town in France pronounced "Lay-own." (One of many Iowa "mispronounced" towns, such as Charlotte, Nevada, and Guttenburg).
When it was legal to settle the eastern third of Iowa, he picked the
highest and narrowest spot. He was a multitalented fellow who had
been a riverboat pilot, and he did everything from laying out the
town to being a businessman and civic leader. This handsome man lost
his first family to "the fever" and raised another. He 
had a cabin on
the north end of the Buell Terrace at the foot of 25th Ave., then a
home on 3rd, and finally a fine mansion, "Cherry Bank" out on Main
Ave.
This limestone monument sits on
the Elijah Buell Terrace at 24th Ave. No.
In the 1870's, Lyons
looked like a cowboy town. Here is the intersection of Main and 2nd,
and on the hill is a school and beyond is "Whiskey
Hollow."
Looking east, we see that Lyons
had grown to be a large town by the time that Clinton was settled.
The Gage Union Hotel is now the centerpiece for this historic
district.
The Lyons highway bridge for
wagons.
In the depression, one fun
activity was driving down to water's edge at the river front park in
Lyons.
The Lyons Bridge approach was changed to run on
to Main Ave. Here you see it about 1920.
The first brewery was on Main
Ave. where St. John's Lutheran Church is today.
Main Ave. floods in 1965, which
really doomed the Masonic Temple Bldg. (Paaske's)
Main Street in Fulton,
circa 1910.
St. Irenaeus on Roosevelt, the
original entrance was on the Roosevelt side of the building, and later was
changed to 2nd St. It was established as a French mission by Father
Jean, a missionary who was often suspected of "something" treacherous
or having to do with treason! Nothing ever materialized, but
suspicions were common in the early days.
Flood of 1965, as seen at
the back of St. Boniface.
The Resolute, 1800's fire wagon, now housed at the Historical Society.
The Four Square Park has delighted people since pioneer days. Note how they preserved the
trees from domestic and even wild animals. Near the park there has
been a band shell, Lyons High School, and a movie
theater.
Near to Main Ave. on 25th Ave.
is the Odeon, which was a fraternal organization for socialization
and protection. Often an organization such as this would care for
families, since many hard-working men died young, leaving large
families to care for.
Near the Odd Fellows Hall on
Roosevelt was the firehouse with the famous racing teams like "Bob
and Bob" or "Bonnie and Beauty."
One of the finest buildings
ever built here was the Masonic Temple in Lyons in 1870. It was a
perfect cube, and was in Ripley's "Believe It or Not". Next to it was
Pott's Jewelry Store. Later Paaske's Furniture store was housed
in it. The 4th floor of the building had a ritual chamber within a
chamber and a glass enclosure on the roof.
The Mississippi at Lyons
overlooks the bluff in Fulton, the "shoots" at Eagle Pt. Park and a
"sheer boom" to protect boats from running aground. Nearby was the
Pelton two-cycle engine factory, which built motors for these
launches which are seen in the picture. They were popular from
1890-1915 when more powerful engines took over. The Lamb Engine Co.
then built those, and Chancy Lamb had the idea to send log rafts down
the river with small steamboats steering them away from the numerous
sandbars.
The home to the right sits on the SE corner
of 22nd Ave. and dates
back to the 
and looked, unbelievably, like
the photo to the left.
Early families often dramatically changed homes. Time, materials,
and labor were cheap.
This is Gardiner, Bachelder,
and Wells Lumber Mill office on 33rd Ave. No. It is still in
existence and later became the Lock Shop and Pennsylvania Tire Co. It
was one of many lumber companies in Clinton along the Mississippi
River. When the forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin were depleted,
only Weyerhaeuser of St. Louis stayed in the business and moved to
the Pacific Northwest. The business that built the West was no more.
Millions had been made, which would have been billions today! At one
time Clinton had more millionaires than any other city or town in the
world, per capita.
The Joyces were among the
three most powerful families of Clinton/Lyons at the end of the 19th
Century. They owned the trolley car business as well as lumber
interests. The story says that their trolley business wasn't
flourishing on Sundays, when the immigrant young men didn't work, so
they ran the tracks up to their park north of town and, voila',
young couples came for picnics on Sunday, and ever since, as millions
of people have enjoyed Eagle Point Park, one of the most beautiful,
scenic visions in Iowa!
Every town had their Great
Stone Face like Nathaniel Hawthorne's story. Photographers were
constantly looking for more ideas for their postcard sales, which
were the Internet messages of the last century.
Before the dam was built in the
'30's, there were 1000 Islands in this area, the widest spot on the
Mississippi (we also have the largest Island in Beaver Island), and
people owned wood lots for their winter supply to heat their homes.
Hunters routinely killed 100 birds per day for their food supply,
because this area is part of the Mississippi Flyway, so dear to
environmentalists and eagle watchers. This is truly one of Nature's
Wonders!
"Millie in her
Regal"
Dr. Rush Sugg photographed his
wife in her Oldsmobile many years ago.
He was an eccentric dentist
who was known for extracting teeth while standing on the arms of the
chair! (Dentists often extracted all of
a young mother's teeth, because of lack of calcium and their large
number of children.)
When the federal government
knew that the Second World War was imminent, they built 3 main
interior hospitals for the projected casualties and Clinton donated
land for one of them. These are temporary buildings and slowly the
land of Root Park is reemerging.
In Root Park, the Lyons High
School football team of 1933 practices. Lenny Dose is number 37 and
he and his wife raised several football players. One of the two big
guys over the ball played on the "Ironmen" team with Nile Kinnick in
1939. Lyons HS was know as one of the toughest and best in eastern
Iowa as they even beat some of the Cedar Rapids schools.
John Lang was in the Korean
War and perhaps dabbled in drugs, which destroyed his metabolism. He grew
to a record 1187 lbs. and was in the Guinness Book of Records as the
"heaviest human being." He died at age 47 after losing over 600 lbs.
Police and firemen would routinely take
him to the Veterans Hospital
in Iowa City in a furniture truck.Lang lived in this historic
house on 25th Ave.No. near St.Boniface Church. Earlier Frank Ellis built it
for his invalid daughter down on 6th Ave. So. In 1950, when the Ellis mansion
was demolished, it was moved up to the current spot. Ironically, a big
person lived in it rather than a little one.
On Main Ave. we see this
Shoeing Business, which became Becker Seed and now the Fireplace
Shop. Milo Doyle's Bar is next door.
Before the Civil War, the Lyons
Girl's Seminary was built; it was later called Our Lady of Angels
Academy. It was torn down around 1980.
The original Lyons High School,
1915, on Four Square Park.
