Scanned from Sioux Falls South Dakota a Pictorial History
William Hoyt Lyon, was born in Carrol County, Iowa, November 26, 1858. Mr. Lyon attended the district school during his boy hood, and in 1874-5 attended the academy at Newton, Iowa. In 1876 he taught school at Vermillion, and the following year entered the United Presbyterian College at Monmouth, Iowa, where he graduated in 1881; he then attended law school in St. Louis, Mo. for one year and was admitted to the bar at Yankton in 1882; in the fall of 1883 he came to Sioux Falls and entered the law office of M. Grigsby, and in 1885 the law firm of Grigsby & Lyon was established. Soon after coming to Sioux Falls he published a book which caused some comment. It was entitled “The People's Problem”, and advocated that the unequal distribution of wealth can be cured by the government taking over telegraphs, railroads, mines, etc. In 1892 he was an independent candidate for the lower house of the legislature, campaigning on the issue of the sale of intoxicating liquors by municipal governments; the large vote he received was a surprise even to himself. [1] William and his wife Winona were generous supporters of the community’s development and worked diligently to bring a permanent library to the city. They gave the abandoned Unitarian Church building for that purpose in 1899. Soon after Andrew Carnegie donated twenty five thousand dollars to build a library, the Carnegie Library was established in 1903.[2]
[1] (Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory 1915, 606)
[2] (Olson 1985, 81)
[1] (Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory 1915, 606)
[2] (Olson 1985, 81)