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MICHAEL H. LYONS
Vol.5, p.1864

All honor is due to Sergeant Lyons for his loyal and efficient
service of thirty years as a member of the United States army, in
which he attained to the rank of ordnance sergeant. He gained wide
experience in connection with military operations at the various
military posts of the West and Southwest, took part in a number of
engagements with hostile Indians, was with the reinforcements that
arrived on the scene of the historic massacre of General Custer and
his gallant soldiers within two days after that disastrous
engagement, and otherwise grew familiar with life on the frontier.
His service extended into the original Indian Territory, and while
still in the army he was one of the pioneers in entering claim to
land within the borders of Oklahoma Territory when it was thrown open
to settlement, more than a quarter of a century ago, and here he had
become a successful agriculturist and stock grower long before his
retirement from the military service that so long engrossed his
attention and in which he won distinction as a faithful, efficient
and valiant soldier and officer. Sergeant Lyons is now an honored and
influential citizen of El Reno, the judicial center of Canadian
County, and through his distinctive business acumen and well ordered
enterprise he has accumulated a substantial competency, so that he
may well feel that, with troops of friend about him, his lines are
indeed "cast in pleasant places."

Michael H. Lyons was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on
December 25, 1856, and is a son of Patrick and Elizabeth (HICKY)
Lyons, both natives of Ireland. The sergeant passed the period of his
childhood and early youth at Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, where he
acquired his rudimentary education in the parochial and public
schools, and he was fifteen years old at the time of the family
removal to the City of Philadelphia, where he continued to reside
until he had attained to adult age.

In 1876, in Philadelphia, which city was then a point of national
interest by reason of being the stage of the great Centennial
Exposition, Sergeant Lyons, as a youth of twenty years, enlisted as a
private in the United States Army. After a service of about two years
he was promoted corporal and later a sergeant, and in 1885 he was
advanced to the rank of first sergeant, an office he in which he
continued to serve eleven years, after which he held the office of
ordnance sergeant until the date of his retirement from the army, in
January, 1907. The initial military service of Sergeant Lyons was in
Dakota Territory, and thence he proceeded with his command into
Wyoming, where these forces arrived on the Custer battlefield the
second day after the historic massacre. Thereafter he was with his
command in Texas and his final service was in what is now the State
of Oklahoma. He participated in a number of spirited engagements with
hostile Indians, and concerning his admirable record as a member of
Troop K, Fifth United States Cavalry, the following statements are
self-explanatory and significant, the same having been written as a
testimonial at the time when the subject of this review was appointed
ordnance sergeant, in 1894, and the author of the commendatory words
having been Capt. A. E. WOODSON, who later rose to the rank of
brigadier general. In recommending Sergeant Lyons for promotion,
Captain Woodson wrote as follow: "He was at all times, in the
garrison and in the field, an excellent soldier, ever ready when
called, quick to respond, a leader of men, cheerful in disposition,
and an exemplar to the men of his command."

Though a stickler for discipline and always found at the post of
duty, the buoyant and genial nature of Sergeant Lyons won him the
high regard of his comrades and superior officers, and to-day he has
many friends of high standing in the United States Army, in public
life and in business circles-- in fact, it may consistently be said
that his circle of friends in limited only by that of his
acquaintances. Though he has had no ambition of enter the arena of
practical politics and has had no desire for public office, the
sergeant has given loyal support to the cause of the republican party
and has aided in the election of its candidates, both national and
local. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church.

In 1885 Sergeant Lyons came with his cavalry command for the first
time to old Fort Reno, Indian Territory, a military post near the
present thriving City of El Reno, Oklahoma, and while here stationed
he was promoted first sergeant. Later he was with his troop in Texas,
where they were stationed in turn at Fort Brown and Fort San Antonio,
and in 1896 he was sent back to Fort Reno, as ordnance sergeant at
this post. Here he continued until the expiration of his service in
the army, and since his retirement he has maintained his residence
principally in the city of El Reno. While at Fort Reno he was sent by
the commander of that garrison to lay off the grounds for the railway
station of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad at Oklahoma City,
and this duty he discharged with characteristic efficiency and
fidelity.

Within a short time after Oklahoma Territory had been opened for
settlement, Sergeant Lyons filed claim to a homestead of 160 acres in
Canadian County, and this property he developed into a fine ranch.
For twenty five years, while still in active service a portion of the
period in the army, he here devoted attention to the breeding and
raising of registered short-horn cattle and in this field of
enterprise he had met with gratifying success long before he disposed
of his interest in the same. His excellent judgment and business
sagacity have conspired to bring to him a comfortable fortune since
his days of active military service, and he is one of the best known
and most popular citizens of Canadian County, with a wide
acquaintanceship also in other parts of the state.

In 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Sergeant Lyons to Miss Maggie
CAMBRIC, who was born in the City of Toledo, and she has proved a
devoted companion and helpmate during their long years of wedded
life, the while she is a popular chatelaine of their attractive home
in El Reno, where they delight to welcome their many friends. They
have no children. They reside in the Lyons apartment building, a
modern building which was erected and is owned by Sergeant Lyons, who
has also other valuable city real estate in El Reno.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, August 8, 2000.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).