Asa Lyon Papers

Asa Lyon was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, on December 31, 1763, the son of Jonathan and Rebecca Maxley Lyon. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1790, Asa studied religion under Rev. Charles Backus of Somers, CT, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Sunderland, Massachusetts, on October 4, 1792. Lyon left Sunderland on September 23 of the following year in a dispute over some aspect of church administration, and moved soon thereafter to South Hero, Vermont. He helped organize the South Hero-Grand Isle Congregationalists in 1795 and, although never officially installed, served as their elected pastor until his death forty-six years later. Lyon soon assumed political leadership of the Islands as well, and held a variety of elected offices in the early nineteenth century: State Representative from South Hero, 1799-1802, 1804-06, 1808, and from Grand Isle, 1810-14; member of the Governor's Council, 1808; and chief judge of the Grand Isle County Court, 1805-07, 1808-09, and 1813-14. A staunch Federalist, Lyon was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1814 and served one term from 1815 to 1817. Recognized as one of the leading intellects in Vermont, he also proved quite adept at acquiring and retaining money, and gradually became the wealthiest man in the Champlain Islands. Asa Lyon died in South Hero on April 4, 1841, at the age of seventy-seven.