Lyons, Iowa
It is hard to image a single person in Clinton
County who doesn't know the name of Elijah Buell. He founded
Lyons, started the first ferry and provided leadership that encouraged
other settlers traveling west to end their journeys in Lyons.
He treated the sick with his own medicines and sat
on the school board of the earliest schools. Elijah Buell opened
his home for worship services and donated land for the first church in
1856. As the time
went on, Lyons was to become a grain and milling
center, and later a lumber manufacturing community. Elijah Buell
continued to be one of its leading citizens until his death in 1889.
The site where he located in 1835, nicknamed
“The Narrows,” became a major crossing point on the
Mississippi River. He and his partner, John Baker, founder of
Fulton, Illinois, operated the Lyons-Fulton Ferry Company which
connected east to west on the River.
The Plan of Lyons in 1875 shows properties of
early prominent settlers: Buell, Root, Randall, Deeds, Stumbaugh,
Gage and Gibbs' additions.
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