Jesse Lyon

His parents are unknown at this time, as is his place of birth. There were no Lyon(s) families listed in the 1790 Georgia census. His son Benjamin's 1880 census indicated that his parents were born in Virginia. The 1850 census in Murray County, Georgia, gives his birthplace as Tennessee. Another tree provides a birthplace of South Carolina. More extensive research is needed, chasing down leads and searching through wills of possible fathers, to try to find a child named Jesse.

Early Records of Wilkes County, Georgia (Grace Gillam Davidson) lists wills of a John Lyon (wife Mary admin, 8 March 1805) and James Lyon (wife Elizabeth, admin, 2 May 1831). It appears also that his wife Polly's mother (or stepmother) Fanny Lewis remarried James Lyon after Warner Lyon's 1793 death. Lewis, Warner, decd, inventory, slaves Harry, Selah, and Jack. Recorded Nov 1793. Return of Fanny Lyon (formerly Lewis) and James Lyon her present husband 9 Apr 1795 paid for tuition of the children. Note of James Lyon of Edgefield District, SC, to Warner Lewis of Wilkes Co, GA, signed Aug 7, 1789, due Dec. 20, 1790. Joseph Tucker and John Lyon, witnesses, (Warner Lewis Jr. went to Sumner County, TN, as shown by deed in Lincoln County). Sale of Warner Lewis estate is listed as having taken place on 5 Jan 1795. Thomas Moody, Henry Jennings, Amos Sheppard, Edmond and John Lyon, Francis Picquet, Eli Griffin, John Farrow, and Col. John Winn, Purchasers.

John Lyon will in Wilkes County, GA probated 7 July 1823 names children John S., Josiah M., Eliza Burns (wife of Samuel), wife Jane S.

A Jesse Lane was appointed Postmaster of Snow Hill, Murray County, GA in 1848 (see document). Was this the same person?

In the 1850 Murray County, GA, census, Mary J. Evins, 9, born GA, is listed with a Mahala Evins, 35, born GA (presumably her mother) living in the household of grocer Jesse Lyons, 60, born Tennessee, and Mary A. Lyons, 25, born GA (his daughter?). Mahala was likely a divorced or widowed daughter of Jesse Lyons who had returned to her parental home with her young child. Mary J. was attending school.

Jesse Lyons is also listed in the US Federal Census Non-Population Schedules (Agriculture) of the 1850 census for Murray County, GA: as having 20 acres unimproved land, two working oxen (valued at $30), with no listing of other livestock or of wheat, rye, Indian corn, and so on. His holdings were very meager as compared to the others listed on the schedule, indicating that farming was not his main occupation; in fact, on the primary census, he is listed as selling groceries.

Where was Jesse Lyon before moving to Murray County? Based upon the absence of any other records of a man by this name in north Georgia or southeast Tennessee, it appears that this Jesse Lyon(s) must have moved to Murray County from Middle Georgia (Putnam County) in stages--first in Putnam County in 1820, then in Newton County (southeast of Atlanta, near Covington, GA) in 1830 and 1840 and then in Carroll County GA in 1844 before appearing in Murray County in 1850. Originally a fairly wealthy man (judging from the 1820 tax listing, in which he owned more than 300 acres in Putnam and Baldwin Counties), his fortune appears to have precipitously declined, however, since the elder Jesse was a slaveowner of 7 slaves in 1840 and was a grocer with no land holdings (and apparently no slaves) a decade later. This is an unusual change in career and location for a man in his sixties. However, his son Warner is listed as a gambler in the 1860 census, so perhaps the father or his adult son gambled away the family's moderate wealth.

There is a Jesse Lyons and family listed in 1820 Putnam County, GA, who is likely the same man. Census figures are 2-1-0-1-0-2-1-0-1-0-0-2. In the 1820 Georgia Tax Digest, the Jesse Lyon family had one voter (poll tax), with 101.25 acres of 2nd quality land in Putnam County on the Oconee and 101.25 acres of 2nd quality and 101.25 acres of 3rd quality land in Baldwin County on Potato Creek, granted to unknown and adjoining Rice (in Putnam) and Huckerson (in Baldwin); with $800 worth of stock in trade and a two-wheeled carriage. Taxed (?) $4.07.

Jesse Lyon was enumerated in the 1830 and 1840 censuses in Newton County, GA (southeast of Atlanta, near Covington). The 1830 census (spelled Jesse Lion) lists one man and his wife, each 40-50, with three sons under the age of 20 and 5 daughters, the two eldest being in their 20s, with one elderly female slave. Close by is Warner Lyon, in his 20s (probably a son to Jesse), with a wife (he married Henrietta Nance in 1825) and three young children. The 1840 census for Jesse lists a man in his 60s, a presumed daughter in her 20s and one in her teens (10-14)--which roughly matches the household configuration of the 1850 Murray County household. This 1840 Newton County household had seven slaves of varying ages. Warner Lyons and family are living next door, and he is listed in the 1844 Carroll County Property Tax List, as is Jesse Lyon. Following Warner's later journey, he appears in DeKalb and mostly Fulton Counties, where he died in 1872. His occupation was listed as "gambler" in the 1860 Atlanta census, where he and a presumed daughter were living in a boarding house.

A younger Jesse Lyon, probably a son of the older Jesse, is found listed in 1850 Newton County is age 22 (born c 1828) with wife Elizabeth (23) living with the W. C. Clark family. He is in Fulton County on the tax list in 1857. This Jesse L. Lyon (b 1828), wife Elizabeth and two children are found in 1860 Campbell County, GA. Presumably the same Jesse L. Lyon is named on p. 311 of the Campbell County, GA slave schedule in 1860 (Georgia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890). Likely the same Jesse L. Lyon of Coweta County (bordering Carroll to the southeast) is on a March 1862 muster roll of the 70th Regt Ga Military.

A Thomas J. Lyons, perhaps another son, is listed on the 1860 Slave Schedule for DeKalb County, GA. Another son, Napoleon, was a Confederate soldier killed in the 1861 Battle of Dranesville in Fairfax County, VA--a battle between Confederate forces under Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart and Union forces under Brigadier General Edward O. C. Ord.

A family tree record found for a daughter seems to confirm this family's path from Putnam County to Murray County, GA. The Boring Family Tree shows a Maranna Lyon born 19 Nov 1826 in Putnam County, Georgia; married first 12 Dec 1844 in Carroll County, Georgia to James Madison Leathers and second on 17 Sep 1848 in Murray County, Georgia to Adolphus Erwin Cole; enumerated in the 1880 census in Murray County, where she died on 24 Jan 1899 in Tennga, Murray County. [https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/43257809/person/12...] This tree provides the name of Mary "Polly" Lewis for her mother (Jesse's wife) and lists siblings John E B, Martha, Mahala, Newton, Reason (Reazin), Minerva, Benjamin F., Jesse, Mary Ann, and Tolbert. It provides a death date for Jesse Lyon of 1855.

Disambiguation: there is another, well-documented, Maj. Jesse M. Lyons who lived in Hawkins County, TN who was born c 1816. However, he is documented as being in Hawkins County through the period that the Jesse Lyons we seek was in Murray County, GA. The Hawkins County man was a curator of the Odd Fellows Female Collegiate Institute of East Tennessee in 1851. He had a wife Mary and daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Anna and son John.

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 11 2020, 0:48:22 UTC