During the second half of the 19th century, it would not have been uncommon to see Col. Delos E. Lyon walking the streets of old Dubuque, travelling between his law office on the southeast corner of 5th and Main and his home at 1005 Bluff. He was a “striking man with wavy gray hair, a short stubby mustache, sharp piercing eyes, and a good, humored face.” On cold days, he wore a mink overcoat that certainly made him stand out among Dubuque’s downtown pedestrians.
Delos Lyon was born into an old New England family in New York on November 14, 1832. His great-grandfather had served in the French and Indian Wars and as an officer in the Revolutionary War. His parents Jonathan and Harriet Perkins Lyon were original settlers of Franklinville, New York. Delos was educated in the New York public schools and later entered the Buffalo Academy. At the age of fifteen, he began clerking in a country store, remaining there until 1848 when he travelled west and enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. At Oberlin he met and later married Cecilia A. Howard, a music student enrolled at the college.
In 1851, Delos returned to New York and became a proprietor of a large store in Franklinville. He witnessed the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Co. while visiting New York City in 1857, which had a major impact on Delos. Convinced that a financial panic was on the horizon, he sold his mercantile business and started in a new profession – the study of law.
Delos studied law in Judge Spring’s office in Franklinville along with distinguished classmates which included Grover Cleveland. On May 18, 1858, he graduated with a law degree. After passing the bar in 1859, Delos took a trip “out West” in search of the perfect location for his law practice and a place to raise his family.
A visit to Denver, Colorado, proved disappointing. The city already had an abundance of lawyers and doctors. Delos returned to New York, taking the overland stage on a side trip to Pike’s Peak before heading home. He stopped in Dubuque, took in the business climate, and decided the city was a promising place to begin the practice of law. After the Lyon family settled in Dubuque, Delos joined the firm of Burt and Angel located in an office at 5th and Main Streets.
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