Lyon, O. D.

O. D. Lyon was born in 1860 in West Virginia to Thomas D. and Mary Clark Lyon, graduating from Mount Morris Seminary in Illinois in 1882. Prior to moving west, he taught school and served as Cheyenne County superintendent of schools, Sidney postmaster, assessor, and deputy county clerk in Nebraska. After arriving in Reedley in 1904, he promoted land development, worked with the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railways to attract homesteaders, and was elected justice of the peace for Reedley in 1910.

In 1883, Lyon married Catherine A. Snavely, the daughter of M. Y. and Sarah Snavely. The couple raised four children named Myrtle F., Ruby C., Carleton B., and Catherine. Affiliated with the Republican party and the Episcopal Church, Lyon also maintained active fraternal memberships with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Woodmen of the World.