The story
Read it all →How Lyons came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Lyons.
It was originally created as Hudson by the legislature of the Wisconsin Territory on January 23, 1844.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
A−History
History · Lyons
Lyons’ post office opened in 1848, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 77% of U.S. towns · #102 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Meyerhofer Cobblestone House. Below: maps from 1893 on and old-book passages.
1848first post office
1on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Quick answers
How Lyons began
When was Lyons founded?
1848
The Lyons post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Hudson (1844), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 3,648178 years
How historic is Lyons?
A−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 77% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lyons post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lyons’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lyons is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #102 of 362 in Wisconsin. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lyons’ overall grade.
Founding era1848, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194018.0% of homes (±8.9) · typical WI town 12.1% · U.S. 8.4%B+National Register1 listing, 2.7 per 10,000 residents · typical WI town 3.0 · U.S. 2.4B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 77%
NewerOlder
Wisconsin towns of 2,500+ (362)Ahead of 72%
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Lyons’ 2.7 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Lyons’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Lyons’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lyons’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.On the map
Lyons on the map, 1893 to 1971
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lyons. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893Geneva sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lyons.
Timeline
Lyons, 1844 to 1893
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Lyons, 1882–1912
Passages that mention Lyons, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Walworth county, Wisconsin ..1912 · page 372Read the page →
Read the text
named their town. It is rather likelier that men of Columbia county, Xew York, chose thus to remind themselves, of their old home. A few years later the city of Hudson, in St. Croix county, seemed to have the stronger right to the name, and in 1865 the name of the older town was changed to Lyons, to avoid some geographical confusion. The village of Lyonsdale had been founded, named for ,the early settling Lyon family and, as Lyons, had become a railway station and gave its name to the township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Walworth county, Wisconsin ..1912 · page 644Read the page →
Read the text
an early age. Having heard much of the wonderful possibilities in the republic across the sea, he emigrated to America in 1847, locating first in the state of Xew York. In [849 he removed to Wisconsin, landing at Milwaukee. Later he came to Lyons township, Walworth county, and here sought employment, finally securing work on the large farm of John Spoor, an early settler living east of the village of Lyons. Later he rented a farm, in the operation of which he prospered, so that in the early fifties he was enabled to buy a tract of forty acres, around what is now known as Indian
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources...its war record, biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers1882 · page 835Read the page →
Read the text
Bloomfield is the extreme southeastern town in Walworth County, and is bounded north by the town of Lyons ; south by the town of Richmond, Illinois ; east by the town of Wheatland, Kenosha County ; and west by the town of Linn. It contains thirty-six square miles of varied and diversified country, well watered, and admirably adapted to agricultural pursuits, Bloom Prairie, in the southwestern portion of the town, being considered the richest land in the county.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources...its war record, biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers1882 · page 809Read the page →
Read the text
Details of the settlement of the villages of Lyons and Springfield will be given further on, in the space devoted to these topics. Following is a list of persons who settled in the town of Lyons from 18.37 to 1848, inclusive : 1837 — Thomas Lyon, Sr.,* Fletcher Lyon and Thomas Lyon, Jr., Section 10; Allen Perkins, Section 10; John Brown, Section 35 ; James Curran,* Section 27 ; Daniel Campbell,* Section 4.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the National Register
1 historic place in Lyons
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1980
Meyerhofer Cobblestone House
Buildings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds
Lyons’s post office has been open since 1848. Another post office, Hudson, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Hudson
Lyons
Springfield
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Motors Mobile Home ParkSpringfield
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Lyons
HudsonSaint Francis DesalesSaint JosephSaint Kilian CatholicUnion
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Lake Geneva8 historic placesB+Burlington4 historic placesABloomfieldIts storyB−BurlingtonIts storyCBohners LakeIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGenevaIts storyC+Spring Prairie3 historic placesA−BloomfieldIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLake IvanhoeIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town
Questions about Lyons’ history
What year was Lyons founded?
The Lyons post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lyons rank for history?
Lyons is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #102 of 362 in Wisconsin. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Lyons?
One place: the Meyerhofer Cobblestone House (listed 1980).
How old are the homes in Lyons?
18% of Lyons’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1976.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.