Captain John lyons of st landry parish

Allied Families: Fahey, Doremus, Mudd, Harmanson, Faulkner

The Lyons Family of St Landry Parish

 

John Lyons was born about 1821 in Ireland.¹ According to Lyons family folklore he was trained as a young man to be a ship builder and left Ireland for the America around 16 years of age. John ended up in Louisiana where he married Bridget Delia Fahey, daughter of Edward Fahey and Anne Rice, on October 17, 1845 in St Landry Parish. The Faheys were from Bayou Boeuf and had been in St Landry Parish since before 1810. Bridget was born on November 14, 1822 in St Landry Parish.² John and Bridget had six children, five who lived to adulthood.²

 

John was at one time a commander of steamboats and later a planter.⁴ He was listed on the 1850 St Landry Parish Census as a carpenter (probably a ships carpenter) and as a planter on the 1860 St Landry Parish Census. There was a drawbridge over the Courtableau Bayou, said to have been the first of its kind in the state about two and a half miles below Washington that may have been built by John.⁵

 

Captain Lyons commanded the A Fuselier in late April 1855. Completed at Franklin, Louisiana in 1851, she was a side-wheel steamboat with a displacement of 357 tons. During 1855 she was operating on the Bayou Teche. During the month of May 1855, Captain Lyons assumed command of the Red River on the Bayou Courtableau. She was a side-wheel steamboat completed in Marietta, Ohio in 1850 with a displacement of 276 tons. A stern-wheel completed at Algiers, Louisiana in 1856, the Dick Nash, was engaged in the Washington, Louisiana trade under the command of Captain Lyons in February 1858. The Bayou Belle was under the command of Captain Lyons in January 1860 on the Bayou Courtableau. During the same month Captain Lyons operated the Silver Heels as a packet running between Bayou Courtableau ports and New Orleans. The Silver Heels was a side-wheel steamboat with a wooden hull built at Jefferson, Indiana in 1857.The vessel had three boilers measuring forty inches by twenty-six feet and a displacement of 267 tons. Her dimensions were 187 x 29 x 6 feet. ⁶

 

John and Bridget owned a lot in the city of Washington and a three thousand acre plantation on the Atchafalaya River, both in St Landry Parish, in the early 1860s. The plantation was located somewhere between modern day Melville and Krotz Springs.⁷ Bridget died January 2, 1864 at the city of Washington²and John was killed September 23, 1864 at their Atchafalaya River plantation home. He was called out of his house in the middle of the night by a party of Federal soldiers from Morganza and murdered at his own front door.⁴ According to Lyons family folklore, their son Thomas George was present at the plantation when his father was killed.

 

Their oldest child, Mary Elizabeth Lyons, was born September 1, 1846 in St Landry Parish. Mary Elizabeths nickname was Bettie.¹⁶ She married Edward Peter Doremus on April 22, 1867 in St Landry Parish.² The Doremus Family arrived in this country from Holland about 1685. Edward was born in 1832 and he was a dentist before and after the civil war. He served for the Confederacy in the 28th Thomas' Louisiana Infantry Regiment.⁸ Edward and Mary Elizabeths house was a landmark in the City of Washington, on the corner of Main and Sittig Streets. It was their residence and Dentist office. They had a weight-operated fan in their dining room.⁵ Edward owned the patent on his fan.⁹ According to The Opelousas Courier of May 24, 1879, the Doremus home was the only building on their block to survive the May 1879 fire in the heart of the city of Washington. The Doremus house was burned in the 1902 fire that swept through the town of Washington. Jacob Plonsky built a house in its place in 1904. Today it is the home of the Washington Municipal Public Library, the Michael J Gillespie, MD Memorial Building.¹⁰

 

Edward and Mary Elizabeth had four children. The oldest was John Lyons Doremus was born 1868. Anita D Doremus was born April 1870.¹¹ She married Preston A Reynolds of the Port Barre area.⁵ Bessie Doremus was born 1874.¹² Edward Doremus was born June 4, 1884 and died January 1971 at Iberia, Iberia Parish.¹³,¹⁴

 

Edward Doremus was last found on the 1870 Census of St Landry Parish. Some believe that he died in California before 1910.⁸ Mary Elizabeth was on the 1880 Census of St Landry Parish in the household of her brother Thomas George Lyons with her three youngest children. She was on the 1900 Census of St Landry Parish in the household of Emily Hudspeth with her daughter Anita and son Edward who was born in Switzerland in 1884. Mary Elizabeth was on the 1910 Census of Iberia Parish with her son Edward. In 1920 she was listed in San Diego County, California in the household of her daughter Anita and her husband Preston A Reynolds. Mary Elizabeth died in 1922 in New Orleans.¹⁵

 

John and Bridget Lyons second child was Anne Delia Lyons born June 24, 1848 in St Landry Parish.² She died November 7, 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana.³⁴ Anne was a nun in the Sacred Heart Order at St Michaels.¹⁶

 

Their third child was Hester Priscilla Lyons born December 15, 1849 in St Landry Parish.² Hester married Benjamin Smith Mudd on October 22, 1871 in St Landry Parish.¹⁷ Benjamin had been in the 18th Louisiana Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and had been wounded at Shiloh.¹⁸ Benjamin and Hester lived at the corner of Sittig and Washington Streets on the same block as the Doremus house in the town of Washington. The Mudds house was reported to have burned in the May 1879 fire by The Opelousas Courier. It was rebuilt and again burned to the ground in the 1902 fire.⁵