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Cyrus Lyon |
Sanford Lyon |
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Cyrus Lyon |
Sanford Lyon |
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Of our gallant comrade, Cyrus Lyon, the language of the immortal Byron can be well applied:
"Of all our band,
Though firm of heart and strong of hand,
In skirmish, march, or forage, none
Can less have said or more have done."
Cyrus Lyon stayed mainly in Los Angeles. With all the lawlessness in the pueblo of Los Angeles, a strong law enforcement group was needed to keep order. The Los Angeles Rangers were appointed by Don Ignacio del Valle, the mayor of Los Angeles to put a stop to the disorder. Cyrus Lyon at 21 yrs old was appointed a captain under Horace Bell and was one of their most efficient rangers.
Cyrus Lyon also followed first cousin Francis Mellus and partner David Alexander’s lead in becoming one of the first Americans to own property in the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles. During the 1850’s he owned property in Rancho Cahuenga, Rancho Los Feliz, and Rancho Providencia. It was during this time that Cyrus became the father of Jose Enrique "Henry" Lyon. Henry’s mother was Nicolasa Triunfo who was descended from the Basilio Rosas family, one of the original eleven families that settled the Pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781. Nicolasa Triunfo was the daughter of Jose Miguel Triunfo who was an ex-San Fernando Mission Indian born around 1810. He had been granted Rancho Cahuenga by Mexican Governor Manuel Micheltorena in 1843 for services performed at the Mission. He traded this property with Francisco and Pedro Lopez a few years later for Rancho Tujunga. Francisco Lopez is the same individual that discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in 1842. Jose Miguel Triunfo was one of the few Indians that were able to obtain and keep property. His wife, Maria Rafaela (Canedo) Arriola was a "Gente de Razon", that being a member of the established Christian community. Miguel and wife Rafaela can be found in the 1850 census of Los Angeles.
During the summer, I had occasion to go to Fort Tejón to see George C. Alexander, a customer, and I again asked Sam Meyer if he would accompany me. Such a proposition was always agreeable to Sam; and, having procured horses, we started, the distance being about one hundred and fifteen miles.
We left Los Angeles early one afternoon, and made our first stop at Lyons's Station, where we put up for the night. One of the brothers, after whom the place was named, prepared supper. Having to draw some thick blackstrap from a keg, he used a pitcher to catch the treacle; and as the liquid ran very slowly, our sociable host sat down to talk a bit, and soon forgot all about what he had started to do. The molasses, however, although it ran pretty slowly, ran steadily, and finally, like the mush in the fairy-tale of the enchanted bowl, overflowed the top of the receptacle and spread itself over the dirt floor. When Lyons had finished his chat, he saw, to his intense chagrin, a new job upon his hands, and one likely to busy him for some time.
Departing next morning at five o'clock we met Cy Lyons, who had come to Los Angeles in 1849 and was then engaged with his brother Sanford in raising sheep in that neighborhood. Cy was on horseback and had two pack animals, loaded with provisions. “Hello, boys! where are you bound?” he asked; and when we told him that we were on our way to Fort Tejón, he said that he was also going there, and volunteered to save us forty miles by guiding us over the trail. Such a shortening of our journey appealed to us as a good prospect, and we fell in behind the mounted guide.
It was one of those red-hot summer days characteristic of that region and season, and in a couple of hours we began to get very thirsty. Noticing this, Cy told us that no water would be found until we got to the Rancho de la Liebre, and that we could not possibly reach there until evening. Having no bota de agua handy, I took an onion from Lyons's pack and ate it, and that afforded me some relief; but Sam, whose decisions were always as lasting as the fragrance of that aromatic bulb, would not try the experiment. To make a long story short, when we at last reached the ranch, Sam, completely fagged out, and unable to alight from his horse, toppled off into our arms. The chewing of the onion had refreshed me to some extent, but just the same the day's journey proved one of the most miserable experiences through which I have ever passed.
The night was so hot at the ranch that we decided to sleep outdoors in one of the wagons; and being worn out with the day's exposure and fatigue, we soon fell asleep. The soundness of our slumbers did not prevent us from hearing, in the middle of the night, a snarling bear, scratching in the immediate neighborhood. A bear generally means business; and you may depend upon it that neither Sam, myself nor even Cy were very long in bundling out of the wagon and making a dash for the more protecting house. Early next morning, we recommenced our journey toward Fort Tejón, and reached there without any further adventures worth relating.
Coming back, we stopped for the night at Gordon's Station, and the next day rode fully seventy miles-not so inconsiderable an accomplishment, perhaps, for those not accustomed to regular saddle exercise.
A few months later, I met Cy on the street. “Harris, said he, “do you know that once, on that hot day going to Fort Tejón, we were within three hundred feet of a fine, cool spring?” “Then why in the devil,” I retorted, “didn't you take us to it?” To which Cy, with a chuckle, answered: “Well, I just wanted to see what would happen to you!”
Land office records for May 1870 for patent applications:The Los Angeles Daily News of March 27, 1872 reports that in Petroleopolis the Owens Valley earthquake of March 26, 1872 was severely felt and the Daily Alta of the same date reported that clocks stopped.
George Gleason, Sanford Lyon, Alexander DeWitt and George J. Clark, know as "Lyon Mining Co." - apply for 1800 feet on the Lyon Lode, land and water privileges, Township 4N, R12W San Bernardino meridian, in the Gleason district.
George J. Clarke, George Gleason, H. H. W. Clarke, Sanford Lyon, Christopher Leaming, Benjamin C. Truman, ask for 1000 feet on the Eureka lode in the Soledad mining district.
