Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 Charles Lyon

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Friday, April 1, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 8 (sic - should be 9)

CHARLES LYON

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us tonight a man who," etc., etc.------you know the rest.

This will introduce to you one Charles Lyon, who chances to be our esteemed fellow townsman by reason of his persistency in the matter of becoming a citizen of this great commonwealth. For this gentleman, if you please, is the same Charles Lyon who whipped the residents of West Broadway and a good part of the city council in a very heated debate as to whether he might locate a lumber yard on that very exclusive highbrow street. You may recall that there was some little argument about the matter. West Broadway didn't want his old, unsightly lumber yard disfiguring their street. Lyon was welcome to come to Fairfield if he wanted to, but if he couldn't come to Fairfield without bringing a lot of lumber piles, then let him stay in Burlington where he came from--or else let him pile his lumber down around the railroad yards some place. In effect, this was what the West Broadway folk said. But Lyon liked Fairfield so well he'd made up his mind to come here anyway, and------well, that's about all there is to it, for Charles Lyon is one of those persistent fellows who usually does what he starts out to do. And he built such a nice and attractive lumber yard that West Broadway folk now point it out to strangers as one of the show places of the town.

You will note that we have, in this picture, attired Charles in evening dress, and of course you will recall that you have never seen him so attired. But this was done to please certain feminine members of his family. They had never seen him in such toggery and wanted to know just how he would look. They tried lots of times to get Charley to doll up in this manner but he always refused until one time, after particularly forceful urging, he consented to go to the tailor and have a suit of the blamed things made.

The tailor began taking measurements and specifications.

"Make the pants pockets big," Charley told him, "and don't put any flaps over the pockets in the coat so I won't have to bother when I want to get out some nails, or a ruler, or a piece of chalk and some string and things like that."

The horrified tailor informed gently that it wasn't customary to put pockets in the pants and coat of a dress suit.

"No pockets?" exclaimed Charley. "Where in Sam Hill do you s'pose I'll carry my jack knife and nails and things, then?"

The order was straightaway cancelled.

You may infer from this that Charles Lyon is rather fond of tools. He is. He is also extremely handy with them. Take it at a Community club banquet, for instance; with only a fork and spoon as his tools for the job he can stow away three times as much food in the same length of time as any member of the club--not excepting even Ernest Peasley or Bill Wells.

No club meeting is complete without a little talk by Charles Lyon. It isn't that he likes to talk so well, but merely because the chairman or the toastmaster always calls on him. You see, he's always got something worth while to say. But he does like to talk at these gatherings because of the democratic spirit which prevails, for Charles Lyon is nothing if he isn't democratic.

Was a good bit of talk of running him for councilman at the election the other day, but even his staunchest admirers thought that was a bit too much honor to accord a man with only four years residence in the town. Just now Charles is developing his wind and muscles up at the high school gymnasium where there is a class of business men taking physical culture treatment after work hours. After a year of two of this careful training this physical condition may be such that he can run a pretty good race--even for mayor.

Although his grandfather and his father, and all his brothers and their children, and some of his cousins--perhaps aunts, too--have been in or are in the lumber business, Charley doesn't get the idea that is the only business on earth. He was brought up in a sawmill, rode log rafts down the Mississippi from Wisconsin and Minnesota and helped saw them up in his father's mill at Burlington. He was in the lumber business in Packwood, and in the planing mill and sash and door business in Burlington--he has been fed up on lumber all his life and what he doesn't know about the business wouldn't make sawdust. Yet the lumber business is only a side issue with Charles Lyon. His real business is hustling for his community. He cheerfully puts in long hours and digs deep into his pockets for the good of the community. You'll always find him on some committee when there's anything to be done, and you'll always find his name pretty well along toward the top of every subscription list which is peddled. He practices philanthropy in its most practical form and measures up a bit like one of his own best pieces of lumber--No. 1 grade, clear, clean, solid, no knots or worm holes, not warped and straight grain.

Altogether, Fairfield folk feel that they cribbed something from Burlington when Charley Lyon brought himself and his lumber business here, for this same Charles Lyon is by way of being something of an asset to this community. And people here don't give a rap if Charley attends the banquets in a business suit; in fact they prefer it, for they're agreed with Charley that a man wants pockets to carry tools in and they know that among the tools he carries in his pockets are his checkbook and purse--and what kind of success would Fairfield have with any enterprise if Charles Lyon had to leave his checkbook at home?