Joseph Foster Lyon, son of Isaac Lyon and Sarah Blodgett, was born at Harford, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1825; came to Waukegan in 1844; to Woodstock in 1850; to Darien in 1854. He married July 26, 1854, at Beloit, Arimathea. daughter of Truman Jones and Elizabeth Kinne. A few years later he went to California and soon returned to Darien. where he studied law and in 1864 was admitted to practice. He served a few terms as justice of the peace, eight terms as member of the county board, and in 1868 as assemman, chosen over Julius A. Treat.
In 1875 he was appointed clerk of the circuit court, and served a full term by election, from 1875 to his death, December 2, 1902, his home was at Elkhorn. Mrs. Lyon, who was granddaughter of Amasa and Azubah Jones, and whose mother was daughter of Stephen Kinne and granddaughter of Gideon Kinne and Thankful Hewitt, died November 7, 1872, leaving children, Ari May (Mrs. C. W. Ferson), Jay Forrest (now county judge), and Vernette M. (Mrs. George M. Dunham).
Mr. Lyon married December 10, 1873, Amelia L., Daughter of Leander Dodge and Harriet, daughter of Orange Carter. She was born at Darien, May 17, 1840; died at Chicago, October 10, 1906. Mr. Lyon was an intelligent student of legal principles, and was an ingenious reasoner. He had also a marvelous memory of the statute books, himself almost a living index to their contents — often able to stand in court and trace a chapter from its passage in the forties through one or more amendments to its repeal in the seventies, he looking backward from eighties or nineties. Besides, he was a part of the age in which he lived, in touch with its spirit, and moving forward with its progress; and, moreover, was one of the kindest of men and neighbors. His brother, Charles Lysander, born September 1, 1829, has been coroner since 1883.
From: Beckwith, A.C. (1912). History of Walworth County Wisconsin