district predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place religion imagesize party profession term_end birth_date term_start order image article_title state name
2nd none none john s. chipman augustus s. porter 24 september 1851 shelburne , vermont detroit , michigan new christian -lrb- swedenborgian -rrb- 200px democrat engineer march 4 , 1845 march 4 , 1839 26 february 1800 march 4 , 1843 january 26 , 1837 united states senator from michigan lucius lyon.jpg lucius lyon
 michigan lucius lyon
lucius lyon

lucius lyon -lrb- february 26 , 1800september 24 , 1851 -rrb- was a us statesman from the state of michigan .
he was born in shelburne , vermont , where he received a common school education and studied engineering and surveying .
he moved to bronson , michigan , in 1821 where he became a land surveyor , eventually becoming the deputy surveyor general of the michigan territory .
in 1829 , he was commissioned to rebuild the fort gratiot lighthouse at the entrance to the st. clair river from lake huron .
in the 1830s , he surveyed a portion of what would become the boundary between illinois and wisconsin .
lucius lyon placed the initial point of the fourth principal meridian on december 10 , 1831 .
he also participated in the survey parties which established the baseline and meridian used to define townships in wisconsin .
his field notebooks recorded considerable detail about the land he surveyed , providing a rich source of information for later researchers .
he was elected as a non-voting delegate to the u.s. congress for the michigan territory , serving 1833 -- 1834 .
on december 11 , 1833 , he presented a formal petition to congress requesting michigan 's admission into the union .
congress delayed consideration of statehood , in part due to a dispute with ohio over the toledo strip and also in part due to opposition from southern states to admit another free state .
from may 11 to june 24 , 1835 , he was a member of the convention that drafted the first michigan constitution , which voters adopted in october , 1835 .
in november 1835 , lyon was elected as u.s. senator .
however michigan 's delegation to congress was seated as `` spectators '' , pending michigan 's admission as a state .
upon michigan 's admission as a state on january 26 , 1837 , lyon served as a full u.s. senator until 1839 .
on march 28 , 1836 , lyon was a witness to the treaty of washington of 1836 , in which the ottawa and chippewa nations of indians ceded much of the land in the northern portion of the lower peninsula of michigan .
he was also witness to a separate treaty on may 9 , 1836 with the chippewa in which additional land was ceded .
he did not run for reelection in 1839 and moved to grand rapids , michigan .
he was a member of the board of regents of the university of michigan , 1837 -- 1839 , and was appointed indian commissioner at la pointe , wisconsin in 1839 .
he was elected as a democrat from the newly formed 2nd district in michigan to the 28th congress , serving one term from march 4 , 1843 to march 4 , 1845 .
he was the first person to represent michigan in both the u.s. senate and u.s. house .
in both houses of congress he served on the committee on public lands .
he did not run for reelection and was appointed by president james k. polk in 1845 as surveyor general for ohio , indiana , and michigan .
he moved the office for this post from cincinnati , ohio to detroit , michigan and served in this capacity until 1850 .
lyon was also a major financial backer of hiram moore , an inventor and a founder of the village of climax , michigan .
moore reportedly invented a working farm machine in the 1830s and 1840s that `` combined '' the functions of a threshing machine and a reaper , decades before combines were commonly available .
moore 's designs were allegedly copied by cyrus mccormick and despite many years of legal wrangling , moore was unsuccessful in pursuing his patent claims .
he also owned a large tract of land in grand rapids , michigan and engaged in a feud over platting the area with the other major land owner , louis campau .
lyon wanted to call it the village of kent rather than grand rapids .
lyon is also remembered in grand rapids for attempting to commercialize salt deposits in the city by boring a hole and extracting salt from the brine water below .
in politics he was democrat , in religion a swedenborgian .
he was also a temperance advocate associated with the washingtonian movement .
lucius lyon died in detroit and was interred in elmwood cemetery .
south lyon , michigan , lyon township , oakland county , michigan , lyon township , roscommon county , michigan , lyon lake , fredonia , michigan and lyons township , michigan are all named after lucius lyon .
notably , in 1836 , lucius lyon purchased much of the property in a small village in ionia county , michigan and renamed it lyons , michigan .
he platted the village , established the first post office and installed his brother , truman , as the first postmaster , although he never lived in the village .
