Eli Lyon, the grandfather of our subject, was one of the pioneers of western New York, he being one of the earliest settlers in East Bloomfield, Ontario county. He was there at the first census, and there were at that time just ten families in the town. He was a millwright by profession, and built the first sawmill in the city of Rochester for Judge Gorham. He was the father of two sons and two daughters. Horace, the eldest son, was a mechanic and farmer, and was the father of five children, named respectively Joanna, Sergius P., Horatio, Eli, and Burton, who are all living in the State of Michigan, except Eli and Burton, who are deceased.
Sergius had limited advantages for an education at the common schools of that day, which he attended until thirteen years of age. He was a natural mechanic, and at that early age commenced to work with tools. He soon became engaged in joiner, brass, and clock work, in which he was engaged many years.
At the age of twenty-eight he became acquainted with and married Miss Lucinda W. Davis, of Canandaigua, a native of Bristol. They resided in East Bloomfield until the summer of 1837, when they emigrated to the new State of Michigan and settled in the town of Farmington, where he engaged in building barns, houses, etc. ; many evidences of his superior handicraft may be pointed out today, among which is the fine old family mansion of Joshua Simmons and others.
In 1844 he settled in the village of Farmington and engaged in the manufacture of self regulating stoves, which at that time were almost entirely made by hand from sheet iron ; many of his stoves are still in use in various parts of the country. He continued in this business about thirteen years and changed to that of an undertaker, which he has followed ever since. He now owns and runs two very fine hearses of his own manufacture, and his business extends over a large scope of country. Although having no children of their own, they have reared and brought up to manhood an adopted son, now deceased, and also another child, who is now a young lady and a member of their family.
Mr. Lyon has long been an honored member of the Masonic brotherhood. In religious faith a Universalist, and in politics Democratic. He and his excellent wife are models of kindness and liberality, universally respected, honored and loved by all. And it is with pride and pleasure we chronicle this brief tribute to the character and worth of this old pioneer couple, and present in these pages, as a monument to their memory, their portraits and a view of their residence.