Background
He was born in Colrain, Franklin County, Massachusetts, April 18, 1807.
He was born in Colrain, Franklin County, Massachusetts, April 18, 1807.
He graduated from Union College in 1827.
He was a songwriter who composed "Hawaiʻi Aloha", which was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998. Lyons spent the last 28 years of his life as postmaster in the district surrounding Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii. Ordained as a Congregationalist minister at Auburn Theological Seminary, September 20, 1831.
Participant of the fifth company from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, they arrived in the South Kohala district of the island of Hawaiʻi on May 17, 1832.
He spent the remainder of his life dedicated to the native Hawaiians. His Waimea parish eventually included the districts of Kohala and Hāmākua, making it the largest mission station in Hawaiʻi.
During his tenure, Lyons was responsible for the erection of fourteen churches, such as Imiola Church where he is buried. He was district postmaster from 1858 until his death.
Review Lyons died on October 6, 1886, and is buried at Imiola Church Cemetery in Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii.
Son Curtis Jere Lyons was born June 27, 1833, attended Punahou School and graduated from Williams College in 1858. After attending Union Theological Seminary for two years, he returned to Hawaii and became a reporter. He died on September 24, 1914.
Son Albert B. Lyons (1841-1926) was the founding secretary of the scientific section of the American Pharmaceutical Association.
Samoan writer John Kneubuhl wrote a play based on his life titled "The Harp in the Willows" in 1946. lieutenant was one of the first published works to use Hawaiian Creole English (known as "Pidgin").