Ernest A. Lyon
*Ernest Lyon was born on this date in 1860. He was a Black minister, educator, and diplomat.
Ernest A. Lyon was born on the coast of Belize, British Honduras, to Emmanuel Lyon and Ann F. Bending. As a child, Lyon attended an English school in Belize. His father died when he was young; Lyon "became a Christian by experience October 24, 1875." Lyon immigrated to the United States in the mid-1870s to increase his educational opportunities. In 1880, Lyon attended Straight University.
From 1881–1883, he attended the Gilbert Seminary while serving as the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Baldwin, later called Winston. Here, he met his first wife, Abbie J. Wright, who reluctantly married Lyon in a wedding officiated by Rev. W.D. Godman, the president of Gilbert Seminary. Lyon graduated with an A.B. degree in the classics from New Orleans University in 1888. He later earned an A.M. degree in theology from Union Theological Seminary.
Lyon had a D.D. degree from Wiley College and an L.L.D. from the University of Liberia. Lyon was a "member committee" of the Negro Historical and Industrial Association which "invited President Woodrow Wilson to deliver the address on the opening day of 50th-anniversary exposition and celebration of emancipation at Fort Lee, Virginia." Lyons was one of ten people to represent the intellectual contributions of African Americans in an international lecture course hosted by the Maryland State Department of Education in Baltimore.
On June 17, 1893, Lyon married Clara F. Bacchus of Wilmington, Delaware. He was married for a third time on March 28, 1912, to Marie Wright of Baltimore. Together, they had four children: Maud Amelia, Annie Belle, and Ernest Harrison Monroe. In 1915, Lyon resided in Laurel, Maryland. He died of lobar pneumonia at the Johns Hopkins Hospital on July 17, 1938.
