Memorable Manitobans: Robert Fern Lyons (1856-1926)

Farmer, businessman, MLA (1892-1895), MLA (1900-1903), MLA (1903-1907), MLA (1908-1910), MLA (1911-1914).

Born in Leeds County, Ontario on 1 July 1856, son of Michael Lyons and Ann Gardiner, he was educated in the public schools and grammar school at Farmersville, Ontario. He came to Manitoba in 1879 and took up a homestead and established a general store on the plains.

When the Town of Carberry was plotted he and a partner purchased the first two lots sold in the business district on which they erected a building for a department store. On 20 April 1888 he married Jennet Hume (?-1901), a daughter of Thomas Hume, and they had four sons and a daughter.

In 1888 Lyons sold his interest in the department store. He owned twenty-seven hundred acres of land in the Carberry District, on sixteen hundred of which he grew grain and raised high grade stock. For many years he was the largest operator on the stock exchange. He was a stockholder in the Lone Pine Gold Mining and Milling Company Limited and was vice-president of the corporation. A Conservative, he was elected to the Manitoba Legislature as member for Norfolk in 1892 and re-elected in 1899, 1903, 1907, and 1910 but defeated in 1914. He was a Methodist and a Mason.

He died at Carberry on 29 December 1926.

Sources:

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, edited by C. W. Parker, Vancouver: Canadian Press Association, 1911.

The Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1914.

The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.

Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.

Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“R. F. Lyons, Carberry, dies very suddenly”, Manitoba Free Press, 30 December 1926, page 2.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 23 May 2010

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