Down memory lane with E.B. Lyon & Sons

Marshall Lyon stands beneath the sign for E.B. Lyon & Sons, a family-owned and operated business in Mineral for 85 years. Lyon closed the doors in 2006 to the business his father started in 1921. (BCR photo/Lyle Ganther)

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MINERAL — Eighty-five years. That’s the number etched in a Mineral man’s mind, when it comes to his family-owned and operated business.

Marshall Lyon, 77, of Mineral first started working for his father’s business, E.B. Lyon & Sons, as a 10-year-old boy. Lyon closed the doors to the business in November of 2006.

“It was tough to close the doors finally, but I couldn’t make enough money and take care of my wife who is totally disabled,” he said.

“My dad started in 1921 as an automotive repair shop on Main Street on the east end,” he recalled. “He rented a building, and when the owner raised the rent, he bought a building across the street and moved it to the highway. He later added to it and sold Chevys in 1935 and 1936 and Willys in 1937.”

After World War II, Lyon’s father, Errold Lyon, started selling GE appliances at the business, which was done for more than 50 years until 2003 or 2004, he added.

His first electrical work job was in 1939 and was wiring farmhouses in 1941, so when electricity became available, it could be used for water pumps, heaters and furnaces.

Lyon’s father bought a building uptown in 1951 that was a  combination grocery and hardware store. Marshall started working for his father in 1951 after coming back from the service. His older brother, Kaye, also worked in the business until he went to work at the strip mines. He died in 1996.

The business helped put in wiring and plumbing for the village of Mineral in the 1950s when the village’s waterworks building was constructed. They also did the trenching for about one-third of the village.

After Marshall’s brother started working for the strip mine, Marshall worked with his nephews in the family-owned and operate business.

“We worked mainly north of town in the 1950s and 1960s when many of the farmers raised hogs and cattle,” he said. “We worked in Sheffield and Annawan areas as well.”

E.B. Lyon had three trucks going out during this time because the business had 10 to 20 jobs at a time which the employees were working on in the area.

Marshall was also first appointed the village’s water system operator in 1954 and did this part-time work for 53 to 54 years before quitting the end of January.

Lyon’s sister, Betty Humphreys, who recently died, helped with the business’ bookwork while their father went up to the store; he died when he was 91 years old.

E.B. Lyon & Son also sold hardware as well as doing plumbing, electrical, furnace, heating and air conditioning.

“We worked for four different villages and township, three fire districts, four doctors, three bank presidents, Kewanee Hospital at the Sheffield Clinic, lawyers, judges, state of Illinois, Bureau County, 13 different churches, six schools and three or four generations of the same families,” he added.

Marshall cared for his disabled wife and went to the store for 30 minutes to do bookwork at the end until he decided to quit doing this because of his age. He sold the building last September and moved much of the inventory to a warehouse.

Lyon said the business couldn’t have lasted for 85 years without the loyal support of its customers from the Mineral, Neponset, Sheffield, Manlius, Hooppole and New Bedford areas.

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