James Lyons, his wife, Martha and their children immigrated to Texas before 1830 and settled along the Navidad River in the area of present day Schulenburg.
The family lived on a five- hundred-acre tract in the E. Anderson league and their closest neighbor was Keziah Cryer who owned the adjacent league of land. James Lyons and his oldest sons built the family’s dwelling, a double pen “dogtrot” log cabin. James planted crops and raised cattle as most of the early settlers did.
In 1837, the southern section of present day Fayette County was still an unbroken wilderness and largely unsettled and thus unprotected from Indian attack. In the early daylight hours of a fall morning James Lyons and his youngest son, 12-year-old, Warren was tending cattle in a corral near their house when a war party of Comanche Indians suddenly appeared.
James was killed instantly and Warren tried to run back to the house but was caught by the Indians. They tied him down while they went about the business of stealing the family horses and shooting into the house where Martha and the rest of the children had been scared out of their beds. When the Indians were ready to leave, they picked Warren up, threw him onto the back of a horse, tied him down and rode away with him as their captive. He spent many days tied to the horse receiving little food or water until the journey ended in a canyon many miles westward from his home James Lyons was buried next to a daughter and son who had died soon after settling in Texas. Many years later the little family graveyard became the location of the Schulenburg City Cemetery after Martha deeded the land for that specific purpose.
A settlement was established in the area of the family homestead and named alternately, Lyonsville, Lyons Station or Lyons in their honor. The town prospered and had several stores, a Masonic Lodge, a school, and a post office. It was laid out near the 'Cotton Road' to Mexico.
Ten years went by and beyond vague, unreliable reports nothing was heard of Warren. All of his family, except his mother, believed him to be dead.
Warren Lyons remained with the Indians and grew up always believing the rest of his family had been killed on that fateful morning in 1837. He was taught the ways of Indian life and warfare. He became an excellent marksman with both the rifle and bow and arrow. He learned the native language and learned to love the wild, free life of the savage.
In 1847 the Indians, including 22-year-old Warren Lyons, came into the settlements on a trading expedition. Two of his Fayette County neighbors were there and recognized the young man who according to skin and hair color was obviously not a native of the tribe. They spoke to him; confirming his identity and then asked Warren if he wanted to return home to his family. He was surprised to learn that his mother and siblings had survived, but he wished to remain with the Indians as he had two wives and did not want to leave them. After much discussion and a little clever bribery, Warren agreed to visit his mother and accompanied the gentlemen home, wearing the “full garb of a wild Indian.” Once home, Warren had a hard time giving up his “eccentric” Indian ways; he would not wear the clothes given to him or sleep in the house and he refused to ride his horse with either saddle or bridle.
On July 28, 1848, Warren married Lucy Boatright and they became parents of numerous children.
They lived in Lyons and Warren became quite a prosperous businessman and farmer.
Warren never gave up his “eccentric” ways and in 1850, he wrote a letter to the Governor of Texas offering his services to any spy or ranging companies in “the mountains or somewhere on the frontier”.
He reminded the governor that he was “well acquainted in that part of Texas” and if given orders he could “be ready at a moment’s notice.” He got his chance a year later when he served as a Texas Ranger under General Edward Burleson.
After living in Fayette County for many years, Martha Lyons moved to Karnes County and Warren and Lucy Lyons moved to Johnson County.
The town of Lyons died in the 1870s when the Southern Pacific Railroad was built just a few miles north and the city of Schulenburg was founded.
