Lyons
Town 2 north, range 18 east, was set off from the town of Geneva by Act of January 23, 1844, and was named Hudson. James C. and Thomas K.
Hudson came in 1846 and William Hudson lived there before 1860; but, as their names are not found in earliest records it is not very probable that they
named their town. It is rather likelier that men of Columbia county, New York, chose thus to remind themselves, of their old home. A few years later
the city of Hudson, in St. Croix county, seemed to have the stronger right to the name, and in 1865 the name of the older town was changed to Lyons, to
avoid some geographical confusion. The village of Lyonsdale had been founded, named for the early settling Lyon family and, as Lyons, had become
a railway station and gave its name to the township.