Historic Lyon Farm in Stonecrest
The Lyon home began as a log cabin, but has been added to and rehabilitated through the years. The Arabia Alliance has stabilized the home. Photo by Valerie Biggerstaff.
Last week I had the opportunity to tour one of the oldest farms in DeKalb County, Lyon Farm, located at 4431 Lyons Road in Stonecrest, Georgia. The tour was a DeKalb Traveler program, made available to members of the DeKalb History Center and presented by staff from Arabia Mountain National Heritage Alliance.
The property is located at the end of Lyons Road and along a section of the Arabia Mountain PATH system. More information is available at the Arabia Alliance website.
The Lyon family owned and lived on this land for almost 200 years. Joseph Emmanuel Lyon (1754-1830) was the first to own and live on the property in 1820. He first came to America as a British soldier during the Revolutionary War. Captured during the Battle of Germantown in 1777, he became a Patriot and fought in several important battles. .
He first settled in South Carolina, later coming to Georgia. Although it was believed he obtained his Georgia land as a bounty for his Revolutionary War service, it is more likely he obtained it through the land lottery or by purchasing the land from the original lottery winner. The land lottery took place when the Muscogee people (sometimes referred to as the Creek) were forcibly removed from Georgia.
Before emancipation, the Lyon family had 13 enslaved people working on their farm in 1850 and 17 people in 1860. This information is available on U.S. Census schedules, which show the individuals more as property than as people. Only their sex, age, and color is indicated. They are not listed by name.
Enslaved workers on Lyon Farm lived in three cabins to the east of the farmhouse, however, those who worked in the home and kitchen lived in the basement of the house. The kitchen would have originally been close but separate from the main house. The three cabins are gone, but there are plans to rebuild them.
The former enslaved people of Lyon Farm would later join with others nearby to form the Flat Rock community.
There are muscadine vines and arbors on the farm, demonstrating a fruit that has likely been there since the Lyon family arrived and even further back to the Muscogee people.
Just one of the muscadine vines with arbor on Lyon Farm. The building in the background is used for storage. Photo by Valerie Biggerstaff
The home that stands has been altered and fortified through the years. The inside of the home is stabilized, but not ready for visitors. The plan is for a tour inside the home which will show how people would have lived in the early days of Lyon ownership.
The property also includes a smokehouse, outhouse, covered and protected well, and structure with fireplace for converting sorghum plants to produce syrup. There is a barn on the property which is beyond repair. Plans include replacing the barn with a new structure which will fit in with this historic farm.
This structure is where sorghum stalks were crushed and the liquid boiled down to produce sorghum syrup.