Judge John W. Brown was undoubtedly a great man. Serving two terms in Congress from 1833 to 1837; a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846; elected in 1849 to the Supreme Court and again in 1857, his life was one of unceasing activity, influence and power. His greatness as a judge may be inferred from the remarkable circumstance that no decision made by him was ever reversed by the Court of Appeals, of which court he was himself a member, under the system then prevailing, during the last years of his successive terms as a judge of the Supreme Court.
It is not strange that one who was born to the heritage of such a name should have sought to add, as indeed he has added, to its luster in a succeeding generation.
It was while Charles F. Brown was district attorney of Orange County that John W. Lyon became an official of the county through his appointment to the office of assistant district attorney. The career of the Lyons, father and son, now covers a practice of sixty-one years in Port Jervis, the longest period of continuous practice at the bar carried over from father to son, in Orange County.
Thomas J. Lyon, or, as his friends affectionately preferred to call him, Tom Lyon, was a man of great native talent and marked originality. Beginning life as a Methodist preacher, but coming to prefer the more extended opportunities for usefulness afforded by the law, his fame in the fifties soon spread from the Delaware to the Hudson. Throwing himself with ardor into the exciting political contests which marked this period, he was in constant demand as a campaign speaker and his political services were recognized by a lucrative appointment under the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Twice elected to the Assembly and once a candidate of his party for the Senate, his abilities always received the cordial recognition of the public with whom he kept constantly on good terms. The announcement that he was to speak at a political gathering was always sure to attract a large attendance of adherents of the opposite party for they knew they would be entertained by his sallies though they might not be seduced by his arguments.
His control over juries was due to a mingling of magnetism and humor. He could touch the chord of sentiment and the response was immediate. He could cover his opponent with ridicule and the result was contagious and convulsive laughter. No weapon is more powerful at any time than gentle banter and no one knew better how to employ its arts to the discomfiture of an adversary than Thomas J. Lyon.
His son, John W., inherits his ability and much of his originality. He, too, has always taken a deep interest in politics and he has been heard on the platform in every campaign since 1872.
He was the pioneer of the bar in that branch of the practice which has since assumed such proportions, railway litigation. He was the first to carry to the Court of Appeals many important questions, relating to the liability of the master for injury to the employee, which were settled by that court in favor of the positions contended for by him.
A most interesting feature in the genealogy of the profession is the fact that the daughter of John W. Lyon, Frances D. Lyon, is also a lawyer duly admitted to practice, having supplemented her studies in her father's office by a course at the Cornell Law School from which she graduated with honor, subsequently passing her examinations before the State Board. She is now engaged in practice with her father, to whom her aid is invaluable in the office, while she has also shown marked ability in her appearances at court.
Thus we have in the Lyons the only family in Orange County, except the Gott family, in which there have been three successive generations of lawyers bearing the same name.
Eugene A. Brewster and George R. Brewster cover a period of sixty years' continuous practice, the elder Brewster having been admitted in 1848. The judgment of his associates, placing Eugene A. Brewster in the front rank of the lawyers of his time, has already been expressed. Upon his death his son, George R., succeeded to his practice in the same office to which for so many years the friends of his father were accustomed to bend their steps and where they never received any but the most wise and judicious counsel. George R. Brewster inherits the sound judgment and conservative instincts of his father and well maintains the dignity and responsibilities of his honorable name and lineage. His public spirit and devotion to every worthy cause are among the most conspicuous of his traits of character. Possessed of ample means and under no spur of necessity he gives freely to the public all the time he can spare from a practice which has been attended with great success, one of the most notable of his recent legal victories having been gained in restraining the building of a railroad across his client's property.