Thanks, dj, I didn’t know Lyon left VT for KY. I don’t think the term “populist” was used until the 1880s or later. He was a VT U.S. House member.
Most of the terms we’d use today weren’t then, but I’d tend to ascribe the more rough-hewn members, as opposed to the more upper-class aristocratic types, as a populist sort. Moving out west to KY & AR was the best thing for Lyon’s career, as he was more of that type of Western politician. A little too coarse for the more refined Eastern Vermonters.
He continued his political career in Western KY without missing a beat, got elected to the state legislature at Frankfort a year after leaving Vermont & DC in 1802 and returned a year after that back to DC in Congress. After he was defeated in 1811, he moved to Arkansas Territory and came close to being elected U.S. Delegate in 1821. He died there a year later and was initially buried in Western AR, but had him returned to Eddyville, KY, which had been his hometown while serving in Congress.
Eddyville is the county seat of Lyon County, which is named for Matthew Lyon’s family (accredited to his son, Chittenden, who also served a stint in the KY legislature and Congress). Chittenden is buried near his father. When I think of “Lyon”, it’s a name I associate with Western KY.