Caleb Lyon (7 December 1822-8 September 1875) was a member of the US House of Representatives (I-NY 23) from 4 March 1853 to 3 March 1855 (succeeding Leander Babcock and preceding William A. Gilbert) and the Republican Governor of the Idaho Territory from 26 February 1864 to 14 June 1866 (succeeding William H. Wallace and preceding David W. Ballard).
Biography[]
Caleb Lyon was born in Greig, New York in 1822, and, while he was appointed Consul to Shanghai in 1847, Lyon never made it to China, instead moving to California and championing statehood before serving as a delegate to the 1849 California Constitutional Convention. He later returned to New York and served in the State Assembly in 1851, in the State Senate that same year, and in the US House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855 as an Independent. He went on to be appointed Governor of the Idaho Territory by President Abraham Lincoln, and, while he treated the Shohone Indians with leniency, he was unpopular for his alleged misappropriation of public funds. He moved the capital from Lewiston to Boise before he was fired by President Andrew Johnson after an audit showed that he had embezzled $46,418 in federal funds intended for the Nez Perce people, and Lyon returned to his home in Staten Island and died there in 1875.