Mary Ann Lyon (maiden name: White) was born around 1820 in Pennsylvania. She married Henry Baldwin Lyon, and they had at least thirteen children: Mary, born on October 27, 1841; Thomas, born around 1843; Samuel, born on July 15, 1844; Henry, born around 1846; John, born around 1848; Lauretta, born around 1850; Milton, born around 1853; Nancy, born around 1855; Charles, born around 1847; Edwin, born around 1859; James, born around 1863; Alvin, born around 1865; and Carrie, born around 1868. They lived in Shaler, Pennsylvania, and her husband worked as a teacher. They moved to Duquesne, Pennsylvania, in the 1850s and then to Millvale, Pennsylvania, in the 1860s. Her husband died in November 1879, and she died of heart failure in Millvale on March 17, 1892.