Theophilus Lyon:

Theophilus Lyon was the fifth child of Elhanon Lyon and Hannah Tilden who were married in 1734. Hanah was the daughter of David and Abigail (Pitcher) Tilden. Theophilus was born in Stoughton, MA in 1745.

Theophilus began his military service in the French and Indian War. In 1762 he was in Captain Timothy Hamants Company alongside his brothers; Elhanan and David.

Theophilus bought the Tilden House from his brother-in-law in 1773 for 200 pounds. In 1773 Captain Theophilus Lyon began a tannery on the site. According to Huntoon's History of Canton: "...In old times these were small tan-yards in the country towns to which th neighbors carried their hides to be sold or to be cured. Theophilus Lyon was the owner of one just below the dam on Pleasant Street, where Pequit Brook leaves Reservoir Pond. A citizen records in 1777, 'Lyon has my horse hide'; in 1782 ' carry Lyon five loads of bark.' "

By 1786, the tannery had expanded to the point that the 41 year-old Theophilus, now a "gentleman," sold one half of the tannery to George Crosman, Jr. Together Crosman and Lyon's Tannery continued for another year until the Tilden House was sold along with 27 acres of land (including one half of the tanyard) in 1787 to Zachariah Howard, the new minister of the First Congregational Church. The Crosman portion of the tannery appears to have continued after the 1787 sale to Howard and is shown on a 1794 map of Stoughton.