I have some interest in early oil production in Johnson Co. KY. My g-g-grandfather, Hamilton Lyon moved to the Paintsville area in Johnson Co. to drill for oil in 1860. There is evidence he had some success, but there is also family lore that indicates he wasn't so successful. His granddaughter, Elizabeth Prowse, wrote, "In after years machinery strewn along the Big Sandy was referred to as 'Lyon's Folly'. Hamilton died a poor man and is buried near Paintsville, Kentucky. Many of his descendants live in Salyersville and Paintsville." In 1865 Hamilton gave a report on oil production. He wrote, "Of the 'Spradlin Well,' on 'Little Mud Lick,' the property of the Cliff Spring Co.,' which I am superintending, I am unable to give you anything like a definite record. The first 300 feet were bored before the war, and records lost. I doubt very much if one could be got, from the fact that the gas has always carried the borings off. At 330, however, I am satisfied I struck the first Limestone; and at 341 a stratum of Shale, similar to that struck by Brown at 346. This was succeeded by Limestone, which has continued to where I am at present, 410." In 1898 John James McLaurin wrote, "At the mouth of the [Oil-Spring] Fork, in 1860, Lyon & Co. drilled a well two-hundred feet, tapping three veins of heavy oil and retiring from the scene when "the late unpleasantness " began to shake up the country..What an innumerable array of nice calculations this cruel war nipped in the bud!" (John James McLaurin Sketches in Crude Oil: Some Accidents and Incidents of the Petroleum Development in All Parts of the Globe Page 49-50 Published 1898 by the author) I wonder if anyone has a connection to early oil production in eastern KY, and the Paintsville/Johnson Co. area in particular and could shed some light on the subject, or help identifying some of the places. I am especially interested if anyone has heard of "Lyon's Folly". And, of course, I'm interested in making connections with other LYONs in the area. While the family name is LYON, some branches of it in that area have become LYONS. I have seen Hamilton's brother, Southwell, listed as "South Lions" in census records!