David Nelson Lyon was born in 1842 in Salisbury, NY, to David Lyon (1809-1844) and Deborah Peek (1812-1879).

David completed religious education and became a Presbyterian minister. He taught for a while during early adulthood, but was reportedly not adept at classroom discipline,. In 1869, he married Mandana Eliza Doolittle (1840-1934). Five months later, in January 1870, the couple had settled in Soochow, China, where David served as a missionary. The couple then moved to Hangchow (Hangzhou), where the first five of their seven children were born. Details of his first chapter of ministry are available in his Hangchow Journal of 1870, published in 1936.

In late 1879 or early 1880, the Lyon family returned to live in Wooster, OH. David was recalled to China in about 1886, and his family remained in Ohio so that the children could continue their education, particularly at the College of Wooster, where they benefited from free tuition on account of their father's missionary status.

Apart from possible sabbaticals (which seem to have placed David in Wooster in 1892 and 1900), David seems to have remained in ministry until about 1904. Thereafter, he lived with Mandana in Ovid, NY, where he died in 1927.

Mandana Eliza Doolittle was born in 1840 in Townsend, VT, (likely Townshend, VT), to Willard Doolittle (1805-1856) and Sophia Babcock (1803-1891).

In 1869, Mandana married Reverend David Nelson Lyon (1842-1927), with whom she would eventually have seven children. Shortly after marrying, the couple moved to China, where David served as a missionary. In 1876, Mandana opened a school in Hangchow (Hangzhou) for the education of Chinese children, especially girls, who were otherwise often excluded from formal instruction.

Mandana returned to Wooster, OH, with her family in about 1880. Some accounts suggest she remained with her children when David returned to his ministry in China in the mid-1880s; other accounts suggest she went with her husband and retired in 1910. By 1920, in any case, Mandana had settled with David in New York. She died in Pebble Beach, Monterey, CA, in 1934. Her Mother of Seven: Reminiscences (1937) were posthumously published by her daughter, Abbie, under the pseudonym 'Lyon Sharman.'

David graduated from College of Wooster and McClinclock Theological Seminary in Chicago. He returned to China and founded the first student YMCA there in 1895. He and his wife later founded the Korea YMCA movement, and helped to start the YMCA in the Philippines. For further biography, see profile by Donald E. MacInnis at Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. .

Charles was a physician, and possibly specialized in osteology. He was a medical missionary as chief physician at Rose Bachman Memorial Hospital for Men in Tsining-Chou, China (now Jining of Shandong Province). He also contributed a series of photographs to Chinese history text, Tong Jian Zong Lei.

Sophia was an important religious modernist and progressive educator. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Presbyterian University of Wooster, Columbia University, and Union Theological Seminary. For a full biography, see the chapter by M. Susan Harlow in .

John moved to Manitoba in 1902, was coach of the Calgary Tigers, and employed by the Manitoba Rolling Mills for 18 years. He and his wife co-founded the Canada Ingot Iron Company with his sister, Abbie, and her husband.

Walter graduated from Cornell College, and then managed a poultry department.

The eldest of eleven children, Henry Burton Sharman (1865-1953) was born in 1865 in Stratford, ON, to farmer Joseph Sharman (1841-1922) and teacher and organist Isabella Logan (1843-1924).

Henry began his professional life studying Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science at the Ontario Agricultural College. He then assisted his father in farming and foundry work. Moving to Manitoba to be closer to tracts of family farmland, he decided to attend Normal School and then teach. He continued his education, achieving a BSc, after which he taught at the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in Guelph for two years.

During his time at OAC, Henry became involved with youth movements like the YMCA and the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) for Foreign Missions, two organizations that also attracted the interests of the Lyon siblings, among whom Henry found a future wife, Abbie Lyon (1872-1957). The two married in 1896 and consequently left their roles with the YMCA and SVM, deciding to pursue respective doctorate degrees. Henry earned his PhD in New Testament History and Literature at the University of Chicago, where he remained as a lecturer until 1909. During the ensuing decade and a half, he co-founded the Canada Ingot Iron Company; renewed his involvement with the YMCA and YWCA; lectured part-time at the University of Toronto; wrote and published religious content; and began leading intensive discipleship seminars, a project that would continue until the mid-1940s. In the late 1920s, he was professor in the History Department at Yenching University in Peking, China, and then taught at Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania.

Retiring to California in 1933, Henry died in Monterey in 1953.