In another century, on another continent, Matthew Lyon might have been called a Renaissance man. But on the frontiers of America this rough-hewn Irish immigrant was simply the man who did the work that needed to be done. He was an entrepreneur, an inventor, a soldier, a politician, and a publisher. He founded the town of Fair Haven. Vermont, and was instrumental in bringing the state of Vermont into existence. He was a U.S. Congressman from two states. More important, perhaps, he marked the ballot which made Thomas Jefferson president of the United States.

Lyon was born 14 July 1749 south of Dublin, Ireland. He attended school there, but in his early teens he was apprenticed to a printer and bookbinder in Dublin. In 1764, after a couple of years' apprenticeship, he emigrated from Ireland to America. His passage was paid to the ship's captain by a Jabez Bacon of...