Lyman, Edward Leo

Edward was born 4 Jan 1857 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Ut.  to Amasa Mason Lyman and Lydia Partridge Lyman.  He died 22 May 1906 Oak City, Millard, Ut

The Lyman web site includes information about him.  http://sites.google.com/site/edwardleolyman/    or http://ell.lymansite.us/

He married Mary Maranda Callister  and they had 10 children.
Mary was married to Edward Leo Lyman, Sr. in the Endowment House, 14 November 1878 by D. H. Wells. He was 21 and she was 24. They set up housekeeping in one room of Caroline Lyman’s3 home in Oak City where Edward was associated with his brothers in the sawmill business. They spent their honeymoon at the sawmill.
      Mary was staying in Fillmore with her mother when her first child was born 22 Aug. 1879. The baby was stillborn and the young mother nearly lost her life. Mary was advised by her Doctor never to attempt to have another child as it would mean almost certain death. She did go ahead and have her family, 10 children. Ida May (stillborn,) Edward Leo Jr., Philomela (Millie), Lydia, Frank Arthur, Thomas Callister (Callis), Willis Jay, Evelyn (stillborn), Clara and Alma Rich.

    Edward actually went on the Hole in the Rock expedition, which was the reason he was away when his first child was born. On his second trip to San Juan he had built a log cabin in Bluff, Utah and expected to return with his family. Mary, however, did not want to move to the desolate Four-corners area away from family and civilization. Mary’s uncle George A. Smith told her that she would not have to go to the San Juan. On Edward’s return to Millard County to get his wife he had two horses die and almost didn’t survive himself. This trip convinced him that he didn’t want to move to the San Juan.
     This is one of the letters he wrote home to Mary while he was on the trek to San Juan: 

Gunsite Crossing Dec 14, 1879
Dear Mary [in Fillmore]
            I received your letter dated 21st on the 10th and I was very glad to get it as I have only heard from home twice since I left home but I expect there is two or three letters on the road for me. I got the papers all right but have not had much time to read yet. I have left the cattle and am going to work on the road for a week or two it is a hard road to travel from Escalante to here the teams can make from 2 ½ miles to 6 miles in a day and they have to double a good deal of the way the last five miles is over solid rock a good deal of the way and some places it goes over rock hills so steep that they have to put three or four spans on one wagon to get over some places the wagons have to be held to keep them from going over and the road is so steep in some parts that the horses and brake cannot hold the wagon and it goes down spinning but we got here all right. We are camped about one mile from the Colorado and it is the roughest place to make a road I ever say you can not immagen anything half as rough I have never seen any place in the Oak Creek mountains near as rough and there is twice as much work in six miles on the other side as there is on this and what there is beyond that we don’t know.
        I think I will go down to the river today as I have not been down there yet I went part way down yesterday we had to go down about forty feet on a road but we have got a trail worked around the rock where a man with a clear head can go down without a roap. I must stop and eat breakfast. I have ate and am going down to the river I am going to take some fish hooks down they catch fish over two feet long. Bro. Smith is coming today and they are going to have a meeting it is very comfortable here the weather is warmer there now than it was there when we left home. We are 240 miles from home and I expect we will have to go 80 miles farther but we don’t know there will be nearly 100 wagons when they get together.
      Bro. Smith is going to start back to Parowan tomorrow to see bro Snow and get powder and tools it will be two or three months before we will get to San Juan so it will be some time before I will get back home but you must keep up your spirits darling and it will all come out right after a while. I am glad you did not take the school for I don’t want you to work so hard any more for I am better able to work than you are Mary and nothing will make me happier than to work for you darling all my life for I love you more and more every day of my life and when we get a home we can enjoy our selfs
more than we have before. Tell Fred I would like to write to him but I have not got time today. I have got a horse that will just suit him to hunt deer on I have rode my horse twice and I never saw a better horse to break there is lots of rase where the cattle are and they are doing well. Alma Steavens and I started from the heard last Tuesday we hunted half a day and found a beef and then went about 15 miles our horses gave out and we had to camp without any hiding. Se sat up all night and by that means we got an early start the next morning and went 15 miles to where we expected the folks were but they had moved on 10 miles so we asked some folks for some grub and then went on
and got there about sundown with our horses all give out it is the worst road to travel over I ever saw - good bye my darling little wife. -E.L. Lyman.  (437-443_1879_Dec14_Eddy_to_Mary.doc)    found at http://sites.google.com/site/edwardleolyman/hitr-letters
Additional letters can be found on the site.

Mary's letter on January 2, 1880 from Oak Creek says, “I was so afraid that you were suffering with the cold.... I am afraid you will get hurt working at such work I am sure it must be dangerous don't go down such steep places anymore it scares me to read about it... Give my love to Ida and May, I am so glad they are enjoying the trip. It will be your birthday day after tomorrow O Eddy how I do wish I could make you a nice present or could see you...”

Eddy took the time to chisel his name, “EL Lyman”, at Register Rock on the east side of the river. After arriving in Bluff on April 6, 1880, Eddy left the new Bluff to return to Oak Creek on April 29th. He arrived home in Oak Creek exhausted and worn out on May 24th 1880.
On November 5, 1880 Edward left Oak Creek again to travel to Bluff to work, spend the winter, and prepare to settle  there. He arrived at Bluff City on January 1, 1881. Later that following summer he returned to Oak Creek.

Edward and Mary decided to stay in Oak City instead of going to San Juan. The Lyman Brothers organized into “The Lyman Brothers Co.” Edward bought a lot and built a small home. Mary taught school to help out the family finances, even though children were coming along regularly. Fire destroyed the two sawmills, one after the other and the Lyman Brothers were so in debt that they went to work for the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Co. to pay off the indebtedness. Edward and Mary moved to Ogden in the summer of 1888. The family lived in Ogden11 until 1897 when the debt was paid.

The great tragedy of Mary's life was the death of her beloved husband, on May 22, 1906 of pneumonia. With the help of her sons she managed the farm, and was both father and mother to her children. She moved to Delta in the spring of 1912 to be with her boys who were farming there. She was called to be the President of the Relief Society in the new Deseret Stake Aug. 11, 1912. She was devoted to her calling and earned the love and respect of the women of the stake. She bought a one seated buggy so that she could travel around the stake in her duty. She was released March 27, 1921.

Mary and Ed Lyman family 1885  (High quality resolutions can downloaded for a fee at: http://picasaweb.google.com/carl.lyman/ELLymanFamilyPhotos#
The collection includes photos of Lyman and Callister grandparents as well as Edward and Mary and their family.