Lorenzo Branch Lyman was born in 1828 in New York State. He moved to Wisconsin and studied law. Lyman lived in California from 1849 to 1858, before returning to Wisconsin. In 1864, he moved to the newly established Montana Territory, settling in the Gallatin Valley. He later practiced law in Helena, Montana Territory, and served as register of the United States General Land Office there from 1869 to 1875. Lyman married Mary E. Hawkins in Wisconsin in 1858. Their daughter, Sylvia Rozeffie, was born in 1865, and a son, Hershel Branch, was born in 1867. After Mary's death in 1870, Lorenzo Lyman married Fannie A. (Amy Frances) Patterson in 1871, and the couple had two sons: Rollin Arch in 1873, and Ocean Atlantis in 1875. Fannie died and was buried in California in 1912. Lorenzo passed away in Helena, Montana, in 1914 and was buried alonside first wife Mary in Helena's Benton Avenue Cemetery.
Lorenzo Branch Lyman's 1899 autobiography documents the Lyman family's intital settlement in Gallatin County, Montana Territory and early development of Lyman's land and water rights claim on Lyman Creek, which is located in the Bridger Mountain Range northeast of Bozeman, Montana. There are also details about interactions with Indians, hunting, and Lyman's appointment as the register of the land office in Helena, Montana. The document is a transcription of Lyman's autobiography and is told in the third person.
This collection is open for research.
A typed transcription of an original document written by Lorenzo Branch Lyman was prepared by Merrill G. Burlingame sometime prior to 1967 and subsequently donated to the Montana State University Library. The location of the original is unknown.
This collection was processed 2012 March 15
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT