Theodore Lyman III
Theodore Lyman | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th district | |
In office March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1885 | |
Preceded by | William W. Rice |
Succeeded by | Frederick D. Ely |
Personal details | |
Born | Lieutenant Colonel | August 23, 1833
Unit | Army of the Potomac |
Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Theodore Lyman III (August 23, 1833 – September 9, 1897) was a natural scientist, military staff officer during the
Biography
Lyman was born in
The first Theodore, Lyman's grandfather, founded a successful shipping firm in the 1790s in York, Maine, that provided the basis for the family fortune. Theodore, Sr, sought out noted Salem architect, Samuel McIntire, to design and build his country seat, known as the Vale, in the Boston suburb of Waltham. Now known as The Lyman Estate, it is today a park and house museum owned by Historic New England. Mayor Lyman (Theodore, Jr.) served two terms and retired from public office in 1836 upon the sudden death of his wife Mary. His son Ted, as he was known by family and friends, was educated by private tutors and traveled extensively in Europe with his father. Mayor Lyman died in 1849, possibly from a stroke. Young Theodore was sixteen years old.
From his father he inherited a 60-acre (240,000 m2) working farm in Brookline, Massachusetts, called Singletree. His older sister Cora inherited the town house on Beacon Hill, and the two split stocks and investment income amounting to $430,000. Lyman's uncle, George Williams Lyman, took deed to the Vale. Cora's husband, Gardner Howland Shaw, guided Theodore into
Ted Lyman married Elizabeth "Mimi" Russell in 1858. Elizabeth was the daughter of George Robert Russell of Russell & Company, a successful merchant turned philanthropist. Mimi's mother was Sarah Parkman Shaw. Colonel
Lyman returned to the United States in May 1863 and joined the staff of Major General
After the war he became a state Fish Commissioner, later a federal commissioner, and he was one of the first scientists to advocate the widespread use of fish ladders, known then as "fishways." He was a member of the
Ted and Mimi's daughter Cora died in 1869 of a "brain fever." The couple subsequently raised two boys, Theodore IV and Henry. Theodore Lyman IV attained renown as a physicist.
Lyman was elected as an Independent Republican representative to the Forty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1885) on a reform platform. The bipartisan coalition that put him into office collapsed by 1885, and he was passed over for nomination for a second term. He retired to Singletree in Brookline, where he devoted himself to the care of his sons. Through the last decade of his life, he suffered from a debilitating nervous disease. He gradually lost use of his limbs and was unable to continue work at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Despite his paralysis, he was lucid and retained a sense of humor until the end of his life. He died in Nahant, Massachusetts on September 9, 1897, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.
During his life, Theodore Lyman acquired hundreds of acres of land on
Bibliography
- Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Theodore Lyman (1833–1897) and Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. (1834–1905): Two Memoirs Prepared by Charles Francis Adams for the Massachusetts Historical Society. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1906.
- Agassiz, George R. Meade's Headquarters 1863-1865 Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press.
- Bowditch, Henry P. Biographical Memoir of Theodore Lyman. Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, vol. 5, 141–154. Washington, DC, 1905.
- Coleman, Lyman. Genealogy of the Lyman Family in Great Britain and America. Albany, NY: Munsell, 1872.
- Crawford, Mary. Famous Families of Massachusetts, 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1930.
- Lyman, Theodore. With Grant and Meade from the Wilderness to Appomattox. Letters Selected and Edited by George R. Agassiz; Introduction to the Bison Book edition by Brooks D. Simpson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
- Lyman, Theodore. Meade's Army: the Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman. Edited by David W. Lowe. Foreword by John Y. Simon. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2007
- Lyman, Theodore, Meade's Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1922.
References
- Howe, M. A. DeWolfe. Later Years of the Saturday Club, 1870-1920. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1927, 149–153.
- Lowe, David W., ed. Introduction to Meade's Army: the Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman. Kent OH: Kent State University Press, 2007.
- United States Congress. "Theodore Lyman III (id: L000529)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-14