Biography
Richard Roswell Lyman was an American engineer and religious leader who was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1918 to 1943.
Richard Roswell Lyman was born 23 November 1870 in Fillmore, Millard County, Utah, United States to Francis Marion Lyman (1840-1916) and Clara Caroline Callister (1850-1892) and died 31 December 1963 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States of unspecified causes. He married Amy Cassandra Brown (1872-1959) 9 September 1896 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States.
Heber Jeddy Grant (1856-1945) Lyman is often noted as the most recent LDS Church apostle to have been excommunicated. In 1943, J. Reuben Clark, the first counselor in the LDS church's First Presidency and the church's de facto leader due to church president Heber J. Grant's poor health, became aware that Lyman had for a number of years been in an intimate relationship with a woman he had earlier been assigned to counsel. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles convened a disciplinary council to hear the case and Lyman's explanation, after which he was immediately excommunicated. Lyman was rebaptized in 1954 at age 83, and his full priesthood blessings were restored posthumously in 1970.[1]
Early life and family
Lyman was born in Fillmore, Utah Territory, and was closely related to many early leaders of the LDS Church. His father, Francis M. Lyman, was the son of Amasa M. Lyman, both of whom served as LDS Church apostles. His mother was Clara Caroline Callister, whose grandfather was John Smith, church founder Joseph Smith's uncle, and a church Presiding Patriarch. Clara's mother was Caroline Smith Callister, the only sister of apostle George A. Smith, who served with Brigham Young as a counselor in the church's First Presidency. Lyman was ordained an elder of the LDS Church on August 29, 1891, by Joseph F. Smith.
Education and marriage
Lyman graduated from high school at Brigham Young Academy (BYA) in Provo, Utah, in 1891 with a Normal Certificate, taught at Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah, and later studied at the University of Michigan, graduating with a B.S. degree in 1895. He later pursued graduate studies in civil engineering, earning an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1903 and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1905.[2]
Lyman had planned to marry Amy Brown, whom he met as a student at BYA, but delayed this while he attended the University of Michigan. Lyman was a teacher and civil engineer and was known for his work on the Utah State Road Commission. Lyman married Amy Brown on September 9, 1896; the marriage was performed by Joseph F. Smith in the Salt Lake Temple. From 1895 to 1896, Lyman taught at BYA.[3] Lyman's wife served as the eighth general president of the Relief Society from 1940 to 1945.
Apostleship
Lyman was ordained an apostle on April 7, 1918. As an apostle, he served as a member of the superintendency of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association until 1935.
Excommunication
In 1943, the First Presidency discovered that Lyman had long been cohabiting with a woman other than his legal wife. In 1925, Lyman began his relationship with Anna Jacobsen Hegsted,[4] which he defined as a plural marriage. Unable to trust anyone to officiate at the wedding due to the church's ban on the practice, Lyman and Hegsted exchanged vows secretly. By 1943, both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943, at age 72; at the time, his legal wife, Amy B. Lyman, was the general president of the Relief Society. The Quorum of the Twelve provided the newspapers with a one-sentence announcement, stating that the grounds for excommunication was a violation of the law of chastity, which was the standard interpretation of new plural marriages performed since the 1904 Second Manifesto. (Plural marriages performed between the First Manifesto in 1890 and the Second Manifesto were tolerated by the church.) After the excommunication, J. Reuben Clark worried that Lyman might join the Mormon fundamentalist movement.[5]:193
Lyman later returned to the LDS Church through rebaptism on October 27, 1954, but he was not reinstated as an apostle. He died at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Children
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Wendell Brown Lyman (1897-1933) | 18 December 1897 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | 13 May 1933 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | Rachel Ballif (1899-1925) |
Margaret Lyman (1903-1985) |
Siblings
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Rhoda Alice Lyman (1859-1942) | 28 April 1859 Beaver, Beaver County, Utah, United States | 3 September 1942 Tooele, Tooele County, Utah, United States | Charles Reuben McBride (1856-1948) |
Ellen Taylor Lyman (1861-1881) | |||
Francis Marion Lyman (1863-1957) | |||
Edna Jane Lyman (1866-1931) | |||
Louisa Ann Lyman (1868-1906) | |||
Mary Crimson Lyman (1871-1965) | |||
Lois Victoria Lyman (1876-1966) | |||
Ada Alta Lyman (1878-1881) | |||
Hila Olive Lyman (1881-1882) |
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Richard Roswell Lyman (1870-1963) | 23 November 1870 Fillmore, Millard County, Utah, United States | 31 December 1963 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | Amy Cassandra Brown (1872-1959) |
George Albert Lyman (1873-1906) | |||
Lucy Smith Lyman (1876-1971) | |||
Ida May Lyman (1878-1968) | |||
John Callister Lyman (1880-1951) | |||
Amy Lyman (1882-1975) | |||
Donald Callister Lyman (1886-1892) |
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Clark Lyman (1891-1891) | |||
Waldo Wilcken Lyman (1893-1971) | |||
Grant Herbert Lyman (1896-1918) | |||
Florence Lyman (1898-1977) | |||
Rudger Clawson Lyman (1900-1909) | |||
Helen Mar Lyman (1904-1905) |
Residences
See Also
- wikipedia:en:Richard R. Lyman - Wikipedia
- Richard Lyman
- Lyman Family
- Lyman in Salt Lake County, Utah
- Lyman in Millard County, Utah
Footnotes (including sources)
- ^ Janet Peterson and LaRene Gaunt, "Faith, Hope, and Charity: Inspiration from the Lives of the General Relief Society Presidents," Covenant Communications, Inc., 2008, p. 155.
- ^ Bergera (2011), p. 175.
- ^ Ernest L. Wilkinson. Brigham Young University: The First 100 Years. (Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1975) vol. 1, p. 584.
- ^ Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "A Ministry of Blessing: Nicholas Groesback Smith", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33(3): 76 (Fall 1998).
- ^ Bergera 2011