Lyman S. Skeen, one of the prominent and well-known men of this section of the state, is a son of one of the pioneers and also a son of a member of the famous Mormon Battalion, the Senior Mr. Skeen being among the men to respond to the call of the Government, and remaining with the company until they reached Mexico. Then he turned back to Utah with the sick and after his discharge in Salt Lake City returned to Iowa for his family, but finding them sick, remained there until 1851, at which time he brought them across the plains. Lyman S. Skeen was born in Jackson County, Missouri, December 18, 1850, and is the son of Joseph And Amanda (Dalby) Skeen, both natives of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where the father was born in 1817. The parents joined the Church at an early day and were among those whom the mobs persecuted from time to time before the great upheaval in 1846, at which time they were driven out of Nauvoo and crossed the American plains, becoming the advance guard for the hosts who have since peopled the West and brought it to a state of civilization. While living in Nauvoo the father of our subject worked for a time for the Prophet Joseph Smith and was well acquainted with him. The journey across the plains was made in Captain Audrey’s company and the family settled in Lehi, where the father farmed until 1859. At that time he moved to Plain City, being one of the first to go there and settling the place before it was named. He was one of those who chose the name of the city, which was given on account of its location. He took up Government land before the survey and was one of the first to take water from the Ogden River, living twenty-five years in this place and becoming a well-known farmer and prominent man in the community. He was a man of great energy, working early and late, giving unsparingly of both time and means for any cause that had as its object the advancement of the interests in the Church, of which he was ever a most devoted member. He passed away in 1882 at the age of sixty-six years, leaving a community which his associates found hard to fill. His first wife, the mother of our subject, died in Lehi shortly after arriving in Utah, leaving five children, of whom three are now living, William, Lyman S. and Maroni. The father married a second time, his last wife being Mrs. Rhoda Lawrence, by whom he had one son, Joseph L., now living in this county.
Our subject lived in Lehi until he was nine [eight] years of age, at which time his parents moved to this place, and it has since been his home. He obtained the rudiments of an education in the early schools of the State, but his knowledge is for the most part that which is gained from practical, every-day life, browning to be a keen, alert and level-headed man of business. His early life did not differ materially from that of the average boy of his day. He remained at home with his father until 1870, at which time married and began life on his own account. He took up eighty acres of land in Plain City, to which he added from time to time, until now he is one of the largest individual land owners in the county, having nine hundred acres. In addition to his farm, he had handled cattle, making a specialty of Shorthorn stock, and owns some fine animals. He annually puts up six hundred tons of choice hay off his own land, which he feeds out to his stock, and his is conceded to be the finest farm in Weber county. Mr. Skeen is a great horse fancier, and among his blooded Hambletonians [Shires] and Clydes, he has one valuable mare, Pearl, of which he is justly proud.
He has not devoted his entire time to his farm, burt in ears past has done considerable railroad contracting and during the past five years has devoted a large share of his time to that work. He has had contract work on the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, Rio Grande Western and Oregon Short-Line railways; also built three miles of the Lucin cut-off and eleven miles of the Leamington cut-off. He is at this time engaged in repairing some eighty-five miles of the Union Pacific track in Colorado. In 1901 he built fifteen miles of the Salmon River branch, and repaired on hundred and twenty miles for the Oregon Short Line and thirty-six miles for the Rio Grand Western. He has also built party of the Saint Anthony branch in 1887. Besides this he is largely interested in many local enterprises, being Vice-President of the American Falls Canal and Power Company, at this time engaged in building a sixty-mile canal from Blackfoot to American Falls, Idaho. Mr. Skeen also had the contract for building a part of the Pioneer Power Company’s canal through Weber county. He is a stockholder in the Slaterville Creamery and the Plain City canning factory.
In political life he is a member of the Republican party, and in 1898 was elected on that ticket for a two-year term as County Commissioner, being re-elected at the expiration of this term. During his four years service he missed three meeting of his committee and took a very keen interest in all matters that came up before the Board. He was also for five years a Trustee for his school district and one of the foremost men of his community in educational matters.
He is a staunch member of the Mormon Church. For some years he filled the position of President of the Elders Quorum in Plain City.
Mr. Skeen was married in 1870 to Miss Electa Dixon, of Harrisville. She died in the spring of 1891, leaving a family of eleven children, of who one has since died. They are Dr. Lyman, a professor in the University of Virginia; Charles, married to Maggie Nichol; Emma, wife of Louis H. Carver; Joseph, who married Petria Faulkman, and served a two years mission in the Southern States; Electa, Jedediah D., who spent two years at the University of Virginia and is now an attorney of Ogden; Mary Jane, Riley, Alfred Sabry, dead, and Isabell. Mr. Skeen married again in 1892, to Annie Skelton, daughter of Stephen and Jane Skelton, of West Weber. By this wife he has had five children – Ivy, Stephen, deceased; Blain, Wilfred, and Lenorah.
He has been something of a traveler. In 1892 he went to London, and 1894 traveled through the Southwest, and 1899 through Alberta, Canada. Mr Skeen is one of those hearty, whole-souled generous men, once the true Western type, but who are less often met now, of unquestioned veracity, willing to divide his last dollar with any one in need, and where known has scores of friends.
[Editor’s Note: All factual errors and misspellings in names are in red.]