Having completed a short college course at Pacific University in 1873, the young man, after a few months spent in teaching, went east and in 1877 graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts. While there he was known for his interest in debating, oratory and literature, as well as for his informal and independent western way of considering political, social and religious topics. Upon returning to Oregon in the fall of 1877, he entered upon what proved to be his life work, that of a college teacher, writer and public speaker. He became professor of history, oratory, and English literature at Pacific University, where he continued until 1886. During that period he laid the foundations of his subsequent literary career by spending his summer vacations in mountain journeys and explorations of the rivers and wildernesses of the northwest and in embodying the results of his adventures in articles which appeared in various newspapers and magazines, east and west. During this time he became a skillful amateur photographer and has acquired a large collection of views, many of which were the first to be taken of some of the wild scenes which he might be considered the first to make known to the world.
During that period of his life the very important event of marriage occurred. In 1882 Professor Lyman was united in marriage to Miss Mattie Clark of Vancouver, Washington. Mrs. Lyman has become known in Walla Walla and throughout the region about as one of the leaders in social, intellectual and philanthropic life. Four children have been born to Professor and Mrs. Lyman, two sons and two daughters. The oldest, Hubert, born in 1883, is now engaged in business in the Philippine islands. The second, Marjorie, born in 1885, is the wife of Ridgway Gillis, a state highway engineer in charge of an important section of the Pacific highway, with present residence at Kalama, Washington. The third, Willena, born in 1889, is living with her parents.
The fourth, Harold, is now engaged with the Walla Walla Bulletin.
Professor Lyman severed his connection with Pacific University in 1886, and for nearly three years was engaged mainly in literary work. During that period he spent some time at Fresno, California, endeavoring to start a raisin ranch. He was for a time at Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1889 he became head of the department of history at Whitman College, Walla Walla. He has been thus engaged continuously to the present, with the exception of the year 1891, when he was in Spokane. During these twenty-nine years he has seen Whitman College grow from a struggling frontier institution, largely of a preparatory grade, to a well equipped college supported by a good endowment and by a loyal body of enthusiastic alumni, among whom may be reckoned some of the foremost men and women of the northwest.
During his long residence in Walla Walla, Professor Lyman has been in frequent demand as a speaker and lecturer on many pulpits and platforms throughout the three northwest states, and has thus come to have a very extensive acquaintance. He has been active in political life and has been a candidate, though an unsuccessful one, as a democrat, for the national congress. Brought up as a republican during the Civil war and reconstruction periods, he became a liberal in political views and finally a democrat. As an ardent supporter of Woodrow Wilson for both of his terms, he labored with voice and pen for the election of that statesman whom he regards as in the same class with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.
During all his active life a member of the Congregational church, Professor Lyman has become known among his students and friends as very liberal in religious views and has associates among all faiths. He has been active in all forms of municipal betterment, in the prohibition and woman suffrage causes, and since the opening of the great war has made many addresses and written articles of a patriotic character. He firmly believes that it is the God-given mission of the United States to "make the world safe for democracy."
While living in Walla Walla, Professor Lyman has continued his practice of mountaineering. He has been a member of both the Mazama and Mountaineers' Clubs, and in the course of his life has made nine ascensions of the great snow-capped volcanoes of the Cascade range and four of the Olympics, besides many lesser peaks. He has traveled almost the entire length of the Columbia river and many miles of the Snake and other tributaries. The results of these journeys he embodied in what he regards as the most highly literary and artistic of his various books, The Columbia River, published in 1909 by G. P. Putnam's Sons and now entering upon its third edition.