Lyman was born in Sheffield, Berkshire, Massachusetts and spent his teen years in Ohio. He worked in California mines for about two years and earned $2,000 for his efforts. He returned home but came back to California in 1852. He built a house in the Santa Cruz mountains as a homesteader but discovered the land was on a Spanish land grant. He was forced to purchase 3500 acres for $1,500. Lyman first tried to raise hogs, but bears and panthers killed his livelihood, so he switched to cattle and vineyards. The land was isolated being there was no wagon roads so all supplies had to be brought in on horseback. His nearest neighbor was "Mountain" Charley McKiernan and the nearest post office in Santa Clara.
"My grandfather visited with his uncle, Lyman J. Burrell often. Walter Frazar Burrell and his father, Martin Strong Burrell had their business interests based in Portland, Oregon. Martin Strong Burrell first visited his half-brother, for several months. on his first trip by ship to the west coast of North America. Martin was searching for his own future business interests and after seeing how things were in California, decided it was not for him. Too much hard work was needed and there was no sure profits to be seen at that time.
Lyman Jabez Burrell had four wives during his life time.
[He was almost killed by a grizzly near his home in the Santa Clara Mountains. Thousands of grizzly bears roamed California. They used the beaches as highways and feeding grounds. They feared no man and so were slaughtered for this reason until none survived.]
Lyman, did leave to the State Of California a documented life history. The papers are now in the hands of the University of California. Some of the papers and journals were online the last I checked. A few Burrell family members are trying to make copies. The University Of California is not so happy with that idea as they are now the owners and do charge a fee for reading some of the material and for it's publishing rights.
Unfortunately, the last two Burrell's, I knew are now dead. Neither sister married. They were gracious women and inherited the Ohio home that Lyman grew up in. The property is now apart of a new park in Sheffield, Ohio. The last died in 1991 and I chose not to move there. Their estate became the park. When the property was settled, no people with European ancestry were around for many miles and the pioneering land owners of this new township were on their own. They had purchased a township after completing an exploratory trip to this remote area from Massachusetts. The explores went back home and made plans to come back the following year with enough material and people to start a new town. Some did not bring their women folk until homes were built and farms started.
Written by Martin Strong Burrell
=======================================
From the mouth of Lyman John Burrell in his old age.
"Recollections of an Octogenarian -- Lyman John Burrell"
was born in the year 1801, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. I was one of a family of eight children. We were brought up as New England farmer’s children generally were in those days, with habits of industry, economy, and plain wholesome living.
I began to go to school at the age of two years and nine months, and walked a mile and a quarter to our school house. I learned easily and progressed so rapidly the first season that I gained the enviable reputation of being a child of great promise. With a change of teachers the next season, I lost my interest in the lessons, and became so fond of play that for several years I made but very little progress in book learning. I believe I learned more during my first school year than I did for several years after, because I had not then learned to play.
The old-fashioned schoolmasters of New England were generally good disciplinarians. Whatever other good qualifications they might have had, they were considered as trifling compared to this. They believed, with Solomon, that to “spare the rod would spoil the child.”
Being a little delicate, flaxen-haired boy, not able to make any formidable resistance, they personally selected me as a good subject to practice upon. They seemed to consider it a duty as well as a pleasure to honor me in this way, and I soon became so accustomed to such honors that I looked for them as a matter of course and as a necessary part of my education. In those early days it was considered a heinous offense to even smile in school.
I had an elder brother who used to enjoy seeing me in trouble. Instead of kindly trying to hide my faults, and shield me, as a brother should, he would sometimes make faces and do funny things to make me laugh, that he might have the fun of seeing me whipped.
When I became old enough to be useful on the farm, I was kept at work during the summers, and went to school only in Winter. Thus passed the first fifteen years of my life. On the whole, my early boyhood was a happy one for I did not lay my little troubles much to heart.
About this time our family moved to Ohio to make a new home in that vast wilderness. Here my pioneering commenced. Here all of my energies were put forth to fell and burn the forest trees, to dig up the roots, to plow and to plant. I took real pleasure in subduing the land. But I still went to school Winters for several years, and then my father sent me away from home to attend a Seminary where I stayed three terms, and finished my school education.
At this time of my life, I was uncommonly fond of all kinds of sport, but fishing was my favorite. After a hard day’s work with my axe, I have spent many a night in fishing; sometimes wading half of a night in cold water and catching so many fish that a wagon had to be sent in the morning to bring them home.
"My grandfather visited with his uncle, Lyman J. Burrell often. Walter Frazar Burrell and his father, Martin Strong Burrell had their business interests based in Portland, Oregon. Martin Strong Burrell first visited his half-brother, for several months. on his first trip by ship to the west coast of North America. Martin was searching for his own future business interests and after seeing how things were in California, decided it was not for him. Too much hard work was needed and there was no sure profits to be seen at that time.
Lyman Jabez Burrell had four wives during his life time.
[He was almost killed by a grizzly near his home in the Santa Clara Mountains. Thousands of grizzly bears roamed California. They used the beaches as highways and feeding grounds. They feared no man and so were slaughtered for this reason until none survived.]
Lyman, did leave to the State Of California a documented life history. The papers are now in the hands of the University of California. Some of the papers and journals were online the last I checked. A few Burrell family members are trying to make copies. The University Of California is not so happy with that idea as they are now the owners and do charge a fee for reading some of the material and for it's publishing rights.
Unfortunately, the last two Burrell's, I knew are now dead. Neither sister married. They were gracious women and inherited the Ohio home that Lyman grew up in. The property is now apart of a new park in Sheffield, Ohio. The last died in 1991 and I chose not to move there. Their estate became the park. When the property was settled, no people with European ancestry were around for many miles and the pioneering land owners of this new township were on their own. They had purchased a township after completing an exploratory trip to this remote area from Massachusetts. The explores went back home and made plans to come back the following year with enough material and people to start a new town. Some did not bring their women folk until homes were built and farms started.
Written by Martin Strong Burrell
=======================================
From the mouth of Lyman John Burrell in his old age.
"Recollections of an Octogenarian -- Lyman John Burrell"
was born in the year 1801, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. I was one of a family of eight children. We were brought up as New England farmer’s children generally were in those days, with habits of industry, economy, and plain wholesome living.
I began to go to school at the age of two years and nine months, and walked a mile and a quarter to our school house. I learned easily and progressed so rapidly the first season that I gained the enviable reputation of being a child of great promise. With a change of teachers the next season, I lost my interest in the lessons, and became so fond of play that for several years I made but very little progress in book learning. I believe I learned more during my first school year than I did for several years after, because I had not then learned to play.
The old-fashioned schoolmasters of New England were generally good disciplinarians. Whatever other good qualifications they might have had, they were considered as trifling compared to this. They believed, with Solomon, that to “spare the rod would spoil the child.”
Being a little delicate, flaxen-haired boy, not able to make any formidable resistance, they personally selected me as a good subject to practice upon. They seemed to consider it a duty as well as a pleasure to honor me in this way, and I soon became so accustomed to such honors that I looked for them as a matter of course and as a necessary part of my education. In those early days it was considered a heinous offense to even smile in school.
I had an elder brother who used to enjoy seeing me in trouble. Instead of kindly trying to hide my faults, and shield me, as a brother should, he would sometimes make faces and do funny things to make me laugh, that he might have the fun of seeing me whipped.
When I became old enough to be useful on the farm, I was kept at work during the summers, and went to school only in Winter. Thus passed the first fifteen years of my life. On the whole, my early boyhood was a happy one for I did not lay my little troubles much to heart.
About this time our family moved to Ohio to make a new home in that vast wilderness. Here my pioneering commenced. Here all of my energies were put forth to fell and burn the forest trees, to dig up the roots, to plow and to plant. I took real pleasure in subduing the land. But I still went to school Winters for several years, and then my father sent me away from home to attend a Seminary where I stayed three terms, and finished my school education.
At this time of my life, I was uncommonly fond of all kinds of sport, but fishing was my favorite. After a hard day’s work with my axe, I have spent many a night in fishing; sometimes wading half of a night in cold water and catching so many fish that a wagon had to be sent in the morning to bring them home.
Lyman was born in Sheffield, Berkshire, Massachusetts and spent his teen years in Ohio. He worked in California mines for about two years and earned $2,000 for his efforts. He returned home but came back to California in 1852. He built a house in the Santa Cruz mountains as a homesteader but discovered the land was on a Spanish land grant. He was forced to purchase 3500 acres for $1,500. Lyman first tried to raise hogs, but bears and panthers killed his livelihood, so he switched to cattle and vineyards. The land was isolated being there was no wagon roads so all supplies had to be brought in on horseback. His nearest neighbor was "Mountain" Charley McKiernan and the nearest post office in Santa Clara.
"My grandfather visited with his uncle, Lyman J. Burrell often. Walter Frazar Burrell and his father, Martin Strong Burrell had their business interests based in Portland, Oregon. Martin Strong Burrell first visited his half-brother, for several months. on his first trip by ship to the west coast of North America. Martin was searching for his own future business interests and after seeing how things were in California, decided it was not for him. Too much hard work was needed and there was no sure profits to be seen at that time.
Lyman Jabez Burrell had four wives during his life time.
[He was almost killed by a grizzly near his home in the Santa Clara Mountains. Thousands of grizzly bears roamed California. They used the beaches as highways and feeding grounds. They feared no man and so were slaughtered for this reason until none survived.]
Lyman, did leave to the State Of California a documented life history. The papers are now in the hands of the University of California. Some of the papers and journals were online the last I checked. A few Burrell family members are trying to make copies. The University Of California is not so happy with that idea as they are now the owners and do charge a fee for reading some of the material and for it's publishing rights.
Unfortunately, the last two Burrell's, I knew are now dead. Neither sister married. They were gracious women and inherited the Ohio home that Lyman grew up in. The property is now apart of a new park in Sheffield, Ohio. The last died in 1991 and I chose not to move there. Their estate became the park. When the property was settled, no people with European ancestry were around for many miles and the pioneering land owners of this new township were on their own. They had purchased a township after completing an exploratory trip to this remote area from Massachusetts. The explores went back home and made plans to come back the following year with enough material and people to start a new town. Some did not bring their women folk until homes were built and farms started.
Written by Martin Strong Burrell
=======================================
From the mouth of Lyman John Burrell in his old age.
"Recollections of an Octogenarian -- Lyman John Burrell"
was born in the year 1801, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. I was one of a family of eight children. We were brought up as New England farmer’s children generally were in those days, with habits of industry, economy, and plain wholesome living.
I began to go to school at the age of two years and nine months, and walked a mile and a quarter to our school house. I learned easily and progressed so rapidly the first season that I gained the enviable reputation of being a child of great promise. With a change of teachers the next season, I lost my interest in the lessons, and became so fond of play that for several years I made but very little progress in book learning. I believe I learned more during my first school year than I did for several years after, because I had not then learned to play.
The old-fashioned schoolmasters of New England were generally good disciplinarians. Whatever other good qualifications they might have had, they were considered as trifling compared to this. They believed, with Solomon, that to “spare the rod would spoil the child.”
Being a little delicate, flaxen-haired boy, not able to make any formidable resistance, they personally selected me as a good subject to practice upon. They seemed to consider it a duty as well as a pleasure to honor me in this way, and I soon became so accustomed to such honors that I looked for them as a matter of course and as a necessary part of my education. In those early days it was considered a heinous offense to even smile in school.
I had an elder brother who used to enjoy seeing me in trouble. Instead of kindly trying to hide my faults, and shield me, as a brother should, he would sometimes make faces and do funny things to make me laugh, that he might have the fun of seeing me whipped.
When I became old enough to be useful on the farm, I was kept at work during the summers, and went to school only in Winter. Thus passed the first fifteen years of my life. On the whole, my early boyhood was a happy one for I did not lay my little troubles much to heart.
About this time our family moved to Ohio to make a new home in that vast wilderness. Here my pioneering commenced. Here all of my energies were put forth to fell and burn the forest trees, to dig up the roots, to plow and to plant. I took real pleasure in subduing the land. But I still went to school Winters for several years, and then my father sent me away from home to attend a Seminary where I stayed three terms, and finished my school education.
At this time of my life, I was uncommonly fond of all kinds of sport, but fishing was my favorite. After a hard day’s work with my axe, I have spent many a night in fishing; sometimes wading half of a night in cold water and catching so many fish that a wagon had to be sent in the morning to bring them home.
"My grandfather visited with his uncle, Lyman J. Burrell often. Walter Frazar Burrell and his father, Martin Strong Burrell had their business interests based in Portland, Oregon. Martin Strong Burrell first visited his half-brother, for several months. on his first trip by ship to the west coast of North America. Martin was searching for his own future business interests and after seeing how things were in California, decided it was not for him. Too much hard work was needed and there was no sure profits to be seen at that time.
Lyman Jabez Burrell had four wives during his life time.
[He was almost killed by a grizzly near his home in the Santa Clara Mountains. Thousands of grizzly bears roamed California. They used the beaches as highways and feeding grounds. They feared no man and so were slaughtered for this reason until none survived.]
Lyman, did leave to the State Of California a documented life history. The papers are now in the hands of the University of California. Some of the papers and journals were online the last I checked. A few Burrell family members are trying to make copies. The University Of California is not so happy with that idea as they are now the owners and do charge a fee for reading some of the material and for it's publishing rights.
Unfortunately, the last two Burrell's, I knew are now dead. Neither sister married. They were gracious women and inherited the Ohio home that Lyman grew up in. The property is now apart of a new park in Sheffield, Ohio. The last died in 1991 and I chose not to move there. Their estate became the park. When the property was settled, no people with European ancestry were around for many miles and the pioneering land owners of this new township were on their own. They had purchased a township after completing an exploratory trip to this remote area from Massachusetts. The explores went back home and made plans to come back the following year with enough material and people to start a new town. Some did not bring their women folk until homes were built and farms started.
Written by Martin Strong Burrell
=======================================
From the mouth of Lyman John Burrell in his old age.
"Recollections of an Octogenarian -- Lyman John Burrell"
was born in the year 1801, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. I was one of a family of eight children. We were brought up as New England farmer’s children generally were in those days, with habits of industry, economy, and plain wholesome living.
I began to go to school at the age of two years and nine months, and walked a mile and a quarter to our school house. I learned easily and progressed so rapidly the first season that I gained the enviable reputation of being a child of great promise. With a change of teachers the next season, I lost my interest in the lessons, and became so fond of play that for several years I made but very little progress in book learning. I believe I learned more during my first school year than I did for several years after, because I had not then learned to play.
The old-fashioned schoolmasters of New England were generally good disciplinarians. Whatever other good qualifications they might have had, they were considered as trifling compared to this. They believed, with Solomon, that to “spare the rod would spoil the child.”
Being a little delicate, flaxen-haired boy, not able to make any formidable resistance, they personally selected me as a good subject to practice upon. They seemed to consider it a duty as well as a pleasure to honor me in this way, and I soon became so accustomed to such honors that I looked for them as a matter of course and as a necessary part of my education. In those early days it was considered a heinous offense to even smile in school.
I had an elder brother who used to enjoy seeing me in trouble. Instead of kindly trying to hide my faults, and shield me, as a brother should, he would sometimes make faces and do funny things to make me laugh, that he might have the fun of seeing me whipped.
When I became old enough to be useful on the farm, I was kept at work during the summers, and went to school only in Winter. Thus passed the first fifteen years of my life. On the whole, my early boyhood was a happy one for I did not lay my little troubles much to heart.
About this time our family moved to Ohio to make a new home in that vast wilderness. Here my pioneering commenced. Here all of my energies were put forth to fell and burn the forest trees, to dig up the roots, to plow and to plant. I took real pleasure in subduing the land. But I still went to school Winters for several years, and then my father sent me away from home to attend a Seminary where I stayed three terms, and finished my school education.
At this time of my life, I was uncommonly fond of all kinds of sport, but fishing was my favorite. After a hard day’s work with my axe, I have spent many a night in fishing; sometimes wading half of a night in cold water and catching so many fish that a wagon had to be sent in the morning to bring them home.
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