He was baptized by his father in the Elkhorn River on July 1, 1848, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 19, 1848.

By 1851, when Lyman was 11 years old, his father and Charles C. Rich purchased land in San Bernardino, California.

He was stopped at Salt Lake City and told to turn back to bring the settlers in California to Utah.

He built a cabin in Beaver, Utah, for his wife and son, and he left on his delayed mission in the spring of 1860.

Lyman left the United States through the port of New York and arrived by steamer in Liverpool, England, on July 27, 1860.

Upon release from his mission, he accompanied about 800 immigrants back to the United States; they arrived in New York on June 25, 1862, where he was appointed the president of the group.

In March 1863, LDS Church president Brigham Young asked Lyman to settle in Fillmore, Utah.

The next fourteen years of his life were spent there, where he engaged himself in leadership in church, politics, business, and manufacturing.

Among his positions and honors were: When a stake was formed in Fillmore, Lyman was ordained to the office of high priest.

Lyman was called on a second mission to England and left Salt Lake City on October 20, 1873, arriving in Liverpool on November 12.

However, Liberal Party officials refused to count the votes and declared themselves the winners of the election.

Because he was absent from the conference on a mission to survey parts of southern Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, Lyman was ordained an apostle on October 27 by church president John Taylor.

In early 1883, Lyman served a mission to the Native American people of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah.

Soon after returning home, he went to Washington, D.C., to testify in the Reed Smoot hearings before the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections.