Wyman was born into a middle-class family in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose forebears had arrived in the state in the mid-seventeenth century.
He spent a year teaching school before starting his medical training with Samuel Brown and John Jeffries.
[1] In Boston, a group of prominent citizens planned to establish a hospital to include an asylum for the insane since only one almshouse provided care.
An assistant physician was appointed who helped in the apothecary to distribute medicine, maintained medical records, and visited patients daily.
In 1823, the Trustees appointed a steward to take over the business duties of the asylum which allowed Wyman to carry on as physician.
Wyman had become acquainted with moral reformers’ treatment instituted at the Retreat at York, an asylum run by the Quaker community and William Tuke.
Wyman's legacy was to leave an institution that became a leader in the treatment of mental illness in the United States during the nineteenth century.