George Ralph Lyman came to the shores of Lake Worth before 1887. He was born about 1869 in Michigan, son of Morris Kennedy Lyman and Rachel Ward. His brother, Morris Benson Lyman, was about ten years his senior. Their sister, Lillian (Mrs. Richard) Bassett, with her husband, ran the Lantana Hotel for a short time.
The Lyman family came from Ontario, Canada, but moved to Michigan before making their home in Florida. As early as 1884, M.K. Lyman and son, M.B. Lyman came to the lake area to see what it would be like to escape the cold winters.
M.B. Lyman brought his wife and boys to Jacksonville where they all spent the summer. M.B. would return to the lake in the winter to work as a carpenter.
In 1887, M.K. Lyman established a homestead on the lake. George was living with him in a three room house just south of the point known first as Lyman’s Point when M.B. arrived in 1888. The house, located on Lake Drive, four doors south of the Old House Restaurant, is still standing and is believed to be the oldest house in
Palm Beach County.
The M.B. Lyman and Company store, located on a dock in front of their homes, was the third mercantile business on the lake. George and M.B. had a schooner, and took turns going to Titusville and Jacksonville for supplies. George also took conch shells, which he had gathered at the inlet, to a dealer in Jacksonville.
Daisy Emily Butler came from Cairo, Illinois, to teach. The years 1895-96 and 1900-1901 she taught at the Lantana School, located on the lake front, just to the north of Osbourne/Lantana Road. She was the first teacher at the first school in West Palm Beach, and taught “on the hill” until her retirement in 1940, beloved by all.
George had a bicycle shop in West Palm Beach, on Olive Avenue between First and Clematis. George R. Lyman died in January, 1952, at age eighty-three.
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