Written by Junior B. Charlton
Born of stalwart pioneer ancestry was Lyman Skeen, Jr. He was the first born child of Lyman Stoddard and Electa Philomelia Dixon Skeen. He arrived into this work on July 1, 1871, at the family home in Plain City, Utah. No parents could have been any prouder or happier than his over this new arrival into their home. He was given the name Lyman after his father.
Being born of pioneer stock and to a desolate arid land, he soon learned the art of hard work. He was the oldest of eleven children which required of him much responsibility and to always set a good example to his siblings. His parents taught him the importance of religion and learning so that he would have a strong spiritual and educational background for life. He was taught the importance of living a clean, moral, virtuous life and always setting a good example for his siblings, friends and associates.
He was a true Skeen, being quiet in manner and restrained in speech and behavior and self-contained. But, he had a brilliant understanding and reasoning power of the mind.
He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ on September 12, 1880 in the Plain City canal. He was always active in the Church.
He started school in Plain City when he was six years old. Being of keen mind he was always ahead of his class and was often a challenge for his teachers. He was an active boy and participated in community and school activities.
He always had a deep interest in becoming a doctor. His main interest of study was in the math and science fields. Upon completing the requirements of graduation from the public school, he continued his education at the University of Deseret, which was the largest university west of the Missouri River, in Salt Lake City. In 1892 the name was changed to University of Utah.
The following is written by his brother, J.D. Skeen
“Dr. Skeen early recognized the absolute necessity for human advancement of proper and thorough educational training. He seized the idea with determination, took advantage of every opportunity and before he arrived at maturity had passed through the leading educational institutions of Utah. He engaged in teaching at the district school of the town of his birth during the years 1891 – 1893. He fully realized the importance of the early training of the child and the school was immediately raised to a very high standard. The burden of his teaching was the necessity of higher education.
He still had the inkling to become a doctor. In September of 1893, he entered the medical department of the University of Virginia where his thorough and accurate work attracted attention. He received his M.D. in June, 1895 and was chosen demonstrator of anatomy for the next session. He continued his scientific research at the University of Virginia and the hospitals of New York and Boston for the next succeeding years. In 1901 he received his Doctor’s Degree at the University of Virginia, his major subjects being chemistry, biology and geology. The vacation of 1901 was spent in traveling Europe, and during the following session he occupied the chair of biology temporarily vacated by Professor Tuttle, with whom he had labored in writing a work on histology. The season of 1902 and 1903 was devoted to special research at the University of Berlin, after which he returned to Ogden, Utah, to take up the practice of medicine. His extensive experience and great ability were at once recognized, and his practice grew to such proportions that before the expiration of a year he was compelled to limit his work to office practice. His health, however, was broken up by long, continuous and intense application, loss of sleep and the general breaking up of the habits of life.
The time spent at the University of Virginia was perhaps the most profitable to him in acquiring and imparting knowledge to others. He was engaged as special instructor in various scientific departments and was looked up to by the great student body as its physician and confidential adviser. A very great portion of his time was occupied in making examinations for tubercular infections and advising students affiliated with the dread disease as to how they could best check the progress. He undoubtedly became infected while so engaged. He exercised the highest degree of care in guarding his health as he did in other things, excepting only when he was engrossed in scientific researches during which time he seemed to completely ignore the danger of infection.
The doctor’s life was devoted to the work he outlined while yet in his youth, but little of his time was occupied with business affairs. He considered money only as a means to an end. He was quiet and retiring in his nature and seldom spoke of himself, of his work, or of his achievements. Such information could be acquired only from his associates. His pleasures in life centered around his family ties, although he never married. He was at all times interested in the welfare of his father and brothers and sisters. He loved his associations at the University of Virginia and took great pleasure in traveling.
Dr. Skeen was essentially a teacher. He never enjoyed the active practice of medicine. This, no doubt, was due in part at least, to the suffering he had endured from the ravages of that terrible disease, although I feel sure that had his valuable life been spared, he would have ultimately occupied an important chair at one of the great universities. He was true to his patients and many times suffered greater anguish than the immediate relatives of a deceased patient. He suffered terribly during the last year of his life but refused to make his suffering known and continued the regular performance of his duties until he was forced to take to his bed about ten days before his death. He fully realized the nature of the disease from which he was suffering, was conscious of the inevitable result; but his greatest immediate grief seemed to be his inability to complete the services for his numerous suffering patients. His life was truly a life of sacrifice for his fellowmen.”
After the doctor received his medical degree he returned to Ogden to establish his practice.
Lou Miller tells about an experience he had with Dr. Skeen. He had broken his arm. The arm was set but was still giving him a great deal of pain. He was told that under the present condition his arm would eventually need to be amputated. When he went to see Dr. Skeen, he was told that his arm had been improperly set and it was suggested what could be done. Mr. Miller decided that he should follow the advice of Dr. Skeen and let him operate on his arm. The necessary operation was done and a bone graft from a pig was used to replace some of the bone that had to be removed. The procedure was a success. Mr. Miller indicated that he had no additional pain in the arm. He said, “Dr. Skeen had saved his arm and his life.”
Dr. Skeen had just started his practice and had a full schedule when he suddenly became very ill. Upon hearing the graveness of his son’s illness, his dad mounted his best horse and raced from Plain City to Ogden. He rode the horse so fast and hard that he winded it (destroyed its lungs) and it had to be put down. Did his dad make it in time to see his son?
Dr. Skeen probably contracted tubercular infection while he was involved in medical research. He suffered quietly for about a year. He came in contact with meningococal disease, the only form of meningitis which is fatal and is transmitted by direct contact or by droplet infection. Already being in a run-down and weakened condition, cerebrospinal meningitis rapidly took the life of Dr. Lyman Skeen on May 14, 1906.
How proud his grandfather, Joseph, must have been to have taken this magnificent young man by the hand and lead him into the open arms of his mother, Electa, and grandmother, Maria Amanda.
His funeral services were held in the Ogden tabernacle. An overflowing crowd was in attendance. The medical association and members of the Weber club attended in body and the floral tributes were numerous and beautiful.
Among those from out of town who attended the serves were Dr. Kingsbury, President of the University of Utah and Professor Stewart of the same institution; Professor Thomas of the Agriculture College in Logan, former superintendent of Ogden City Schools and President Plank of the Latter-Day Saints University at Salt Lake City. Doctors Forbes, Dickson, Baker, Eghan, E.C. Rich and Coulter were the pall bearers. A large procession followed the services from the tabernacle to the Plain City cemetery where his body was laid to rest in the Joseph Skeen burial plot.
After his death his sister Electa did the preliminary paperwork for his ordinances to be completed, which she sent to the Logan Temple and his brother, Joseph (Jode) went to Logan and did his endowment on January 25, 1907.
Electa (Lell), sent a letter to her sister Isabell in July of 1940, pertaining to the deaths of their brother Lyman and to Isabell’s son Lyman. She wrote, “It has been more than seven years since I saw Lyman and I see him more and more a resemblance that I have always felt between him and the Doctor. Not so much in feature, but, in personality and character. They were just too pure and clean and sanctified to be left to linger on in the natural span of life here in this troubled world. They weren’t part of it. God has just called them to another and grander sphere of action where they may progress and prepare to greet us in eternity.”