My Genealogy Hound

CHRISTIAN LYDEN, the subject of this biographical sketch, is one of the oldest settlers now living in Sherman township, Kearney county, Nebr. He was born in Denmark, November 10, 1855, and is the son of Claus and Christena Lyden, both of whom were natives of Denmark; the former, a farmer by occupation, was born in the year 1806; the latter in 1808; of the grandparents of Mr. Lyden little or nothing is known. Christian Lyden, our subject, spent the early part of his life in Denmark, his native country, attending school, helping his father about the farm, and serving an apprenticeship at the cooper’s trade. In 1876, when twenty-one years of age, he decided to seek his fortune in the western world, and, accordingly, in the fall of that year, embarked for America. Landing in New York city, he soon found employment in a brick yard at remunerative wages. He continued at this work for four months, and, having accumulated a considerable sum of money and desiring to see more of the continent, he came west to Chicago, where, after a stay of several weeks, he engaged work at an employment agency, on the Union Pacific railroad, which was then being constructed through Wyoming. He was furnished with a railway pass to Dessilad, where he began work on the grade. The mountain country in that region teemed with Indians and wild animals, and every man employed on the road was furnished with a rifle, which he kept close by his side as a means of protection, and guards were on duty during the night patrolling the camp, for it was not known at what moment the Indians might swoop down upon them. In this manner he continued working on the grade section and stone quarries through Wyoming for nearly three years, after which he returned to Omaha and lay sick for nearly six months. He then went to St. Paul, and worked during the summer on the Northern Pacific through Minnesota and Dakota. In the fall of that year he took passage on a steamboat down the Mississippi river, spending a few weeks at St. Louis and finally reaching Memphis. He engaged work on the Memphis & Little Rock railroad, at which he continued for several months, and then went on down to New Orleans. Reaching the latter place, he engaged work on the levee, at which he continued for two months. He afterward worked on plantations, at sugar making, for three months. In April of 1871, on account of the yellow fever, he came North and for four years, was engaged at the cooper trade, working for T. E. Boyds, the first packing establishment in Omaha.

In April, 1875, he came to Kearney county and settled on a quarter section in section 8, township 5, range 15, on which he had filed claim under the homestead laws of the year previous. There were at that time but three settlers within many miles of his claim. The country teemed with antelope and other wild game common to that period. An occasional deer would stray across his claim, but they were seldom seen that far from the river. He hastily constructed a small frame dwelling and broke twenty acres of raw prairie, on which he raised a scanty crop. He used to haul firewood, a distance of thirty miles, from along the Republican river and Spring creek. For the first year he had to haul water from three to six miles. In 1876 he put out a crop of corn and oats, but had all of the latter and part of the former destroyed by grasshoppers, which were so numerous that year. He bought eighty acres of railroad land, across from his claim, in 1874, and afterwards took a timber claim, making in all four hundred acres of as fine land as can be found in Sherman township — all of which is finely improved with thrifty growing trees, spacious barns, and a fine new palatial residence.

Mr. Lyden was married September 25, 1878, to Anna M. Hanson, who was born in Denmark, March 28, 1857, and came to America May 16, 1878. Their union has been blessed with five children, viz. — Carrie, Albert, Maggie, Mary and Martie. Mr. and Mrs. Lyden are both members of the Free Lutheran church at Keene. In politics he is a republican.