PETER R. LYDING

Sacramento County

Biographies

PETER R. LYDING

PETER R. LYDING--A widely known authority on poultry of whom the poultry-fanciers and agriculturists generally in Sacramento County are justly proud, is Peter R. Lyding, the clever inventor of the Lyding System of handling poultry, including what is known as the Lyding Building and a number of patented devices. He was born in the seaport of Faaborg, Denmark, on the Baltic, on May 27, 1865, the second child and only son of Nils Rasmussen of Lyding Gaard and Karoline Hansdatter, natives of the same place. He studied at night and made up for what he could not get out of the schools by day, for when he was seven years of age, he began to earn his living. He left home at the age of fourteen, drifted about and learned the brick and plasterers trade, serving three years of apprenticeship and finally at the age of seventeen, made his way to America, accompanying an indulgent aunt. And in the spring of 1882, he arrived at Webster City, Iowa. Singlehanded, he started out on the prairie, then sparsely settled, with a company of young fellow-countrymen, to work on a hay-press, and he did so well from the start, that in three years he was able to take contracts for hay business on his own account. In the meantime, spending his hard earned savings as judiciously as he could in the closed winter seasons, he attended school at Blairsburg, Iowa, and he also took the necessary steps to become a citizen, attaining that goal at Reno, Nev., in 1890, after five year in Truckee and Reno, and that vicinity. While in a lumber camp at Truckee, in 1885, he suffered his first severe illness, pneumonia, and he was just able to get down to Reno, in May. Jobs were hard to get, he had only $14, and was near the end of his rope, and he was determined to get, if possible, steady work.

Mr. Lyding started on foot out of Reno, on the Reno road, applying at many farmhouses, until he met a man in the field, who hired him, but only after he had sold himself for thirty days on the basis that if he did not prove the best workman ever hired on Morton's ranch, he was to go without pay. This proved a bonanza, for he gained Mr. Morton's confidence, and the faith on either side was never broken. Making his home at that ranch, Mr. Lyding began in 1885 to contract for press work in the hay-fields, and for several seasons made money. In 1888, he entered the sheep and wool-growing business, with fine success, until the terrible winter of 1889-1890, recalled by stockman as the most severe in history on the Pacific slope, when he lost all of his sheep near Wadsworth, Nev., and the next spring and summer the countryside was literally covered with the bleaching bones of cattle and sheep. Worse than that, he was himself brought close to death, trying to save his flocks. However, after being half-frozen from head to toe, Mr. Lyding was able to direct the rescuing of the sheep of a friend, the only flock saved in that region during 1889-1890. Having lost everything, he returned to Reno, in 1891, and bought back the hay-press. In the meantime, he plunged into development work in Reno, first buying seven lots without money, which were prior to this time thought to be worthless, because of the huge boulders. Blasting them in the close business section had never been thought possible by engineers, but our subject accomplished the feat, and despite great odds, cleared the lots by covering the rocks so that the debris could not fly, to the amazement of Reno onlookers. Thus, in a few months, he had accumulated a competency out of what was regarded by most people as a white elephant, and Mr. Lyding put up a fine home in Reno upon part of the cleared land. The hotel at Upper Pyrmont Lake, Nev., forty miles away, was with great difficulty moved to Reno, the corps of workmen from the hay-press lending a helping hand. His prosperity was short-lived, for all this valuable property went for securities a few years later, when the mining industry into which he put his entire faith, became insolvent.

In 1892, at Reno, Mr. Lyding married Miss Hannah Waller, a native of Sweden, who came out to Illinois as a girl with her parents, and her younger brother, P.A. Waller. He became a multimillionaire manufacturer of Kewanee, Ill., and a prominent figure in political circles, and in 1920 he was an unsuccessful candidate on the Democratic platform for United States senator from Illinois. Mr. Lyding entered the employ of Governor Sparks as general superintendent of the Alamo Hereford Farm, three miles south of Reno, in 1893. There was a menagerie of buffalo, elk and other wild animals, and the poultry farm embraced all varieties from fighting cocks to Brahmas. Here Mr. Lyding did much of his best work, at the same time that he had ample opportunity for study and experiment. In 1896, Sparks' fatted steer sold off the block at the International Live Stock Show in Chicago, with a depreciation of only twenty-nine per cent, a mark never equaled up to that time.

In 1896, Mr. Lyding made up a party for a rush to Alaska, and helped to chart the old brig "Novo" at San Francisco, and arrived in the frozen North in the early spring of 1897. He was joined by his devoted wife in 1900, who accompanied him on many trips. However, there he was again close to death's door, to say nothing of his thrilling experiences, one of which was finding a tribe of Indians who had never before seen a white man. He figured in numerous lucky adventures, but lost much of what he acquired through the duplicity of the governor of that Canadian province, the Klondyke.

Mr. and Mrs. Lyding returned to California and Nevada, coming out of the frozen interior, over the ice, on a memorable trip. They had to have their baggage transported by mail, at fifty cents per pound, and they paid $500 fare for each person, the Canadian Development Company, that owned the charter to carry United States mail from Dawson to Skagway, taking the boodle. This trip required six days of travel, with six nights, and there were only six hours of stop along the way. The party had to brave perils of the ice, and the risk of losing all, but they successfully made the hazardous trip.

In 1902, Mr. Lyding returned to Reno and bought 160 acres, and within the short period of five years, he came away from Reno with a considerable fortune, thanks to Governor Sparks, who signed his notes, and helped him to regain his competency. In the hope of regaining his health, in 1906, he removed to Sebastopol, in the Santa Rosa Valley, and bought a ranch adjoining that owned by Luther Burbank, and he started in the poultry business. And in 1907, he built the first Lyding chicken-house, in Sonoma County, the result of years of close study of both the hen and the poultry business. The deplorable condition of the egg market in California and the West at that time had greatly concerned him; and one of the results was the organization of the Sonoma County Fruit and Produce Company in which he served as a charter member and a director, evidence of the awakening of the commercialized poultry-raiser. In Sebastopol, in 1908, he was elected president of the local exchange, and after rendering several years of service there, he received, on leaving, a hall clock, with an engraved inscription of appreciation. In 1913 Mr. Lyding again assisted in organizing another poultry producers' association, this time under that name of Sonoma Producers' Association, with headquarters in Petaluma, which finally developed into the big poultry association of central California. He served as vice-president and director, and succeeded the late Charles Romwall to the president's chair. During the last year of Mr. Lyding's term in office, this association transacted $5,000,000 worth of business. In 1919, he resigned the presidential office, desiring to retire; but at the solicitation of friends, he continued to serve in an advisory capacity until, late in 1919, the Sacramento Suburban Fruit Lands Company sought and obtained his services as their poultry advisor at Rio Linda. He maintains his office at 617 J Street, Sacramento, and also spends a large portion of his time on the grounds, visiting the new and fast-growing poultry colony at Rio Linda. He is president of the Rio Linda Poultry Producers' Association, a purely cooperative body for the handling of feeds and other supplies, at a low figure to the grower. In all such work as this, Mr. Lyding is but carrying out an idea that has inspired him since boyhood, that man is placed upon earth in the discharge of a duty, that of serving mankind; hence, in his wonderfully successful poultry endeavors, he is less of a scientific exponent, and more of a man among men.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 639-640. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.