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Lyman Collins Dudley

Lyman Collins Dudley, of Fayette, a retired farmer formerly engaged in agricultural pursuits in Fremont Township, is numbered among the early settlers of the county. He is widely and favorably known throughout the community and by the readers of the Album his sketch will therefore be received with interest. He was born in Smithville, Chenango County, N. Y., March 2, 1822, and is a son of Lyman and Abigail (Hotchkin) Dudley. His father was born in Richmond, Mass., June 12, 1786, was of an old New England family of English origin and his death occurred in Chenango County, N. Y. The mother was born in Connecticut, November 22, 1790; they were married in New England and soon afterward removed to New York where they spent the remainder of their lives, Mr. Dudley being engaged in agricultural pursuits. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and received a good English education. On reaching manhood he engaged in farming in his native county where he was married on the 22d of March, 1848, to Miss Elizabeth O. Corbin, a daughter of Esbon and Margaret (Wheeler) Corbin. Mrs. Dudley was born in Greene, Chenango County, August 29, 1824. In April, 1855, Mr. Dudley removed with his wife to Fayette County, Iowa, and settled in that part of the township of Oran, since set off and named Fremont. He purchased a farm on section 15, which he still owns and which comprises three hundred and twenty acres less the railroad right of way. He improved his land and placed it under a high state of cultivation, also engaged in the dairy business quite extensively and paid considerable attention to the growing of stock. He became known as one of the

 leading farmers and dairymen of the county and continued to operate his farm until March, 1884, when leasing it he retired from active business life, since which time he has been a resident of Fayette where he owns considerable property.

Mr. Dudley lost his wife on the 20th of March, 1887, and was again married in Fayette November 26, 1888, to Mrs. Mary Ellen Parker, widow of William Parker and a daughter of Henry and Sarah (Winters) Wharton. Mrs. Dudley was born in Clermont County, Ohio, on the 1st of August, 1833, and had three children by her former marriage, all of whom died when quite young. She was first married in Ohio in 1850 and came to Iowa in 1868. Her parents were natives of the Buckeye State, were of English descent and consistent members of the Methodist Church. Their deaths occurred in Ohio.

Mr. Dudley was a Democrat in politics in early life as was his father before him. Later believing the Republican party more in harmony with his sentiments in regard to the temperance question he joined its ranks, but subsequently becoming that it was not in earnest on the prohibition question, he left it and joined the Prohibition party in which he is now an earnest and zealous worker. In their religious views Mr. and Mrs. Dudley are in harmony, as they are on the subject of politics. He united with the Methodist Church in 1857 and his first wife was also a zealous member of that denomination. The present Mrs. Dudley united with the Methodists in Ohio at the age of nine years and has maintained her connection with the church continuously since. Mr. Dudley has long been an active working member and is at present one of the Board of Trustees of the Fayette church. He is devoted to the cause of temperance and firmly believes that the question of prohibition is the vital issue of the times; while he is earnestly opposed to the high tariff protection theory of the Republican party as calculated to foster trusts and monopolies and work injustice and serious injury to the people. His influence in the community wherever he has resided has been strongly in the interests of temperance and morality, and his life has been in full accord with his profession. Mr. Dudley by his first marriage had one child, a daughter, Jan M. who died when sixteen years of age.