Michael Ryman’s obituary calls him one of the Brown County’s South Dakota’s pioneers. Though there had been white trappers in during the early 1800’s, up until about 1879 when plans were made to establish the city of Aberdeen, the territory was inhabited by Native Americans. Aberdeen itself was only actually began to be settled in 1881, so in 1885 when Michael Ryman, my mother’s great-grandfather first moved to that portion of Brown county that was rural even by Aberdeen standards, he was literally breaking new ground. The adjacent county of Edmunds, where Michael’s son William eventually bought land was even more remote. According to a county history the first settlers came to the eastern part of the county in late 1882 and did not begin moving into the western part of the state until April of 1883 when a few homesteaders began to trickle in. The first road was not created until 1886. Therefore, when William, his brother, and other family members bought land in what is now Hillside township in the western part of the county, there was little around. Life must have difficult there with the droughts and extreme weather conditions because residents of the area called it “Hardscrabble” and even after receiving an official name, it was reportedly called that by old timers who lived there.
Michael Ryman was the first relative on my mother’s mother’s side to come to the United States. He was born Melchior Reymann in Gadmen, Bern, Switzer land in 1835. He married Magdalena Bossli in Bern in 1861, and only two years later left Switzerland for the United States. Why he left is unclear, but he departed with other family members including an infant son Melchior, his father Johannes and several other family members. They sailed aboard the William Frothingham from Le Havre, arriving in New York on June 30, 1863. There is a story in my mother’s family, told me by my grandfather when I was young that the relatives who came from Switzerland almost did not make it. Apparently, they were supposed to go out on an earlier ship with other family members, but did not make it to the ship on time for some reason. The ship that they were supposed to travel on was caught in a storm and sunk. Whether that is true of not, it makes for a good family story.
The Reyman family next turns up in 1870 in Callicoon, Sullivan County, New York, near the Catskills. He is a farmer who seems to specialize in grains. His wife, Magdalena, known as Lena, has busy too since they now have four children. The census lists them as having been born in Germany, but more than likely, what happened here is that they were German speaking Swiss and the census taker merely made that assumption. This first census At this point Melchior still spells his first name as it was originally. The 1880’s census reveals that the family has increased and that there are now ten children. The Reyman’s are still living in Callicoon and, presumably, making their living from farming.
It was during the early 1880’s when the first railroads were being built that one of the railroads first came through South Dakota. There is nothing to say why the Reyman’s left New York and moved to South Dakota. It is during this time period once again, where the destruction of the 1890 Federal census by fire plays a major role, since there is no census to locate Melchior and Lena during the twenty years between 1880 and 1900. The 1900 census, however, reveals that he is now living in, of all places, Buena Park, California near his son, Mike and his wife Amelia. Melchior now lists his name as Michael and the last name is spelled Ryman.
During this time, however, Michael’s third son, William remained in South Dakota. A land map of Hillside township in Edmunds County reveals that William has land there and interestingly, adjacent to his property are the properties of two other family names – Anton Bossley and John Zell. Anton Bossley may have been Lena’s father, but it is more likely that it was her brother. John Zell, of course, was the father of Anna Zell who married William Ryman. They were my grandmother’s parents.
In 1908 Michael Ryman senior returned to Brown County where he lived until his death in 1915. Facts about his life in South Dakota are sparse. The cause of his death was apoplexy, an old fashioned designation for what we would probably call a stroke today. His funeral takes place in the Warner M. E. (or Presbyterian, depending upon the account) church and was officiated at by an evangelical minister from Aberdeen, indicating that, at least in the later years, he religion was ostensibly protestant. Michael’s wife Magdalena had died two years earlier. All of his nine remaining children, other than his namesake, were still living in the area. He died in the home of his son Casper, with whom he was probably living. The marker on his headstone in the Warner Cemetery merely reads, “Father” – probably appropriate for the original Ryman family member in America.
Northen History 