FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
225 
and chairman of its executive committee 
till failing health rendered him unable to 
fulfill its duties, and he did as much as 
any one man to steer the Society through 
the perils of its infancy and establish those 
conservative policies which have made it 
respected and a power in this state and 
country. 
Mr. Phelps was a man of imagination 
and possessed the subtle outreaching in¬ 
stincts that mark the prophet and the 
seer. His enthusiasms may sometimes 
have carried him to temporary erroneous 
conclusions, but that happens to us all and 
it is the so-called cranks and visionaries 
that reach out into the unknown and dis¬ 
cover and harness the unseen forces. Let 
his example be to us an inspiration, a 
stimulus to high resolve and stern en¬ 
deavor, for a pioneer in the van of mod¬ 
ern progress, a paladin in the crusade 
against ignorance, superstition and error, 
a lofty and a knightly soul has passed 
from the realm of human endeavor into 
the great beyond. 
Rev. Lyman Phelps, who was a native 
of New York State, was born December 
I 2 > 1833. 
He early served an apprenticeship to a 
cabinetmaker, where he learned the 
art of working, polishing and finish¬ 
ing woods which was to be in later life a 
source of pleasure to himself and friends. 
He attended the Moravian Institute as 
a student in winter, teaching in various 
places during the summer months. 
Later he attended the Theological Sem¬ 
inary at Nashotah, Wisconsin. 
He was ordained to the deaconhood 
of the Protestant Episcopal church at 
Nashotah Seminary, St. Sylvanns Parish, 
Wisconsin, June 15, 1862, and to the 
priesthood at Zion church, Oconomonoc, 
Wisconsin, June 28, 1863. 
Under Bishop Jackson Kemper he did 
missionary work part of the time among 
the Indians; later he became rector of the 
parish at Mineral Point, Wisconsin and 
principal of the church school at that 
place. 
While here he was married to Miss 
Apia Hait, who was a teacher in the 
school. 
During the summer of his last year at 
Mineral Point, he went for his vacation 
to a resort near Magdaline Island where 
he was to hold services. He was accom - 
panied by his wife. 
Owing to bad sanitary conditions 
while here both Rev. and Mrs. Phelps 
contracted typhoid fever, which resulted 
in the death of Mrs, Phelps and complete 
loss of health to Mr. Phelps. 
He was obliged to give up his charge 
at Mlineral Point. He went east for 
medical advice and treatment, stopping 
for some time at the sanitarium of Dr. 
Foster at Clifton Springs, N. Y. 
In the winter of 1875, accompanied by 
a devoted sister, he came to Florida. 
Here much of his time was spent with 
gun over his shoulder, in taking long 
tramps through the 'woods studying the 
flowers, trees and birds of the southland. 
His health improvecj and lie became 
deeply interested in the culture of the 
orange and other tropical and semi-trop¬ 
ical fruits. 
