Where is Lyddie's father in Lyddie?

Lyddie’s father left to go west to find work. 

Lyddie really misses her father.  Although things started falling apart for her family even before he left, her father leaving was the last straw for Lyddie’s mother.  She found herself unable to cope with her four children and the realities of farm life.  Once he left, she lost any control she had. 

Lyddie’s mother does not have a high opinion of her husband, although the...

Lyddie’s father left to go west to find work. 

Lyddie really misses her father.  Although things started falling apart for her family even before he left, her father leaving was the last straw for Lyddie’s mother.  She found herself unable to cope with her four children and the realities of farm life.  Once he left, she lost any control she had. 

Lyddie’s mother does not have a high opinion of her husband, although the children worship him. 

"But how will Papa find us if we've left home?" Charles asked. 

"Your father went out searching for vain riches. He ain't never coming back." 

"He will! He will!" Rachel cried. "He promised." Though how could she remember? She'd been barely three when he'd left. (Ch. 1)

Lyddie's mother's characterization of her father's going west seems to indicate that he might have gone looking for gold.  There were many men who left their families to go to California or nearby states looking for precious metals and easy, instant wealth.  He might have thought it was his only hope. 

Lyddie says that her mother “had gone somewhat queer in the head” after her father left.  She did not believe that he was coming back.  She became even more worthless, with Lyddie taking over the role of both mother and father for the farm.  She took care of her mother and her younger siblings. 

Lyddie describes her father as unlucky. She believes that his attempt to go west was a result of lack of success on the farm.  Although he tried, things never seemed to work out for him.  She doesn’t fault him for it. 

His sugar bush was scraggly and his oat crop barely enough to feed his growing family.  There were stumps to burn aplenty as he cleared the land, but suddenly there was no need for potash in England and hardly any demand in Vermont. He borrowed heavily to buy himself three sheep, and the bottom dropped out of the wool market the very year he had had enough wool to think of it as a cash crop. (Ch. 2) 

Lyddie seems to have inherited her father’s persistence, at least.  She had to take responsibility when he left, and she never blamed him.  She blamed her mother for not maintaining her sanity, and for letting out the farm and sending her two oldest children to work.  Lyddie wanted to keep the family together, and blamed her mother and not her father for its loss.