My Genealogy Hound

Dr. John Hyer, retired physician and surgeon at Lake Spring, was born in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1810, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Hyer, and grandson of Louis Frederick Hyer, who was born in Wolfenddettle, Germany, and came to America at an early day. He was a forgeman, as were all his sons, and died in Lancaster, Penn. His wife, Mary E. (Weaver) Hyer, was born in Pennsylvania, and was of German descent. She died in Cumberland County, Penn. The maternal grandfather, John Mitchell, was born in England, and was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant. He and wife died in that city when the subject’s mother was an infant. She was born in 1785, in Philadelphia, and was then adopted and reared by the Llewellyn family, who came to America with William Penn. The descendants are now living on the old home farm near Philadelphia. The father, Samuel Hyer, was born in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1779, and was married near Philadelphia. He first settled in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1817, then in Cumberland County, of the same State, then in Wheeling, W. Va., thence to Bainbridge, Ohio, and in 1837 to Missouri, where for a year or two he was at the Meramec Iron Works. He then moved to Lake Spring, when there were but few settlers, and there passed the remainder of his life. The mother died in 1855, at the age of seventy, and the father in 1862, at the age of eighty-three. Both were members of the Methodist Church from early youth. Mr. Hyer was a forgeman, which occupation he followed many years after he left Pennsylvania. He was formerly a wealthy merchant, but became a bankrupt by endorsement for friends. He was a man of great activity, energy and good business ability. Dr. John Hyer was the second of eight children born to his parents, and the eldest son. He was reared in the common schools of Pennsylvania, and clerked in his father’s store until about twenty-one years of age, when he began the study of medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. William W. Stigleman, whose wife now lives with Dr. Hyer. He then taught school to pay his expenses while studying three years. In 1838 he came to this portion of Missouri, settling at Lake Spring, where he began his practice, and continued at this with remarkable success until after the war. He is one of the very first practitioners in South Central Missouri, as well as one of the most successful ones. He still prescribes for some of the old settlers. In 1842 he married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of William and Eliza Ruth, and a native of Pennsylvania, born near Philadelphia, where the parents spent all their lives. Mr. Ruth was a blacksmith by trade. Mrs. Hyer came to Missouri in 1840, with the Doctor’s sister, Mrs. Ann Stigleman. To the Doctor and wife were born three children: Elizabeth P., wife of Judge Robert W. Fyan (she was killed at Marshfield, by the cyclone of 1880, the house blowing in); Martha L., wife of Dr. Edward B. Bowles, of Maries County, and Mary Ella, wife of Alexander C. Donnan. The daughters all received good educations, and the eldest daughter finished at the Convent of the Visitation, St. Louis. The second daughter finished at Troy, Ohio, and the youngest in the high-schools in St. Louis. Mrs. Hyer died in 1855, at the age of thirty-three years. She was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, all the daughters being members of the same. Dr. Hyer is among the substantial men of Dent County, owning 2,000 acres of land in Dent and Phelps Counties. He is well known through South Central Missouri, and is an honorable, upright citizen. In 1842 he represented Crawford County in the Legislature, when that county extended over a large part of South Central Missouri, and again, in 1848, he represented that county in the Lower House of the same body. During that session he petitioned the Legislature and organized Dent County. In 1860 he represented his senatorial district, then consisting of Crawford, Maries, Phelps, Dent, Shannon, Ozark and Pulaski Counties, in the Legislature, and was elected to the Confederate Congress, but did not serve. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, in 1874, which revised or formed a new State Constitution. His father established a postal route from Jefferson City and Houston, and the Doctor was the first postmaster at Lake Spring Post-office, which position he held until the war. After that eventful period he was postmaster again until 1887. In his political views he has been a Democrat all his life, and his first presidential vote was for Gen. Jackson, in 1832. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a worthy member of the Baptist Church.