My Genealogy Hound

DR. LEWIS DYER was for many years a leading physician of southern Illinois, and an army surgeon of marked ability. He was an orator of more than local note, a man of excellent education, broad views and clear and forcible intellect. He was born in Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vt., February 24, 1807. Dating back to the time when the little band of exiles left England and crossed the Atlantic to find a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, to the time when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, the ancestry of the Dyer family in America can be traced. Fifteen years later we learn of William and Mary Dyer, of Boston, who were direct descendants of Sir James Dyer, an eminent English lawyer, who came from an ancient and honorable family of Somersetshire. In 1656 members of the Society of Friends arrived in Massachusetts and their persecution was begun by the Puritans. Mary Dyer became a member of that sect and an active worker therein, and was sentenced to be hung, but pardon was offered her if she would renounce her faith. This she refused to do, and was hung on Boston Common. The Doctor is one of her direct descendants, and the same fidelity which led her to face even death is found again in him.

Henry Dyer, father of our subject, was born in North Kingston, R. I., and with his father and brothers aided in the defense of the Colonies during the Revolution. One brother, Charles, was a Captain in the regular service, and all were faithful and true soldiers, who bravely defended their country and struggled for its freedom. When the desired result was accomplished, Henry Dyer settled in Bennington County, Vt., where he followed farming. He was an influential and prominent citizen, a lover of peace, and frequently decided for his neighbors contentions which arose between them, and thus avoided bringing the matter into court. He was honored and respected by all who knew him. His death occurred on his farm, near Manchester, Vt., at the advanced age of ninety-six. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Coy, was a native of Connecticut, who came of an industrious, upright family. Her advantages in early life were few, but she was a practical, enterprising woman, possessed of considerable force of character, and did much good in the world, teaching her children to walk in the paths of righteousness, and aiding in many benevolent and charitable works. She died in her seventieth year, and her loss was mourned by all who knew her.

In the Dyer family were seven sons and three daughters. Moses, the eldest, was a Methodist clergyman; Dennis, David and Daniel were farmers, and Rev. Heman Dyer, D. D., was a prominent divine. He was graduated from Kenyon College, in which he was afterwards a teacher, and Secretary Stanton was among his pupils. He became a noted Episcopal preacher, and the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Washington College of Connecticut and Kenyon College. In 1845 he was elected President of the Western University of Pennsylvania, and in 1860 was chosen Bishop of Kansas, but declined to accept the honor. He has declined the rectorship of several leading churches and for many years past has resided in New York City, where he has been officially connected with the Evangelical Knowledge Society, representing, as it does, a large portion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Although he is quite wealthy himself, men of wealth in that city have twice paid the expenses of himself and family on a trip to Europe. His memoirs have been published under the title of “The Record of an Active Life.” The sisters of Dr. Dyer grew to womanhood. One became the wife of John March, an Elder in the Presbyterian Church and a brother of Alden March, M. D., President of the Albany Medical College.

The boyhood days of the Doctor were spent on the home farm, and his literary education was obtained in an academy of Manchester, Vt. In 1828 he was graduated from Berkshire Medical College, of Massachusetts, organized under the charter of Williams College, and for about two years engaged in practice in Arlington, Vt., after which he spent several years in Gloversville, N. Y. He then made a visit to the west and spent some time in the home of his brother, Rev. Heman Dyer, then one of the instructors in Kenyon College, Ohio, and while there the Trustees appointed him physician of Kenyon College and also of the Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio. Thus he served for several years, but desiring a larger field for practice he resigned and located at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where he shared an office with the Hon. Columbus Delmo, then one of the foremost men in the state, and afterwards Secretary of the Interior under President Grant.

While engaged in practice there the Doctor also edited a Whig paper and was a member of the Ohio Whig Convention which was called to consider what action should be taken consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Dr. Dyer there said: “Let the repeal stand, but never admit another slave state into the Union.” In 1855 he removed to Iowa, but the severe winters proved detrimental to the health of his wife and daughter and he sought a more genial climate, refusing, in consequence, to accept a professorship in the Keokuk Medical College. Selecting southern Illinois for his future home, he located in Du Quoin, where he has since resided. When the late war broke out he took a leading part in raising troops, and many a young officer owed his commission to the efforts of the Doctor in his behalf. Dr. Dyer was then quite well advanced in years and intended not to go to the front, but upon the personal request of Governor Yates he accepted the position of Surgeon of the Eighty-first Illinois Infantry, and two years later was made Surgeon-in-chief of his division. His labors were arduous, but he filled the position with marked ability and distinction.

In justice to the Doctor we will give an outline of an incident in his army life. During the early part of his service he was ordered by one of the officers to secure two barrels of whiskey with his supplies. Now, Dr. Dyer has always been a temperance man, yet he does not object to the use of intoxicating liquors as a medicine, and he has always prescribed them when he thought it necessary. But at that time he knew that two barrels of whiskey were not required, and his old Puritanic views came to the front and he flatly refused to order the whiskey. This did not suit the officer nor the men who had hoped to drink the liquor, and secretly a petition was prepared and signed and forwarded directly to Washington, demanding his removal for refusing to obey orders.

This fact coming to the knowledge of the Doctor, he went directly to the headquarters of General Grant and stated what had come to his knowledge and asked him what an innocent and honorable man should do to vindicate himself. General Grant issued an order to General McPherson to convene a court of inquiry forthwith to investigate the matter, but before the court was convened the order came from Washington dismissing him from the service. Hearing of this he went at once to headquarters, and ripping his shoulder straps off, flung them to the ground and requested to be put in the ranks until he was vindicated, but instead of this being done he was placed in the surgeon’s department until the court of inquiry had convened, but when it did the testimony not only exculpated him, but brought to light a foul conspiracy to ruin an innocent man. The Doctor was at once re-instated and his career as an army surgeon was a most brave and honorable one.

After the war, a history of the Illinois troops being called for by act of the Legislature, Dr. Dyer was assigned to the duty of writing the history of his command, which he did in a most creditable style. He continued his practice in Du Quoin and served for about ten years as Pension Examining Surgeon, and after the establishment of the Board he was appointed President thereof. While sitting on the Board he received a message asking: “Will you accept the position of physician to the Southern Illinois Penitentiary?” He replied in the affirmative, and served in that position for three years, when he resigned and retired to private life.

In the organization of the Southern Illinois Medical Association the Doctor was a leading factor, and served as its President for one term and as its Treasurer for thirteen years, resigning the position November 16, 1893. For years he has been one of the most noted men of this section of the state. He is a man of culture, broad views and great activity, and now, though nearing his ninetieth year, he is more energetic than half of the men a quarter of a century his junior, and his mind is as active and clear as it was fifty years ago. In the Presbyterian Church he has been an influential man for years. He is also prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic and was the first commander of the Du Quoin Post, serving in that capacity for several years. His life has been well and worthily spent, and now, the possessor of an ample fortune, he is living in ease and comfort.