Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/387

 DYER

DYER

•with his regiment in the campaign against Mobile, iy64-6.j, was mustered out of the service in 1865, and returned to the practice of law in Missouri. He was secretary of the state senate in 1866; a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1868 at Chicago, 111., and represented his dis- trict in the 41st congress. He was appointed by President Grant U.S. attornej- for the eastern district of Missouri, and served 1875-77. He pros- ecuted the " ring " charged with whiskey frauds and received from President Grant the famous dispatcli " Let no guilty man e.scape." He was Republican candidate for governor of Missouri in 1880.

DYER, Eliphalet, delegate, was born in Wind- ham, Conn., Sept. 28, 1721. He was graduated at Yale in 1740, received his M.A. degree in 1744 and was admitted to the practice of law in 1746' He was a state legislator by repeated elections be- t.veen 1747 and 1762, and projected and promoted the establishment of a Connecticut colony in Penn- sylvania, 1753-55. He served as lieutenant-colo- nel of a regiment sent from Connecticut to reduce Crovra Point, N.Y., in August, 1755, and was colonel of a regiment in the expedition against Canada in 1758. He was an assistant to the governors of Connecticut, 1762-84, and went to England m 1763, to get from the crown con- firmation of title to lands selected by the Connec- ticut colony in the Wyoming region. He was the first of the commissioners sent to the stamp- act congress from Connecticut. In 1784 he with- drew from the governor's council rather than aid in enforcing the stamp act. He was associate judge of the superior court, 1766-89, and chief justice, 1789-93. He was a delegate to congress from Connecticut, 1774-79 and 1780-83, a mem- ber of the state committee of safety, 1775-76, aod declined an appointment as brigadier-general of militia in December, 1776. Harvard conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. in 1744 and Yale gave him that of LL.D. in 1787. He died in W^indham, Conn., May 13, 1807.

DYER, Elisha, governor of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, R.I., July 20, 1811; son of Elisha and Frances (Jones) Dyer, and a lineal descendant of William Dja-e, an immigrant from England to Boston in 1635, and of Mary Dyre, his wife, who was hanged on Boston common be- cause of her Quaker jirinciples. Elisha was graduated from Brown university in 1829, and became clerk in the counting-house of Elisha Dyer & Company, commis.sion merchants cf Providence, of which firm his father was the head, and to which he was admitted a partner in 1831. In 1835 he was made agent for the Dyer- ville manufacturing company, established at that time by his father, and at his father's death in 1854, he became owner of the property. This hp

kept until 1867 when illness forced him to dispose of it. He was a delegate to various political con- ventions, and on May 3, 1840, was chairman of the Young men's Whig national convention at Baltimore. He was elected adjutant-general of Rhode Island in June, 1840, to which office he was re-elected for five successiV^e years. He was active in tliis capacity during the Dorr war un- dar Gov. Siinuel W. King. He was elected gov- ernor of Rhode Island in 1857, and was re-elected in 185S, declining a third nomination in 1859. He volunteered for service in the civil war, in place of his son who was disabled, and served for three months as captain of Company B, 10th reg- iment of Rhode Island volunteers. He was a member of the Rhode Island art association and its second vice-president in 1853; a member of the United States agricultural .society and its vice-president in 1857; member of the American academy of arts and sciences; a trustee of the Butler hospital association; president of the Young men's Christian association, 1857-58; president of the first National musical congress, Boston, 1869; honorary member of the Franklin lyceum; of the Providence association of me- chanics and manufacturers and of the National board of popular education. He was a delegate to the international agricultural exhibition at Hamburg, in 1863; commissioner at the inter- national exhibition in London, 1871, and hon- orary commissioner at the Vienna exposition in 1873. He was married in 1833 to Anna Jones, daughter of Thomas C. Hoppin. He published A S'tonmer's Travel to Find a German Home (1864). He died in Providence, R.I., May 17, 1890.

DYER, Elisha, governor of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, R.I., Nov. 28, 1^39; son of Gov. Elisha and Anna Jones (Hoppin) Dyer. He entered Brown uni- versity in 1856, lea V- y^'' ing at the end of liis Mi^"'- sophomore year to go I abroad. He was ■ graduated from the University of Giessen in 1860 with the de- gree of Ph.D., and then returned in time to enter the civil wa i as sergeant in the l>t R.L light batter}^ He was severely injured hj an accident on his waj' to the field of

battle and never re- '

covered entirely from its effects. He was colonel on the staff of Governor Smith, 1863-66, and in 1867, on the formation of the marine artillery company, he entered as corporal, becoming

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