Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/389

 DYER

DYRE

took command of the torpedo boat Mayflower at Norfolk, Va.. Nov. 24, 1873, and on April 10, 1874, was transferred to the Pinta. In February, 1876, he was ordei'ed as executive officer of the JSeio Hampshire, fitting out at Norfolk, for permanent flag-ship at Port Royal. A few months later he was assigned to equipment duty at the Charles- town navy yard, and in 1879 was transferred to the receiving ship Wahash. In 1881 he joined the Tennessee, in 1883 became lighthouse inspector, and in the same year was promoted commander. He commanded the Marion on the Asiatic station, 1887-90; was again at Charlestown navy yard, and lighthouse inspector at Portland, Maine, 1890-97, and on March 21, 1897, was promoted to the rank of captain, having been assigned to the command of the Philadelphia in the Pacific squadron. He was at Mare Island, Cal., Aug. 31, 1897, when he was ordered to the command of

•••Baltimore."*"

the cruiser Baltimore, with which ship he went to Honolulu and thence to the port ot Hong Kong, China. On May 1, 1898, as commander of the Baltimore he participated in the naval engage- ment resulting in the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila bay by Commodore Dewey, and the city council of Baltimore, Md., on receiving the news of the exploit voted to purchase and present to the gallant captain a sword appropri- ately inscribed. He was the recipient of one of

the medals presented by congress to every officer and man in Dewey's fleet. He received a medal from the Massachusetts humane society for jump- ing overboard from the Ossipee during a gale in the Pacific, and saving the life of a sailor.

DYER, Oliver, author, was born in Porter, Niagara county, N.Y., April 26, 1824; son of Jere- miah and Mary Dyer. He was educated at the public schools and was principal of a school in

Lockport, N.Y., 1841-44. He subsequently took a course at the Genesee Wesleyan seminary at Lima, N.Y. He became interested in ortho- grajjliic reform and studied Isaac Pitman's phono- graphic shorthand system, becoming an expert in the use of shorthand, and in 1848 accepted the position of reporter in the senate at Washington. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and practised in New York city. The success of his sketch of " The Wickedest Man in New York " (1868), led to his employment on the staffs of the New York Sun and other papers. In 1871 he agreed to write exclusively for the New York Ledger. He was or- dained a minister in the Swedenborgian church in 1876 and became pastor of the New Church so- ciety at Mount Vernon, N.Y., where he minis- tered without pay. He is the author of: Great Senators of the United States Forty Years Ago (1889); Life of Andrew Jackson (1892). In 1899 he was a resident of Warren, R.I.

DYER, Sidney, author and clergyman, was born in Cambridge, N.Y., Feb. 11, 1814; son of John Stevens and Eimice (Hurd) Dyer; grandson of William Dyer, and a descendant of William Dyre, who early settled in the Massachusetts col- ony. He studied in classical schools in New York city ; served in tlie Black Hawk war in 1832-33 ; returned to New York, studied theology, and be- came a missionary among the Indians, and subse- quently secretary of the Indian mission board in Louisville, Ky. In 1852 he became pastor of the first Baptist church at Indianapolis, Ind. In 1859 he was chosen district secretary of the American Bajitist publication society, which position he held for twenty-seven years, and then retired from active service and settled in De Land, Fla. , subsequently removing to Germantowni Pa. He is the author of nvimerous contributions to period- icals, and of many songs. He also published two cantatas, Buth and The Winter Evening Entertain- ment; Songs and Ballads (185S) ; and a series of eight volumes on natural history and science: Great Wonders in Little Tilings, Home and Abroad, Black Diamonds, Boys and Birds, Hoofs and Claws, Ocean Gardens, Elenor Dale Lyceum, and Beautiful Ladder ; and a volume of original hymns entitled Songs in the Xight (1899).

DYER, William Henry, silk culturist, was born on the farm of his father on Pocasset Neck, R.I., Aug. 13, 1817; son of Deacon Daniel P. and Abby (Williams) Dyer, and a descendant in the sixth generation from William and Mary Dyer through Charles, who settled on Asliuntick Neck, R.I., known afterw^ard as Pocasset Neck. Deacon Daniel P. Dyer was a descendant on the female side by marriage from Roger Williams, and Abby Williams was a direct descendant from the same worthy progenitor. William H. attended the district school, a private school in Providence and