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- Beginnings, Page 9: 'In 1783-4 James and Jones Dyer came from Machias andsettled in Calais. Their original home appears to have been Providence,Rhode Island. Jones, Jr. married Lydia Knight, daughter of Capt.Jonathan. 15 children. He was active in town affairs.' Page 22: Jones Dyer, Jr. was the first constable along with WilliamGriggs, same year Jones Dyer, Sr. was a Highway surveyor. Page 24: Apr 2,1810 Additional town meeting to elect officers, Jones Dyeron School Committee. Page 25: Jan 12,1811 Jones Dyer, Jr. on Committee to petition legislatureto grant Calais public lands. School District: District 1 area between Baring and the east line of Jones Dyer's farmincluding Milltown. District 2 Territory between the east line of Jones Dyer's farm and theeast line of Daniel Rhoades (there were two other districts). Page 27: Apr 6 1812 Annual meeting: Jones Dyer Treasurer and selectman.Jones Dyer, Jr. School Committee. Neither Jones Jr. or Sr. listed in 1812Militia or regulars. ================================== Maine Legislative Indexes 1826-1830 (MSA) Subject: DYER, JONES JR. AND OTHERS Link: 544036 Year: 1826 Description: Report on the petition of, to build a bridge across theSchoodiac (sic) River from Calais to Saint Stephens Type: GY Access #:41-10 ====================================== Jones DYER Jr. and Lydia KNIGHT had, per the Annals of Calais (p. 21), atotal of 15 children [Kate Douglas Wiggin, their granddaughter, says14]. It seems curious that the first son was named Stephen, and thesecond son was given his father's name. Possibly Stephen was the firstname of Hannah (HARRINGTON) DYER's father? 'His first home was where theAlms House now [1875] stands; his second, on Main Street, near the footof Church Avenue. Being a man of energy and decided ability, he took anactive part in all public affairs, and was for many years the wealthiestman in town' (Annals, p. 21). He was an Attorney at Law, a 'gentleman',and appears to have owned a number of merchant ships over the years -- occupations which made him aconsiderable amount of money. Jones DYER Jr. was successful at Calais, as he had been at Machias,and became a prominent member of society (as pioneer founders often are)who was regularly elected to town offices. At Calais first town meeting,held 31 JUL 1809, he was elected one of the town's two constables(Annals, p. 44), and on 2 APR 1810 he was elected to the school committee(Ibid., p. 47). On 12 JAN 1811 Jones DYER Jr. was chosen as one of threeas a Committee to petition the Legislature to grant to the town of Calaisthe public lands reserved in said town. The financial relief thussought, if obtained, would have been very small and temporary; therequest therefore was probably not granted (Ibid., p. 49). At theCalais town meeting of 6 APR 1812, Jones Jr. was again elected to theschool committee (Ibid., p. 52) as well as the positions of Treasurer ofCalais and selectmen, both offices he was re-elected to at the meetingon 5 APR 1813. The church also benefited from Jones Jr.'s attentions, and the landand the avenue leading to the large, handsome and commodiousCongregational meeting house erected about 1826 'were given in equalshares by Dea. Samuel KELLEY and Jones DYER Esq' (Annals, p. 105), thedeed being dated 9 SEP 1826 (Ibid., pp. 104-5). In 1828 a Dyer's Hall isnoted at Calais (Ibid., p. 149) as being owned by Jones DYER, Esq., andit was there in the same year that the Ladies Benevolent Society wasformed (Ibid., p. 173). The 1810 Calais census shows Jones Jr. (b. 1765-84), his wife (b.1784-94), and children: one boy born 1800-10 [Edward S.], and two girlsborn 1800-10. Other children are shown: one, a girl born 1794-1800, isprobably one of the two daughters of James DYER who were born between1790 and 1800; the other, a girl born 1784-94, may be another of JamesDYERs daughters, one born 1784-90. [The family also appears in the 1810Calais census wherein Jones is shown to be born before 1764 as is hiswife, and living with them is one boy born 1784-94 (likely Nathan) andone girl born 1784-94. The 1820 Calais census gives Jones Dyer (not shown as Jr. because hisfather apparently had died and was no longer listed) born before 1775, awoman born pre-1775 [probably his mother, Lydia (Knight) Dyer, in lightof Kate Douglas Wiggin's comments below ], and children: one son born1793-1804, with no daughters listed. This census, with regard to thisfamily, appears extremely incomplete. Many children, later listed in the1830 census, are missed in this census. The 1830 Calais census lists Jones Dyer (b. 1770-80), his wife (b.1780-90), and children: one boy born 1790-1800, two boys born 1800-10, three boysborn 1810-15, one boy born 1820-25, two girls born 1800-10, two girlsborn 1810-15, two girls born 1815-20, one girl born 1820-25, and threegirls born 1825-30. Also living with the family was a woman who was between 90 and 100 yearsold (b. 1730-40) who may have been a relation of Jones's wife but in anyevent had come to live with them since the 1820 census. One of the abovepersons was an alien, and not naturalized, but which is unknown.Although Jones Jr.'s death date is given as 1860, there is curiously nosign of him or his family in the Calais censuses of 1840 or later. 1850 U.S. Census, PA, Philadelphia, Walnut ward (LDS film #444,781),p445; on 14 Sept 1850, house 218, family 287 was Jones Dyer, age 74,white, no profession, value of real estate $5000, b: Maine; in same housewas Hermancis Caimill (spelling of both names uncertain), female, age 25,b: Penn. 1850 US Census, Calais Maine - Jones Dyer does NOT appear with Lydia(62), Helen (19), and Josephine (16). Laws & Resolves of Maine Vol IV 1840-41 Chapter 102 Resolve in favor of Jones Dyer Resolved, That the Treasurerof the State be and hereby is authorized to cancel the stock of thisState, or any part thereof, now held by Jones Dyer, and to issue newStock, one fourth to be dated March the 1st, one fourth, Sept. 1st, onefourth, Nov. 1st , 1840 and the other fourth Jan 1st 1841, and to makethe same, with the interest thereon, payable at the Treasury. The termsof the certificates to be the same as to interest, as the certificatescancelled. [Approved October 21, 1840] Unless there was another Jones Dyer in Calais about 1845, then he musthave remarried After the death of his first wife as a Mrs. Sylvia Dyerlisted as the wife of Jones Dyer was on the membership list of the FirstCongregational Church of Calais, ME, on 11 MAY 1845. The following is drawn from My Garden of Memory (1923), written by JonesJr.'s granddaughter, Kate Douglas WIGGIN (1856-1923): 'A man of great individuality and marked business ability was JonesDyer, Gentleman, who conducted his fortunes so successfully that he was able to retire frombusiness at forty years [ca. 1815] and thereafter to wander from place toplace, seeking rest for the sole of his foot, the which, apparently, henever found.' Helen E. Dyer was the 'last but one of the fourteen budson the family tree' and Kate Douglas Wiggin further described hergrandfather as 'an unusually silent and reserved person, and as a furiousand omnivorous reader, his 'Websterian' head -- for so it was alwaysdescribed -- constantly bent over books and papers.' 'In spite of his apparently adequate family, my grandfather took into hishome and cared for two orphan relatives [daughters of his brother, James?-- see Calais census of 1810 above], and, as his aged father and motherwere also under his roof [post-1810], it may well be imagined that mysplendid and heroic maternal grandmother [Lydia (Knight) Dyer] was seldomat a loss for occupation. To his keen business sense, clear reasoning power, and executive ability,Jones Dyer, Gentleman, added what must have been rare in a man brought upon the outermost edge of things, a distinct sense of the artistic andunusual and the instincts of a collector. Whatever he bought for hisfamily was valuable and beautiful, although his restless removals fromplace to place often scattered tot he winds his various treasures. While living in New Haven,Connecticut, at one time, were my uncle [brother of Jones: James, Nathan or Stephen?] was studying law at Yale, grandfather bought from an old French emigré ahouse and its contents which my mother described as the most interestingand beautiful of all that the family had occupied up to that time'(Ibid., pp. xviii-xix). Excerpts from Jones's daughters letters, published by Kate DouglasWiggin, give a vivid portrait of the comings and goings: EMILY -- 'My trunk is packed and I am waiting for father's sloop, theChallenge, to take me to Philadelphia.' JOANNA -- 'When father's ship, the Pilgrim, comes back, he promises thatI may go to New Haven to take further music lessons.' HARRIET [already married, thus post-1850?] -- 'I could go to Boston onone of his ships and make you a little visit in Charlestown.' 'The family lived about the time of these letters in a old-fashionedmansion on Town Hill [Calais, Maine], a residence formerly owned by theHonorable Edward Everett, President of Harvard, and, as there were eightdaughters growing up under its roof, each one, according totradition,something of a belle and a beauty, it may well be imaginedthat, as a misanthropic young uncle [one of Jones's sons, thus KateDouglas Wiggin's uncle?] once said, 'the Hill was black with beaux dayand night!'' (Ibid, p. xx). In fact, 'one of [Helen E. Dyer's] rarememory-pictures was of her elder sister, Sophia, sitting (perhaps notaccidentally!) under the parlor chandelier, its full light shining on herwavy auburn hair, while a bevy of gallants around her rivaled one anotherin efforts to disentangle the 'kinks' in a long, slender gold chain shealways wore about her neck' (Ibid, p. x). That Jones Jr. made and exhausted his fortune seems certain by tworeferences made by Kate Douglas Wiggin: 'if he had not, with truly[Theodore] Rooseveltian fervor, furnished fourteen children asheirs-in-law, or if he had not retired from business at forty, his lessacquisitive grandchildren [herself for one?] might have been quite well-to-do ....' (Ibid., p. 81). And,again, Jones Jr.'s retirement 'was perhaps a noble reaction from thetyranny of trade, though had he wrestled with financial problems a fewyears longer he might, with his talents, have been able to endow his lesssuccessful descendants with abundant fortunes' (Ibid., first page of Chapter XX IV). From this itwould appear that there may have been some resentment within the familythat Jones Jr. spent the money he had worked so hard to earn! Personal Knowledge of JWP. Joseph W. Pehoushek, Punta Gorda, FL, Date ofentry: 6 Aug 1999. Jones Dyer Born 1776 Died 1860 Lydia Dyer Born 1780Died 1866 I personally visited this gravesite at Calais Cemetery, MaineBlock 49, lot 1.
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1776 - 1860 (84 years)
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