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- 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 orthographic reform and studied Isaac Pitman's phonographic 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 ordained a minister in the Swedenborgian church in 1876 and became pastor of the New Church society at Mount Vernon, N.Y., where he ministered 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. I also have the original editions of his books The Great Senators (all of whom he knew personally) and General Andrew Jackson. In fact, I also just found out that he received the 'Sublime Degree of a Master Mason.' I found the paper inside one of these books where my mother had put it. According to a newspaper clipping about my grandfather Oliver, he passed the bar but never practiced law. He did, however, become the editor of the New York Ledger in 1871. A post he held for 20 years. (Sincerely, Jean Walsh Quinnett, 8/29/00) (from The NY Sun, Nov. 23, 1867) Our friend Oliver Dyer, the popular lecturer, who undertakes to tell people how to escape hell, has, we learn, fetched up in Sing Sing prison.He was captured last Sunday morning by the prison chaplain, and take into the chapel, where he first preached to the 1,800 male convicts, and prayed with them, in his original fashion, until he brought tears to their eyes. Then the chaplain made him go to the chapel for female convicts, and talk to them, which he did with even more power than he had talked to the males. The upshot of the morning's work was that the chaplain intends to have Mr. Dyer come again, and, in the meanwhile, has procured several hundred printed copies of a report of his remarks for distribution among the inmates of the prison. Yet the Methodist Christian Advocate sneers at Mr. Dyer as a lecturer whose name ought not to be mentioned even in its advertising columns.
For Village President, OLIVER DYER: Dear Sir:--The undersigned, your friends and neighbors, ask you to permit them to take such action as may be necessary to nominate you for the Village Presidency. Mount Vernon is year by year growing so rapidly,that it needs for its chief magistrate, a man full of energy, with wisdom and foresight to provide for its wants, with prudence and caution. To keep within its means, and with parliamentary skill and firmness necessary to give dignity and directness to the proceedings of the Board of Trustees. In looking for such a man, they naturally turn to you, and hope that you will give them the pleasure of placing you before your fellow citizens, as a candidate for the village presidency at the ensuing village election. (It lists 64 names and says 'and many others') Mount Vernon, May 17th, 1884. Col. Alfred Cooley, Hon. Isaac N. Mills, George R. Crawford, Esq. and others. Gentlemen-I have read your invitation to me, to be a candidate for the Village Presidency, with sentiments of profound thankfulness for the kindness and appreciation which inspired it. I heartily sympathise with your desires in respect to the government and interests of our beautiful village, and accept your invitation. Should I be elected President of the village, I will do my best to realize your expectations;and whether you succeed in the canvass or not, I shall never forget the neighbourly kindness which prompted you to such an expression of friendship and confidence. Very truly yours, OLIVER DYER (from New-Church Messenger Oct. 24, 1900). The Rev. Oliver Dyer. Oliver Dyer was born in the town of Porter, County of Niagara, and State of New York, on the 26th day of April, 1824. That region was then a dense wilderness. The Erie Canal had not yet been completed. The settlers had to chop their farms out of the wilderness. Oliver's parents were poor and so were all their neighbors. Life was then and there literally a struggle for existence and only the fittest survived. When Oliver was six years old his father sold his farm and moved to Lockport on the Erie Canal, which had become the great avenue of communication between Albany and the Lakes. Oliver was sent to school,and from the start made rapid progress in his studies. Parents then had to supply books for their children, and it was difficult for Oliver's parents to supply the books which his rapid progress rendered necessary,When he was eight years old he began to earn money with which to buy his own books and continued to do so as long as he remained at school. He was liberally helped in his endeavors by some of his teachers and a number of friends who admired the boy's pluck and ability. Oliver was a boy who always minded his own business. He never interfered with others, but if others interfered with him and forced him into a fight he fought with such desperation as to strike terror to the hearts of the aggressors. This trait of character had an important effect upon his career. When he was seventeen years old the trustees of one of the village schools were looking for a teacher. The school was utterly run down. The district in which it was situated was infested by a horde of young ruffians from sixteen to twenty-two years of age whose only object in going to school was to have a row. They repeatedly broke up the school and drove the teachers from the door. The trustees were in despair. At last one of them suggested that Oliver Dyer should engagedly to take charge of the school, because his well-known fighting powers would doubtless enable him to reduce the ruffians to order. It was a dangerous experiment to put a boy of seventeen into such a situation, but the experiment was tried and proved to be successful. Mr. Dyer provided himself with an iron-wood poker about five feet long and two inches in diameter. The first day's session of the school passed without any demonstration. On the morning of the second day the hitherto triumphant ruffians broke out into open rebellion. One of them was a burly fellow over six feet in height and every one of them was larger and more muscular than their teacher. The moment they showed fight Mr. Dyer felled the leader with his poker and attacked the others with such intrepidity that they were soon lying helpless on the floor. The battle was short and the result conclusive.As soon as order was restored the studies of the school went on and were never again interrupted by the least exhibition of disobedience. All the defeated ruffians became Mr. Dyer's warm friends and admirers and boasted of the superior order and discipline maintained in his school. The facts about his battle with the disturbers of the school spread through the village and gave intense satisfaction to everybody. He continued as head of the school until the sixth day of June, 1844, when he ended his career as a schoolteacher with a grand exhibition and festival. His salary had been raised to five hundred dollars a year, the largest then paid in the county, and he had saved money enough to pay his way through college. His mother's dearest wish was that Oliver should become a Methodist minister, of which Church he was a member. He yielded to her wishes and went to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, N.Y., but in a few months his mother suddenly died. This broke him up. His scientific pursuits had caused him to become dissatisfied with the Methodist theology. He accepted the teachings of geology, which were then considered atheistic.He also rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the material body,and that of salvation by faith alone. In short, he was entirely broken up as to theology. He became a journalist and reporter. In the latter capacity he officiated in the United States Senate in the years 1848-49.He also studied law and was admitted to the New York Bar, where he practised for a quarter of a century. In 1865 he became interested in mission work in the slums of New York. He spent several years in investigating the causes and the remedies of the deplorable state of things which he found there. In 1868 he wrote his famous article on 'The Wickedest Man in New York', which caused a prodigious sensation and led to the extinction of seventy-two brothels and dance houses in the vilest portion of the city. Just at this time he became acquainted with the writings of the New Church. They were just what he had been looking for for years. They gave him the spiritual peace and satisfaction which he sorely needed. He united with the Thirty-fifth Street Church in New York in 1869. The Rev. Chauncey Giles was then the pastor of that Church. He became a warm friend of Mr. Dyer's and urged him to become a lay preacher of the doctrines. Mr. Dyer acceded to his wishes and began preaching. He continued in his pay preaching until 1876, when he was ordained as a minister of the New Church by the Rev. Chauncey Giles. For several years previous he had preached for the New-Church Society at Mt.Vernon, N.Y., where he resided, and he continued to act as the Pastor of that Church, without salary, until 1885, when his poor health compelled him to give up that work. He continued to preach occasionally in New York, Orange, New Jersey, and various other places. Many of his sermons have been published. One pamphlet, containing 'Six Sermons on New-Church Subjects' was published in 1888. In 1892 Mr. Dyer quit all work and removed to Providence, R.I., and subsequently to Warren, R.I. Since that time his health has been so poor that his preaching and lecturing and contributions to the press have been infrequent. It is probable that he will neither preach nor write anymore. [1892 was the year my mother was born. Actually, it was my grandmother who was in poor health due to breast cancer she developed in her mid to late forties.] (Submitted by Jran Walsh Quinnett, 9/4/00)
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1824 - 1907 (82 years)