Jones Dyer Jr. (1776 - 1860)

Born 1776 in Machias, Washington, Maine

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1860 at about age 84 in Calais, Washington, Maine

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Biography

Jones Dyer, Jr., b at Machias, 1776, died, possibly at Philadelphia, PA, 1860, but after 14 Feb of that year; ^{[1] [2] [3]} came to Calais with his father, c1784, ^[4] married, 1805, Lydia Knight, ^{[5] [6]} b c1788 (from age at death), at Englishman’s River (Whitneyville or Roque Bluffs), d at Calais, 3 Jan 1866, ae 77y. ^{[7] [8]} His first house was where the alms house stood c1875; his second, on Main St., stood near the foot of Church Avenue, ^[9] He was for many years the wealthiest man in town. ^[10] He was chosen constable at the first town meeting after incorporation 31 Jul 1809. ^[11] At the town meeting on 12 Jan 1811, he was elected to a committee to petition the Legislature "to grant to the town of Calais the public lands reserved in said town". ^[12] At the town meeting of 6 Apr 1812, he was appointed to the school committee. ^[13] In 1825, he joined with Dea. Samuel Kelley to give a lot of land to the new Congregational Church, together with the avenue leading to it. ^[14] In 1832, he joined with William Delesdernier, ^[15] George Downes and O. L. Bridges ^[16] to form the Calais Railway Company, which failed in 1841. ^[17]

Note

Note: "Deaths - Drowned in Calais, Hamlin, son of Mr. Jones Dyer, aged 18". (Eastern Argus)

Beginnings, Page 9: "In 1783-4 James and Jones Dyer came from Machias and settled 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 William Griggs, same year Jones Dyer, Sr. was a Highway surveyor.

Page 24: Apr 2,1810 Additional town meeting to elect officers, Jones Dyer on School Committee.

Page 25: Jan 12,1811 Jones Dyer, Jr. on Committee to petition legislature to grant Calais public lands.

School District:

District 1 area between Baring and the east line of Jones Dyer's farm including Milltown.

District 2 Territory between the east line of Jones Dyer's farm and the east 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 1812 Militia or regulars.

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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 the Schoodiac (sic) River from Calais to Saint Stephens Type: GY Access #: 41-10

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Jones DYER Jr. and Lydia KNIGHT had, per the Annals of Calais (p. 21), a total of 15 children [Kate Douglas Wiggin, their granddaughter, says 14]. It seems curious that the first son was named Stephen, and the second son was given his father's name. Possibly Stephen was the first name of Hannah (HARRINGTON) DYER's father? "His first home was where the Alms House now [1875] stands; his second, on Main Street, near the foot of Church Avenue. Being a man of energy and decided ability, he took an active part in all public affairs, and was for many years the wealthiest man 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 a considerable 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 three as a Committee to petition the Legislature to grant to the town of Calais the public lands reserved in said town. The financial relief thus sought, if obtained, would have been very small and temporary; the request therefore was probably not granted (Ibid., p. 49). At the Calais town meeting of 6 APR 1812, Jones Jr. was again elected to the school committee (Ibid., p. 52) as well as the positions of Treasurer of Calais and selectmen, both offices he was re-elected to at the meeting on 5 APR 1813.

The church also benefited from Jones Jr.'s attentions, and the land and the avenue leading to the large, handsome and commodious Congregational meeting house erected about 1826 "were given in equal shares by Dea. Samuel KELLEY and Jones DYER Esq" (Annals, p. 105), the deed being dated 9 SEP 1826 (Ibid., pp. 104-5). In 1828 a Dyer's Hall is noted at Calais (Ibid., p. 149) as being owned by Jones DYER, Esq., and it was there in the same year that the Ladies Benevolent Society was formed (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 girls born 1800-10. Other children are shown: one, a girl born 1794-1800, is probably one of the two daughters of James DYER who were born between 1790 and 1800; the other, a girl born 1784-94, may be another of James DYERs daughters, one born 1784-90. [The family also appears in the 1810 Calais census wherein Jones is shown to be born before 1764 as is his wife, and living with them is one boy born 1784-94 (likely Nathan) and one girl born 1784-94.

The 1820 Calais census gives Jones Dyer (not shown as Jr. because his father apparently had died and was no longer listed) born before 1775, a woman born pre-1775 [probably his mother, Lydia (Knight) Dyer, in light of Kate Douglas Wiggin's comments below ], and children: one son born 1793-1804, with no daughters listed. This census, with regard to this family, appears extremely incomplete. Many children, later listed in the 1830 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 boys born 1810-15, one boy born 1820-25, two girls born 1800-10, two girls born 1810-15, two girls born 1815-20, one girl born 1820-25, and three girls born 1825-30.

Also living with the family was a woman who was between 90 and 100 years old (b. 1730-40) who may have been a relation of Jones's wife but in any event had come to live with them since the 1820 census. One of the above persons was an alien, and not naturalized, but which is unknown. Although Jones Jr.'s death date is given as 1860, there is curiously no sign 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 house was 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 Treasurer of the State be and hereby is authorized to cancel the stock of this State, or any part thereof, now held by Jones Dyer, and to issue new Stock, one fourth to be dated March the 1st, one fourth, Sept. 1st, one fourth, Nov. 1st , 1840 and the other fourth Jan 1st 1841, and to make the same, with the interest thereon, payable at the Treasury. The terms of the certificates to be the same as to interest, as the certificates cancelled. [Approved October 21, 1840]

Unless there was another Jones Dyer in Calais about 1845, then he must have remarried After the death of his first wife as a Mrs. Sylvia Dyer listed as the wife of Jones Dyer was on the membership list of the First Congregational Church of Calais, Washington, Me, on 11 MAY 1845.

The following is drawn from My Garden of Memory (1923), written by Jones Jr.'s granddaughter, Kate Douglas WIGGIN (1856-1923):

"A man of great individuality and marked business ability was Jones Dyer, Gentleman, who

conducted his fortunes so successfully that he was able to retire from business at forty years [ca. 1815] and thereafter to wander from place to place, seeking rest for the sole of his foot, the which, apparently, he never found." Helen E. Dyer was the "last but one of the fourteen buds on the family tree" and Kate Douglas Wiggin further described her grandfather as "an unusually silent and reserved person, and as a furious and omnivorous reader, his "Websterian" head -- for so it was always described -- constantly bent over books and papers."

"In spite of his apparently adequate family, my grandfather took into his home and cared for two orphan relatives [daughters of his brother, James? -- see Calais census of 1810 above], and, as his aged father and mother were also under his roof [post-1810], it may well be imagined that my splendid and heroic maternal grandmother [Lydia (Knight) Dyer] was seldom at 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 up on the outermost edge of things, a distinct sense of the artistic and unusual and the instincts of a collector. Whatever he bought for his family was valuable and beautiful, although his restless removals from place 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 a house and its contents which my mother described as the most interesting and 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 Douglas Wiggin, give a vivid portrait of the comings and goings:

EMILY -- "My trunk is packed and I am waiting for father's sloop, the Challenge, to take me to Philadelphia."

JOANNA -- "When father's ship, the Pilgrim, comes back, he promises that I may go to New Haven to take further music lessons."

HARRIET [already married, thus post-1850?] -- "I could go to Boston on one of his ships and make you a little visit in Charlestown."

"The family lived about the time of these letters in a old-fashioned mansion on Town Hill [Calais, Maine], a residence formerly owned by the Honorable Edward Everett, President of Harvard, and, as there were eight daughters growing up under its roof, each one, according to tradition,something of a belle and a beauty, it may well be imagined that, as a misanthropic young uncle [one of Jones's sons, thus Kate Douglas Wiggin's uncle?] once said, 'the Hill was black with beaux day and night!'" (Ibid, p. xx). In fact, "one of [Helen E. Dyer's] rare memory-pictures was of her elder sister, Sophia, sitting (perhaps not accidentally!) under the parlor chandelier, its full light shining on her wavy auburn hair, while a bevy of gallants around her rivaled one another in efforts to disentangle the 'kinks' in a long, slender gold chain she always wore about her neck" (Ibid, p. x).

That Jones Jr. made and exhausted his fortune seems certain by two references made by Kate Douglas Wiggin: "if he had not, with truly [Theodore] Rooseveltian fervor, furnished fourteen children as heirs-in-law, or if he had not retired from business at forty, his less acquisitive 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 the tyranny of trade, though had he wrestled with financial problems a few years longer he might, with his talents, have been able to endow his less successful descendants with abundant fortunes" (Ibid., first page of Chapter XX IV). From this it would appear that there may have been some resentment within the family that Jones Jr. spent the money he had worked so hard to earn!

Personal Knowledge of JWP. Joseph W. Pehoushek, Punta Gorda, FL, Date of entry: 6 Aug 1999. Jones Dyer Born 1776 Died 1860 Lydia Dyer Born 1780 Died 1866 I personally visited this gravesite at Calais Cemetery, Maine Block 49, lot 1.

SOURCES (used by Marshall Johnson in his research)

Annals of Calais (1875)

Calais censuses of 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840.

Compendium I, 915.

Dictionary of American Biography VI, p. 207 (Wiggin)

Eastport & Passamaquoddy (1888).

Letter from Veronica Chalmers dated 7 JAN 1979.

Letter from John E. McLeod dated 10 NOV 1978.

Letter from the Superintendent of the Calais Cemetery daated 2 MAR 1979.

Helen Dyer, My Garden of Memory (1923).

National Cyclopaedia of American Biography XVII, p. 56.

NEH&GR XX (1866), p. 380.

NEH&GR XLV (1891), p. 228.

Sources

1. ↑ g.s. Calais Cemetery; Washington Co deed 95:328-30; a series of deeds, beginning with Washington Co deed 49:347, establish that Jones Dyer lived in Philadelphia from 1842 until at least 14 Feb 1860; his g.s. bears only the date 1860.
2. ↑ Edited by Ruth Gray, Joseph Cook Anderson II, Lois Ware Thurston, C.G., et al, Maine Families in 1790 (Maine Genealogical Society, Picton Press, Rockport, ME), Vol. 8, p. 295
3. ↑ Findagrave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/105369771/jones-dyer
4. ↑ The Rev. I. C. Knowlton, Annals of Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick; Including the Village of Milltown, ME., and the Present Town of Milltown, N.B. (J. A. Sears, Printer, Calais, ME, 1875), p. 21
5. ↑ op. cit., p. 201
6. ↑ Joseph W. Pehoushek, Known Descendants of Jones Dyer (Senior) and Hannah Herrington, [typescript, Calais Free Library, 1999], p. 17
7. ↑ Sharon Howland, Calais Cemetery Records [typescript, Calais Free Library, 1996], p. 138
8. ↑ Findagrave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/105370080/lydia-dyer
9. ↑ Knowlton's Annals of Calais, p. 21
10. ↑ loc. cit.
11. ↑ Knowlton's Annals of Calais, p. 44
12. ↑ ibid., p. 49
13. ↑ ibid., p. 52
14. ↑ ibid., p. 105
15. ↑ See Findagrave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9008881, for more on this man.
16. ↑ Otis Livington Bridges was born 21 Feb 1798 at Meddybemps, studied law at Bowdoin College and settled at Calais. He afterwards removed to Worcester, Mass., and finally went to California, where he died at Stockton in 1870 at the age of 72. While he lived in Maine, Mr. Bridges was an active politician, and had the reputation of being an able advocate. He was attorney general of the State from 1842-1845. He married Anna Marie Abbott in 1832 in New Brunswick and they had two daughters, one of whom was the wife of the civil engineer, Joseph H. Wildes, son of the late Asa W. Wildes of Newburyport, Mass. [from Nehemiah Cleaves and Alpheus Spring Packard, The History of Bowdoin College, with Biographical Sketches of the Graduates from 1806 to 1879, Inclusive (Boston, ,James Ripley Osgood & Company, 1882), p. 241]
17. ↑ Knowlton, op. cit., pp. 176-176

Source S1204

Title: Calais, Maine censuses of 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840

Source S1205

Title: Dictionary of American Biography

Author: Wiggin

Source S1206

Title: Eastport and Passamaquoddy (1888)

Source S1207

Title: Letter from Veronica Chalmers dated 7 Jan 1979

Source S1208

Title: Letter from John E. Mcleod dated 10 Nov 1978

Source S1209

Title: Letter from the Superintendent of the Calais Cemetery dated 2 Mar 1979

Source S1210

Title: Helen Dyer, My Garden of Memory (1923)

Source S1211

Title: National Cyclopedia of American Biography

Source S1558

Title: Rhode Island Marriages From 1744 to 1850

Abbreviation: Rhode Island Marriages From 1744 to 1850

Note: Marriage index for 3,068 Rhode Island marriages from 1744 to 1850.

Source S1559

Title: The Narragansett Historical Register, Vol. IV, 1885-86

Author: James N. Arnold

Publication: Narragansett Hist. Publishing Co.; E.L. Freeman, Printers, Central Falls, Providence, Ri

Note: A magazine devoted to the antiquities, genealogy and historical matter

illustrating the History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Source S176

Title: Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, CD 113

Author: Frederick A. Virkus, 1925

Source S253

Title: Beginnings - The Settlement of the St. Croix Valley

Author: Rev. I. C. Knowlton 1875

Publication: 974/1/TC14/1977C.1

Source S309

Title: New England Historical and Genealogical Register

Source S4

Title: Descendants of Jones Dyer, Senior

Author: Joseph W Pehousek, Punta Gorda, Fl

Publication: October 1999, and Feb.2006

Source S885

Title: Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Births, Marriages & Deaths, Vol.2, Providence County

Author: James Newell Arnold

Publication: Narragansett Hist. Pub. Co., Providence, RI. 1892

Abbreviation: Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Births, Marriages & Deaths, Vol.2, Providence County

Source S92

Title: Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books

Author: The Society, Washington, District of Columbia, Dc, 1896-1921

Publication: Harrisburg, Pa. Harrisburg Pub. Co. 166 Volumes

Source S947

Title: Annals of Calais Maine and St. Stephen New Brunswick, Can Canada

Publication: Rev. C. Knowleton (1875)

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of dyermaeettaaug2010.ged on 11 September 2010. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.