Mary Bessie Dyer (abt. 1879 - 1881)

Born about 31 Aug 1879 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died 7 Aug 1881 at about age 1 in Newcastle, Lincoln, Maine, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Christopher Childs [send private message]

Biography

Little is known or can to date be found online about the life of Bessie M. Dyer – the name under which this profile originally appeared – who was listed as just nine months old (her birth month specified as August) when the only mention of her yet located under this exact name, a census record, was written down on 14 June 1880. Her family was based in Providence but the Dyers also spent time in Maine, her mother's birth state; no death or burial record has however been found under the name "Bessie M" (or the more formal "Elizabeth M") in either place. When this profile was reviewed, it seemed probable that she was one of the many 19th-Century children lost in infancy or early childhood.

This turns out to be the case: the mystery of her fate is solved by the gravestone, in Rhode Island's Pocasset cemetery, of Mary Bessie Dyer – daughter of Charles O. and Marion F. Dyer. Mary Bessie's birth is shown on the stone as 30 August 1879, while the reverse of the stone says "Our Darling Bessie"; as there is no mention of twins in the census and no contemporary death record for a child of this couple, and as there is a birth record for a child (recorded, in evident error, as "Son Dyer") on 31 August 1879, it is certain that "Bessie M", "Mary Bessie", and "Son Dyer" are one person. The "M" for Mary indicates an echo of the anglicized, informal, given first name of her mother – the daughter of an immigrant Parisian shoemaker – Marion.

[It is an interesting coincidence that just months earlier, some miles due north of Providence in Needham, Massachusetts, the couple who would 25 years later become the in-laws of Mary Bessie's sister Grace Marion Dyer also had a daughter they christened Bessie M – Bessie Maud Childs, sister of Henry Thomas Childs – sibling children of English immigrants Edwin and Charlotte. Did the families know one another then?]

Sadly, Mary Bessie/Bessie M died just a few weeks short of her second birthday, in early August of 1881, in Newcastle, Maine – where the Dyers were presumably visiting Marion's family, the Cloutier/Wharffs [her father changed the surname in the 1850s, but Marion is nonetheless later recorded, at times – e.g., in a daughter's marriage record – as a Cloutier]. The child's body was returned to the state where she had been born, and buried in the family plot in Cranston.

Four months after Mary Bessie's death, Marion gave birth to another daughter... who was given the full name Elizabeth. Elizabeth Shepherd Dyer survived, married divorcé Arthur Robson in 1909, and had at least one child, named after her grandmother – Marion F. Robson.

Sources

• Birth: image of original 1880 census record (image 43 of 46), "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4SF-KVM : 15 July 2017), Bessie M Dyer in household of Charles O Dyer, Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; citing enumeration district ED 50, sheet 339C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1213.

• Birth (record shows incorrect gender) for "Son Dyer", "Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600-1914," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8MD-HFP : 6 December 2014), Unnamed Son Dyer, 31 Aug 1879; citing Providence, Rhode Island, reference. Alt. record: "Dyer ---s of Charles 0 and Marion F ing 31 1879...... 11: 232" -- Providence, RI (Vol. 9, Births 1871-1880): Alphabetical Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1636-1930. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003. Originally published as: Alphabetical Index of the Births, Marriages and Deaths Recorded in Providence, Rhode Island 25 vols. City of Providence,1879–1945; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB11/rd/8832418 (by subscription)

• Birth and death -- FindAGrave entry for Elizabeth Mary "Lizzie or Bessie" Dyer: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 31 March 2019), memorial page for Mary Lizzie Dyer (1879–7 Aug 1881), Find A Grave: Memorial #29740125, citing Pocasset Cemetery, Cranston, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Richard Arthur Fenner (contributor 46982583); https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29740125