USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. III > Part 3
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Samuel Dyer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 20, 1635, and died in Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1678. His wife was, before marriage, Ann Hutchinson, who was born November 17, 1643, and died January 10, 1717. Their son, Edward Dyer, who was the next in line, was the great-great-great- grandfather of Horace Edward Dyer.
Edward Dyer was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1670 but subse- quently settled in Kingston, Rhode Island, where his son Samuel was born in 1702. Samuel Dyer moved to West Greenwich, Rhode Island, where he died ; on February 24, 1725, he married Tabitha Niles, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and their son George was next in line of descent.
George Dyer, the great-grandfather of Horace Edward Dyer, was born in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, December 26, 1736, and died in Rutland, Vermont, January 8, 1817. past eighty years of age. He was a patriot and served in the Revolutionary War where he was a disbursing officer for funds for the Colonial troops. He married (first) Ann Nichols a daughter of Hon. Joseph Nichols, and his wife, Abigail Spinck, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Mr. Nichols being a man prominent in public affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Dyer were married on Christmas Day. 1760, and their union was prolific of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, of whom Edward, Horace Edward Dyer's grandfather, was the sixth son. Ann ( Nichols) Dyer died in 1780, at the age of forty years. Some years after her death George Dyer married for his second wife, Amey Wait, who died in 1812 and is buried with her husband at South Clarendon, Vermont.
Edward Dyer was born in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. June 23, 1774, and d'ed May 12, 1854. While a youth he migrated to Shrewsbury, Vermont, where he worked on a farm, being paid one bushel of wheat per week. This he saved until a rise in the price of flour gave him a slight increase in the return for his labor. He purchased a farm in Shrewsbury, but later sold it
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and moved to Rutland and gradually acquired the farming and timber lands which have ever since remained in the Dyer family. He was twice married. His first wife was Sally Bowman, of Clarendon, Vermont. Their marriage was celebrated November 1, 1798. Mrs. Dyer died August 1, 1816, and is buried in East Clarendon, Vermont, leaving nine children. Edward Dyer was again married, January 7, 1818 to Hannah Hoxie, of Milton, Vermont, who was born April 10, 1788. She was a daughter of Gideon Hoxie, who was the first town clerk of Milton, serving for over forty years, and was the first white child born in the town of Milton. Gideon Hoxie, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Milton and had the distinction of taking the first wagon to that village, was a son of Stephen Hoxie, of Charlestown, Rhode Island, who belonged to an old Quaker family. Hannah (Hoxie) Dyer died February 17, 1869, and with her husband is buried in Fair Haven, Vermont.
Rev. Palmer Dyer, son of Edward and Sally (Bowman) Dyer and half- brother of Horace Hoxie Dyer, was educated in Union College at Schenec- tady, New York, and was ordained as a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. His first charge was at Granville, New York, about 1823 ; his next charge was at Syracuse, New York ; and in 1824 he went on a missionary trip to Illinois. After a long and tedious journey, he reached Chicago, Illinois, then a swamp- hole. While an Episcopalian missionary in Chicago he administered the first Episcopalian communion service in that city, in a Congregational church, upon the invitation of the pastor, who also partook of the sacrament. In Chicago he purchased an Indian pony which he rode to Peoria, Illinois, where he established a mission, also establishing missions in different parts of Illinois and Michigan. He was the editor of the "Episcopal Watchman," pub- lished in Hartford, Connecticut. He was drowned at Ausable Chasm, near Lake Champlain, New York, in August, 1844, giving his life to save that of a lady of his party who was about to fall into the chasm. Rev. Palmer Dyer was a gifted writer, as attested by his articles in the "Episcopal Watchman" and other publications of that period.
Two children of Edward and Hannah (Hoxie) Dyer lived to maturity : Horace Hoxie Dyer and Sarah Bowman Dyer. The latter, born in 1821, married Zenas C. Ellis, of Fair Haven, Vermont, a descendant of Mathew Lyons, one of the best known patriots of New England and the Green Mountain State. She died July 7, 1876, leaving four sons : I George W. Ellis, who became a prominent lawyer in New York City. 2. Dr. Edward Dyer Ellis, a widely known physician of Poultney, Vermont, who is said to have successfully performed the first operation for appendicitis in Vermont. 3. Horace B. Ellis, a well-known and popular hotel-keeper at Castleton, Ver- mont, who also developed the Prospect House, the largest and best known summer hotel at Lake Bomoseen, Vermont. 4. Zenas H. Ellis, a widely
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known banker, horticulturist, antiquarian and historian who now resides in the home on the family acres, once occupied by his ancestor, Mathew Lyon.
Horace Hoxie Dyer, son of Edward and Hannah (Hoxie) Dyer, was born April 2, 1820, at Dyer Farms, two miles south of the city of Rutland, Ver- mont, where he resided until his death on March 29, 1905. He attended the local district schools and later, a school at Brandon, Vermont, where the Rev. Hadley Proctor was principal, later teaching school at Fair Haven, Vermont. He early displayed a natural ability in legal matters and desired to take up the profession of law, but sacrificed this ambition at the behest of his father who needed his assistance at home, residing for his entire life upon the ancestral acres which he carried on in addition to attending to his large and varied business interests.
He became a member of the State militia at the age of eighteen, later being promoted to the captaincy of the local company-now Company A of the First Vermont Infantry-a position held fifty years later by his son, the subject of this sketch. He served for many years in the various offices which were bestowed upon him by popular vote and without solicitation on his part : as selectman for many years at the time when Rutland, Vermont, was the largest civic body under town government in the United States ; and as justice of the peace from 1843 to 1873, at which time he declined reelection. He was a member of the Rutland County Agricultural Society, serving for three suc- cessive years as president and in 1878 was elected to the Vermont Senate ; he was vice-president and director of both the Killington National Bank and Rut- land Trust Company, which institutions he assisted in organizing in 1884 and 1885.
On February 15, 1866, he married Abigail Jane Hitchcock, the daughter of Henry and Hannah Lucy (Hulett) Hitchcock, who was born at Clarendon Springs, Vermont, on May 3, 1839, and died in Rutland, Vermont, on October 19, 1914.
Henry Hitchcock, father of Mrs. Dyer, was for many years a merchant in Rutland, later engaged in the village of Clarendon, Vermont. He still later turned his attention to farming and the manufacture of marble, owning a quarry and also a mill. He was born August 22, 1805, in Pittsford, Vermont, and died August 27 1871, in Rutland. His wife, Hannah Lucy Hulett, a daughter of Mason Hulett, a large landowner of Hampton, New York, was born July 4, 1817, and died at Dyer Farms, January 28, 1893. They reared only two of their five children, viz .: Mrs. Dyer, and her maiden sister, Louise Amelia Hitchcock, who died in Rutland in 1934.
She was a descendant of Lieutenant Joseph Allen, a brother of Ira Allen, statesman and founder of the University of Vermont; of Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga ; and of the famous Parson Allen of Battle of Bennington
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fame, all of whom were so prominently associated with the early history of Vermont and its Green Mountain Boys. Her ancestry, like that of her husband, is resplendent with names of men famed in the early history of the United States along military, ministerial, educational and legislative lines as evidenced by the long list of forebears entitling her to her membership in the Colonial Dames of America, Descendants of Colonial Governors, Daughters of American Revolution and, further back, to Americans of Royal Descent.
Horace Edward Dyer, son of Horace Hoxie and Abigail Jane ( Hitchcock) Dyer, completed his early education in the Rutland schools, and entered Worcester Academy at Worcester, Massachusetts, after which he enrolled at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1893 with his degree of Bachelor of Arts, after having for the entire course held the ranking position to which his class was entitled in the Military Department and being given, so far as is known, the only certificate of proficiency ever issued by that department of the university. During his college years he was also a member of the well- known Burlington Cadets, later Company M of the Ist Vermont Infantry. After graduating from the University of Vermont he assumed the manage- ment of his father's agricultural interests in Rutland, with which he has been closely associated to the present day. In 1896 he was offered a position with Rand, McNally & Company of Chicago, publishers, and for two years traveled in New Hampshire selling school books to the towns in his territory, but upon the blowing up of the battleship "Maine" in Havana Harbor, resigned his position and returned home to prepare his company of the Ist Vermont Infantry for the war which he felt must follow. In 1887 he had enlisted in Company A of the Ist Infantry, Vermont National Guard, where he served as private and bugler until 1894, when he was appointed second lieutenant, being in a few weeks promoted to a captaincy and assigned to Company A, Ist Vermont Infantry. In this capacity he served during the Spanish-American War, his company being the first from his State to volunteer-which it did one hundred per cent .- was mustered into United States service on May 16, 1898, and discharged November 3 of that year, at which time Captain Dyer's discharge contained a special citation for efficiency. In 1900 he was appointed major and in 1904 was detailed to Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, where he was attached to the 15th United States Cavalry, being relieved in 1907. In 1909 he became lieutenant-colonel of the Ist Vermont Infantry. The following year he was appointed colonel of the same regiment, which commission he held until the pressure of business necessitated his resignation in 1914. At present, in addition to his duties as manager of his farm and timber interests of approximately sixteen hundred acres, together with extensive real estate holdings, he is president and trust officer of the Rutland Trust Company, in which organization he has been a director since January, 1904. He is also a director of the Killington National Bank.
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His service to the town of Rutland, Vermont, includes the offices of justice of the peace, superintendent of schools, trustee of public money and for fourteen years as selectman. Colonel Dyer is a communicant of the Episcopal Church and a member of the Republican party, having been elected in 1923 and 1927 as a member of the Vermont Legislature, where he was appointed to the committees of Banking and Insurance, Judiciary and chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. He is also well known fraternally, having been affiliated with the Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Chapter, and Com- mandery. Knights Templar ; and Cairo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Knights of Pythias; Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; Rotary ; Fort Ethan Allen Mess ; the Ethan Allen Club of Burlington, Vermont and the Delta Psi Fraternity at the University of Vermont. He also holds membership in the Vermont Department of the United Spanish War Veterans, and the Vermont Lair Military "Order of the Serpent," in each of which he is a Past State Commander ; Vermont Society Sons of the American Revolution ; a charter member of the Vermont Society of Colonial Wars, of which he is a Past Governor ; Officers of Foreign Wars, of which he is a Past Commander, chairman for Vermont of the Society of Descendants of Colo- nial Governors and the Baronial Order of Runnemede, being descended from thirteen of the original thirty-three Barons who compelled King John to sign the Magna Charta, June 15, 1215. He also served on the State Armory Com- mission, held the office of president of the Vermont Military Service School, and the chairmanship of the Board of Examiners for Commissioned Officers of the Vermont National Guard, to which position he was appointed soon after its organization and remained until his resignation. He also served on every rifle team at the national competitions from 1904 until 1910.
Colonel Dyer was married (first), in 1893. to Lillian Geoffrey Hasler, of New York City, and they became the parents of two children : I. Dorothy, born December, 1894, who resigned after serving for several years in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York City and is now a resident of Golden- bridge, New York. 2. Lillian, born September, 1896. Her husband, Ormond Vickers-Smith, of Fruitland Park, Florida, served in the American Expedi- tionary Forces during the World War and is a member of the American Legion. They are the parents of three children: i. Harold, now with the 66th Infantry, United States of America, at Fort Benning, Georgia. ii. John Edward, a student at Leesburg, Florida, High School. iii. Vivien, also a student at Leesburg, Florida, High School. Lillian (Dyer) Vickers-Smith is sport editor of the "Leesburg Commercial," being the only one of her sex in this country to hold a position of this type. She is also an active figure in the affairs of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Order of the Eastern Star and other women's auxiliaries, including the United Spanish War Vet- erans, Order of the Serpent and American Legion.
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Colonel Dyer was divorced from his first wife in 1907, and in 1910 he married Elizabeth Mabel Hughes, of Poultney, Vermont, and Boston, Massa- chusetts, daughter of William Owen and Mary Elizabeth (Dean) Hughes, whose maternal ancestors served in the Colonial and Revolutionary forces of this country, one of them being Surgeon Breed, whose family owned Breeds Hill where the battle of Bunker Hill, during the Revolutionary War, was actually fought. Her father, William Owen Hughes (whose grandfather served with Admiral Nelson of the British Navy, in the battle of Trafalgar), came as an infant with his parents to Castleton, Vermont, where he died in February, 1923.
Mr. and Mrs. Dyer became the parents of two children : 3. Jane Elizabeth, born August 13, 1916, who married Harry A. Kent of Rutland and has one son : i. Harry A. Kent, Jr., born July 1. 1937. 4. Horace Edward, Jr., born September 29, 1919, a graduate in 1937 of the Bordentown Military Academy at Bordentown, New Jersey, and now a successful salesman.
Elizabeth Mabel (Hughes) Dyer died March 17, 1923, and Mr. Dyer remarried, October 30, 1934, Mattie Pamela Fox, daughter of Dr. George H. and Pamela (Harris) Fox, of Rutland, Vermont, and own cousin of Paul Harris, founder and president emeritus of Rotary International, who now resides in Chicago, Illinois. Mrs. Dyer's ancestors, who came from England, were early identified with American Colonial history and include a long suc- cession of well known physicians. Her sister, Mary Fox, who died in 1932, married Herman W. Vaughan, well known financier of Boston and New York, now and for many years a director of the nationally known Hollings- worth & Whitney Company, with headquarters in Boston and whose impos- ing residence is one of the beauty spots of Rutland; while her brother, John C. Fox, married Nella Grimm, whose beautiful home adjoins that of Mr. Vaughan, and with her carried on, until his death in 1923, the well-known Grimm Manufacturing Company, dealers in Maple products and makers of the well-known Grimm evaporators and other machinery and utensils used in the manufacture of maple sugar.
Colonel and Mrs. Dyer reside in their home just north of the city limits of Rutland, Vermont, on the Ethan Allen Highway (Route No. 7), a colonial residence built over one hundred years ago and known as "Glen Lodge."
GEORGE E. KING, M. D .- Following in the career of his father, who has been a prominent figure in the medical field for almost half a cen- tury, Dr. George E. King came to Alburg, Vermont, in 1922, to continue his father's practice in that community, and he also conducts a private prac- tice at Isle La Motte, Vermont.
Dr. George E. King was born at Ellenburg Depot, New York, January 3, 1891, the son of Dr. James S. and Mae (Knapp) King. Dr. James S. King,
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a native of Chateaugay, New York, launched his career as a practicing physi- cian in Grand Isle County in 1891, and continued there until 1922, when he turned over this extensive practice, the oldest under the same name in this section, to his son, and moved to Georgia, Vermont, where he has been suc- cessfully engaged to the present day. Mae (Knapp) King is a native of Ellenburg, New York.
Dr. George E. King received his early education in the district schools at Isle La Motte, Vermont, and then entered Burlington High School. Upon completion of his preparatory education he matriculated at the Medical School of the University of Vermont, where he was graduated in 1912 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For the next three years, he was engaged at the Monson State Hospital at Palmer, Massachusetts, after which he went to Nantasket Beach in that same State and for six months was associated with the Sylvesters Hospital. He then came to Isle La Motte, where he launched his private practice, and he continued there for two years, when he came to Alburg and took over his father's practice, in addition to carrying on his own at Isle La Motte. He has maintained a successful practice here to the present time, and is regarded as a most capable physician, well fitted to continue the family tradition for efficient service in the field of medicine. In addition to his professional duties, Dr. King also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Milton Cooperative Creamery at Milton, Vermont.
Dr. King is a member of the Episcopal Church, and a well-known figure in public affairs, serving for several years as health officer of the towns of Alburg and Isle La Motte. Fraternally he is affiliated with Isle La Motte Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, the Royal Arch Chapter at Alburg, St. Albans Commandery, Knights Templar, and the Modern Woodmen of the World. He is also a member of the Vermont State and American Medical associations.
He is married to Diana Johnson, of Quincy, Massachusetts, and they are the parents of two children: I. Robert, born at Quincy, Massachusetts, edu- cated in Alburg, Vermont, and the Rouses Point High School, and at present a student at Goddard Junior College in Plainfield, Vermont. 2. Barbara, born at Isle La Motte ; received her early education at Alburg, and is now attending Northfield Seminary at Northfield, Massachusetts.
BISHOP ERNEST MILMORE STIRES-The Lake Champlain and Lake George region of New York State holds a keen sentimental interest for Dr. Ernest Milmore Stires, Bishop of the Long Island Diocese of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, who nearly forty years ago came through this sec- tion, with his wife and young family, on his way to assume his duties as rector of St. Thomas's Church in New York City. That year, in 1901, they spent
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the summer at the historic Sagamore Hotel on Green Island, and while there a son was born, said to be the first boy ever born on the island and the second child to see the light of day there. They returned as guests of the hotel for the next summer and then the Sagamore offered to build a cottage for them on the island. The little house was to be the birthplace of their fourth child. They spent three summers in this place, which has since come to be known as the Kiernan Cottage, being owned by Peter Kiernan. Since their first summer they have returned for many seasons to their house and three hun- dred-acre farm on Northwest Bay and have become regarded as more than transient visitors. The Bishop, whose greatest diversion while here is fishing, has become deeply interested in the development of Lake George, its past, its present and its future. He has given expression to this enthusiasm in a number of highly constructive ways, serving as a member of several official bodies, including the Jogues Commission.
The distinguished cleric, who has become so attached to the Lake George area, was born at Norfolk, Virginia, May 20, 1866, the son of Van Rens- selaer W. and Lettie M. (Milmore) Stires. After a general education he matriculated at the University of Virginia from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Literature degree in 1888. The following year he entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary of Virginia, where he was a student until 1891. Since that time he has been the recipient of several degrees. In 1901 he received his degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity, was awarded a degree of Doctor of Letters of Humanity at Kenyon College in 1903, a Doc- tor of Laws degree from New York University in 1926, a degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Kings College in Canada, and a degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from Columbia University in 1926.
Dr. Stires became a deacon in 1891, was ordained a priest in 1892, and took his first charge at West Point, Virginia, where he served as rector between 1891 and 1892. In 1893 he served at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Augusta, Georgia, during the latter year accepted a call to the Grace Church in Chicago, Illinois, where he remained until 1901, and then came to St. Thomas's Church in New York City, for which he served as rector until 1925. On November 24th of that year he was consecrated Bishop of Long Island. As a younger man Bishop Stires served as chaplain of the Richmond Hussars at Augusta, Georgia, in 1893, acted in the same capacity for the Naval Reserves in Chicago in 1897, and was chaplain for the Ist Illinois Cavalry in 1901. Later he was a member of the Board of Visitors at the United States Military Academy. He has been the author of numerous papers and articles and several books, including "The High Call," which was published in 1918, and "The Price of Peace," published in 1919.
On January II, 1894, Bishop Stires married Sarah McK. Hardwick. They have four sons, all married.
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ALFRED LEO DIEBOLT-Throughout his career which dates back to 1915, Alfred Leo Diebolt, head of the department of social studies at the Plattsburg State Normal School, has engaged in the teaching profession. During this period he has gained increasing importance in his specialized field and is now ranked among the prominent authorities of social science in New York State.
Dr. Diebolt was born at Buffalo, New York, May 31, 1891, the son of Charles S. and Frederica Diebolt, both of his birthplace where his father was a wholesale shoe merchant. After a general education Mr. Diebolt matric- ulated at Colgate University, where he was a student from 1910 to 1912. He then transferred to the University of Virginia, where he remained until 1914, and during the latter year enrolled at Columbia University from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts degree in 1915. Since that time he has supplemented this training by taking summer school courses at the University of Wisconsin, which he attended during the season of 1917; Teachers College, at Columbia University in New York City, which he attended during the season of 1921 ; Teachers College where he was a student during the regular session of 1927-28; and the summer school ses- sion of 1927 at the University of Strassburg, Alsace, France. In 1938 he was awarded a degree of Doctor of Education by New York University, where he was an instructor in the School of Education in 1937 and 1938.
Dr. Diebolt began his career as a teacher of mathematics and history at the Shattuck Military School in 1915. Two years later he became mathematics teacher and athletic director at the Army and Navy Preparatory School and in 1920 served in the same capacities for the Northwestern Naval and Military Academy, continuing here until 1921, when he assumed his present post as head of the department of social studies at the Plattsburg State Normal School.
In a professional capacity Dr. Diebolt is a member of the New York State Historical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the New York State Teachers Association, and the Association of Teachers College and Normal School Faculties of New York. He was formerly pres- ident of the Discussion Club, the Presbyterian Club and in his religious con- victions worships at the Presbyterian Church. During the World War Dr. Diebolt was declared unfit for aviation service on April 19, 1917, but despite this decision served as local supply chief in the construction of the Curtiss Airplane plant at Buffalo during the summer of that year. He was appointed educational chief of the lubrication department of the Signal Corps at Wash- ington, District of Columbia, and served in this capacity from March to August, 1918. Following the demise of the department he chanced another examination for special duty, September II, 1918, but was not accepted.
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