Biographical Sketch of Dr. John Hyer, Dent County, Missouri

>From "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, 
Pulaski, Phelps and Dent Counties, Missouri" The Goodspeed Publishing
Company, 1889.
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Dr. John Hyer, retired physician and surgeon at Lake Spring, was born 
in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1810, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth
(Mitchell) Hyer, and grandson of Louis Frederick Hyer, who was born in
Wolfenddettle, Germany, and came to America at an early day.  He was a
forgeman, as were all his sons, and died in Lancaster, Penn.  His wife,
Mary E. (Weaver) Hyer, was born in Pennsylvania, and was of German
descent.  She died in Cumberland county, Penn.  The maternal grand-
father, John Mitchell, was born in England, and was a wealthy Phila-
delphia merchant.  He and wife died in that city when the subject's 
mother was an infant.  She was born in 1785, in Philadelphia, and was
then adopted and reared by the Llewellyn family, who came to America
with William Penn.  The descendants are now living on the old home farm
near Philadelphia.  The father, Samuel Hyer, was born in Lancaster
county, Penn., in 1779, and was married near Philadelphia.  He first
settled in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1817, then in Cumberland county,
of the same state, then in Wheeling, W. Va., thence to Bainbridge, Ohio
and in 1837 to Missouri, where for a year or two he was at the Meramec
Iron Works.  He then moved to Lake Spring, when there were but few 
settlers, and there passed the remainder of his life.  The mother died
in 1855, at the age of seventy, and the father in 1862, at the age of
eighty-three.  Both were members of the Methodist Church from early
youth.  Mr. Hyer was a forgeman, which occupation he followed many
years after he left Pennsylvania.  He was formerly a wealthy merchant,
but became bankrupt by indorsement for friends.  He was a man of great
activity, energy and good business ability.  Dr. John Hyer was the 
second of eight children born to his parents, and the eldest son.  He
was reared in the common schools of Pennsylvania, and clerked in his
father's store until about twenty-one years of age, when he began the
study of medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. William W. Stigleman,
whose wife now lives with Dr. Hyer.  He then taught school to pay his
expenses while studying three years.  In 1838 he came to this portion
of Missouri, settling at Lake Spring, where he began his practice, and
continued at this with remarkable success until after the war.  He is
one of the very first practitioners in South Central Missouri, as well
as one of the most successful ones.  He still prescribes for some of
the old settlers.  In 1842 he married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of 
William and Eliza Ruth, and a native of Penn., born near Philadelphia,
where the parents spent all their lives.  Mr. Ruth was a blacksmith by
trade.  Mrs. Hyer came to Missouri in 1840, with the Doctor's sister,
Mrs. Ann Stigleman.  To the Doctor and wife were born three children:
Elizabeth P., wife of Judge Robert W. Fyan (she was killed at Marsh-
field, by the cyclone of 1880, the house blowing in); Martha L., wife 
of Dr. Edward B. Bowles, of Maries county; and Mary Ella, wife of 
Alexander C. Donnan.  The daughters all received good educations, and
the eldest daughter finished at the Convent of the Visitation, St. 
Louis.  The second daughter finished at Troy, Ohio and the youngest in
the high schools in St. Louis.  Mrs. Hyer died in 1855, at the age of
thirty-three years.  She was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, all the daughters being members of the same.  Dr. Hyer is among
the substantial men of Dent county, owning 2,000 acres of land in Dent
and Phelps counties.  He is well known through South Central Missouri,
and is an honorable, upright citizen.  In 1842 he represented Crawford
county in the Legislature, when that county extended over a large part
of South Central Missouri, and again, in 1848, he represented that
county in the Lower House of the same body.  During that session he
petitioned the Legislature and organized Dent county.  In 1860 he 
represented his senatorial district, then consisting of Crawford, 
Maries, Phelps, Dent, Shannon, Ozark and Pulaski county, in the Legis-
lature, and was elected to the Confederate Congress, but did not serve.
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, in 1874, which 
revised or formed a new State Constitution.  His father established a
postal route from Jefferson City to Houston, and the Doctor was the
first postmaster at Lake Spring, post office, which position he held
until the war.  After that eventful period he was postmaster again 
until 1887.  In his political views he has been a Democrat all his 
life, and his first presidential vote was for Gen. Jackson, in 1832.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a worthy member of the Baptist Church.

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