Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Edmond Roger DYER This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 334-335 EDMOND ROGER DYER. In the course of a long and active life Edmond Roger Dyer has exercised his abilities in an unusually substantial range of duties and achieve- ments. He has been a farmer and stockman, mill owner and operator, merchant, a leader in introducing and using new improvements, also a public official and liberal con- tributor to the educational advancement of his community and state. Mr. Dyer has been a citizen of Barbour County since 1886, and his home through these years has been about two miles from the Court House at Philippi. He was born in Pendleton County January 25, 1851. Among his ancestors was at least one Revolutionary war soldier, and the Dyers have been in Virginia since Colonial times. One of the family name was at Fort Seybert during the Indian massacre. The grandfather of Edmond R. Dyer was Roger Dyer, who was born in Pendleton County, and died at the close of the Civil war, at the age of ninety-six. His active years were devoted to a farm. In politics he was first a whig and then a republi- can. He married a Miss Dyer, and both were of Scotch- Irish ancestry. This old couple are buried near Fort Sey- bert. Their sons were named Zebulon, James, Morgan and Alien. Their daughters were Susan, who married Jacob Trumbo, and Dianna and Mary, who died unmarried. Allen Dyer, father of Edmond R., was a native of Pen- dleton County, spent his active life there on a farm, and is buried near Fort Seybert in the same county. He served a brief time as a Confederate soldier toward the close of the Civil war. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen Dyer died in 1907, at the age of ninety-one. He married Martha Miller, a daughter of John Miller, and she died in January, 1894. They reared four sons and four daughters, and the six surviving children are: Edmond R.; Mary M., who mar- ried C. K. Switzer, of Philippi; Dianna, who is the wife of W. A. Judy, of Pendleton County; Susan L., wife of Elias McWhorter, of McWhorter, West Virginia; Florence, wife of Isaac E. Bolton, of Morgantown; and W. M., of Pendleton. Edmond R. Dyer spent his early life on his father's farm, attended the country schools, and lived at home until past his majority. His early training was largely that of manual labor, and through farm work he earned his first money. His independent career may be said to have begun when he engaged in merchandising at Pendleton. He remained there until 1883, and then moved to Lewis County and was a merchant at Jane Lew four years. From there he came to Barbour County in 1886 and established his home on a farm two miles from Philippi while his home has been in the country, few city men have had wider interests in the program of important affairs. In his home neigh- borhood he developed what is practically an industrial suburb of Philippi. There he built a gristmill, sawmill and planingmill, erecting the Dyer Mill in 1890, and he still continues this operation. He also opened a store, but abandoned merchandising after 1902. Since then his business interests have been associated with his farm, his live stock and his mill. His progressive character is illustrated in the fact that he was the first farmer to introduce such modern machinery as the grain drill and the tractor, and his reaper was one of the first in the county. The Delco Lighting Com- pany declares that his was the first residence in West Virginia equipped with a Delco lighting system. The first residence telephone was also placed in his home. He and another party started the first telephone line in Barbour County. In Philippi, Mr. Dyer took part in the organiza- tion of the Citizens National Bank, and has been vice president and one of the directors of that institution from the beginning. One of the outstanding qualities of his good citizenship has been his deep interest in matters of education. He was elected and served for eight years as president of the Board of Education for the Philippi District. He was also associated with a group of citizens in Philippi in building up a college center in that town. These men purchased the property of Broaddus College at Clarksburg, and secured the relocation of the institution at Philippi His was one of the first live subscriptions to the college fund Mr. Dyer gave the people of Barbour County a highly efficient administration in the office of sheriff, to which he was elected in 1904, succeeding Sheriff Isaac C. Woodford, and served four years. He was elected as a republican, and has been affiliated with that party since young manhood. In Lewis County, West Virginia, June 22, 1882, Mr. Dyer married Miss Philena McWhorter, a member of a very old and prominent family of the state. Her father, Mans- field McWhorter, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and married Sarah Ann Davis. Both are buried at McWhorter in Harrison County. Mrs. Dyer was born in Lewis County June 14, 1858, the only child of her parents, and was reared and educated at Jane Lew. In some respects the outstanding achievement of Mr. and Mrs. Dyer is the splendid family of children they have reared and prepared for the serious duties of life. These children are twelve in number, and there are now a number of grandchildren. The oldest child is Otto M., of Buck- hannon, who married Grace Proudfoot, and their children are: Mansfield McWhorter, Delbert Proudfoot, Otto Mc- Whorter and John Edmond. The second child, Allen M., in the transfer business at Philippi, married Venna Burner and has four children, Arthur Burner, Mary Louise Alien Miller and Philena Grace. Audrey, the third of the family, is the wife of J. Stanley Corder, cashier of the People's Bank of Philippi, and they have a daughter, Ruth Reynolds. Mary was married to T. A. Wilson, of Kingwood, and she is the mother of two daughters, Sallie Lue and Philena Sue. Roscoe F., the fifth of this family, is in the dairy business at Clarksburg, and by his marriage to Maud Woodford has children named Sarabel, Lueille, Irene, Inajane and Edmond Roscoe. Martha Dyer was married to M. M. Strader, of Philippi, and has two daughters, Rosa Lee and Alberta. Ruth is Mrs. Henry J. Peterson, of Graham, Texas. Paul Ed, the eighth child, is a farmer near Philippi and married Ina Martin. The younger children, all still in the home circle, are Annie Lee and Harry (twins), Clifford A. and Stephen.