Member of Tennessee Senate, 2nd General Assembly, 1797-99; representing Hawkins County (2nd session only; replaced Joseph McMinn, resigned). Born in 1754, place not determined; son of John and Elizabeth Dyer, who later lived in Christian County, Kentucky. Went to Tennessee c. 1792 and settled on Poor Valley Creek, near Mooresburg, Hawkins County. In 1796, appointed 2nd major of Hawkins County militia; sometime justice of the peace, Hawkins County; may have been in the War of 1812. About 1800 he removed to Rutherford County; involved in many land transactions; with the opening of the Western District he removed to Madison County, 1821. Inherited land from both his father and father-in-law. He was married (1st) to Sophia (Weston?), by whom he is said to have had fourteen children, the names of only five being known — Frances (Mrs. Thomas Mitchell), Robert Henry, Charlotte (Mrs. Blackman Coleman), Sophia Weston, and William H. Dyer. He was married (2nd) in Davidson County on July 16, 1802, to sallied James Christmas, daughter of William Christmas. Nine children by the second marriage, eight of them being Mariah T., Druscilla C., Joel S., Charles C., James M., Sarah, Camilla Jones, and Ann L. Dyer. Died in Madison County on June 11, 1825 and is buried there. Father of Robert Henry Dyer, sometime member Tennessee General Assembly; grandfather of Joel Henry Dyer; attorney-general for 16th District, 1831-36.

Sources: Miller’s Manual, 189; Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, XXV, 174; Burns and McCown, Soldiers of the War of 1812, 35; Davidson County Marriage Records, 1789-1837, p. 43; Crockett Files, Manuscript Section, State Library.