William Riley DYER death certificate; died Thebes, Alexander Co., IL 24 Dec 1932. Register #17, County Clerk's Record #540. Spouse; Nancy DYER. Date of birth; 13 Oct 1849. Age; 83 years 2 months 11 days. Occupation; Farmer. Place of birth; Cookeville, TN. Name of father and birthplace; don't know. Name of mother and birthplace; don't know. Informant; Sam Dyer, Thebes, IL. Place of burial; Thebes Cemetery, Village of Thebes, Alexander Co., IL. on 12/25/1932. Statement; "I hereby certify that I attended deceased from 22 Dec 1932 to 24 Dec 1932. I last saw him alive PM 23 Dec 1932. Death is said to have occurred on the date stated above at 12:30 AM. The principal cause of death and related causes of importance were as follows: Old Age and Influenza. No operation or autopsy performed. Death confirmed by general conditions". Signed; W. A. Phelps, Thebes, IL, 24 Dec 1932. Undertaker; H. C. Marchildon. Filed; 24 Dec 1932, Kenneth Pettitt, Thebes, IL.
(Floyd L. Bennett Notes and References).
Riley an (Seana) Dyer came to Illinois about 1886 from Cooksville, TN by walking most of the way. The following account of their journey was related by Ida Caldwell to her son, (Doc) Caldwell and his wife Edna Mae, shortly after they got married. At that time Doc and Edna were living in the old Caldwell home just off State Route 3 near Thebes, IL. (Edna and Doc related the story to me on August 12, 1997, which I tape recorded and have transcribed, Floyd L. Bennett).
Nancy K. (Seana) Swingum was married to a man with the last name of "Stevenson" (first name unknown) but believe to be "Tom", about 1870. This man, while drunk, killed Seana's brother about 1875 and was sent to prison for 30 years. About 3 years later, she married Riley Dyer. Her two children, born in this marriage to Stevenson, Mary and Sam, took the name "Dyer" for the remainder of their life. [ Source: Finley S. (Doc) Caldwell, 21 Oct 1998]. (Floyd L. Bennett Notes and References).
Source Summary:
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Source Type: Book, w/Auth. & Ed.
Abbreviation 1: Richard Preator
Abbreviation 2: Dyer/Finn Ancestors
Source Components:
------------------------------
author(s): Richard E. Preator Jr.
title: The Descendents of James Dyer and Jane Finn 1998
editor(s): Richard Preator
publisher: Higginson Book Co, P.O. Box 778, Salem, MA 01970
"www.higginsonbooks.com"
Roxanne Bayle Family Group Sheet dated 7 June 1998.
Garvey Dyer Dyer and Marie Nellie Brown Family Bible, As it is written, Dated 7/21/98. See
Garvey Dyer Dyer/Marie
Nellie Brown Family Notes.
HOW THE DYER'S CAME TO ILLINOIS
Riley and "Seana" Dyer came to Illinois from Cooksville, TN by walking most of the way. The following account of their journey, and the cause for it, was related to her son, "Doc" Caldwell and his wife, Edna Mae (Bennett), by Ida Lucy Dyer-Caldwell shortly after they got married. At that time Doc and Edna were living in the old Caldwell home just off Route 3 near Thebes, Illinois, and were taking care of Ida. (Edna and Doc related the story to me on August 12, 1997, which I tape recorded and have transcribed below). (Floyd L. Bennett).
OK, I will start at the beginning like Doc's Mom told me.
When she (Ida Caldwell ) was about 7 or 8 years old her mother (Seana Dyer) told her, her sister Mary and her brother Sam one day. "Now here is a little bucket, you go out and pick some wild strawberries." Now down at Cookeville they grew all over the bluffs and rocks and were about the size of your little finger. They were real sweet, but it took a long time to pick them.
So they went out and picked Strawberries and got the bucket about half full or a little more. Their mother had told them that she would make some crust and when they had brought the strawberries home they would have some strawberry shortcake for supper. So they were about ready to go in and along the trail comes a man on a horse. He has in buckskin clothes and he has red hair and a big smile and nice white teeth. She remembers that about him. And he stopped, and he said, "Who you young en's might be?" And of course, her sister Mary had red hair. They told him who they were, "Dyer's." "Our name is Dyer." He said, "Would this be Mary? And would this be Sam?" And they said," Yes, it is." And he said, "And who might this be?" "This is our little sister, Ider." Now, her real name was Ider, she shortened it to Ida, herself later.
He talked to them a while and asked how their mother was and if they had any more brothers and sisters. They answered, "Yes, we have another little brother and sister at home." He reached in his pocket and pulled out two silver dollars. He said, "This is for you Mary, and Sam, here is one for you." And, they had never seen so much money, cause they just didn't have money, you know. And he thought a little bit and looked at her, then he reached into his pocket and said, "Here, I will give you one too, Ider." They didn't even question, you know, who he was, or anything, they just lit out for the house to tell their mother about these silver dollars they had. She looked at them and said, "Where did you get these?" They told her, "This man on a horse gave them to us" "Well, what did he look like?" She asked. "He had red hair, curly hair, and he was a tall man and had buckskin clothes on and pretty white teeth when he smiled." She began to act kind of funny immediately. And she said, "Well, you kids get around and get your things together, kind of clean up things. Hurry up and get you a box and put your things in it," she said, "We might be moving." They were kind of excited about that. Later, their Dad came in from work. She had went ahead and made the strawberry shortcake and fixed the supper, you know, and he came in from work, and she said, "Rile, I've got to talk to you." They went into the bedroom and closed the door. They talked a while, and they came out and they set down at the table. They said, "Hurry up , kids, and eat and then get everything ready as quick as you can, because we are going to be leaving. We are going to Missouri, where Rile's brother is, or, your Dad's brother is, and live there." Oh, they were excited.
So they got everything ready. They had this two-wheeled cart. They put everything on this two-wheeled cart. Everything they could get on there and take with them. Food, clothing, emptied the straw-ticks by opening them and shaking them out and letting the straw go down the hillside, folded them up and put them in there with everything else they had in there. Took the pillows that they had. They had that cart just loaded high. They had one little seat up front, and she said her mother and Mattie got up there. Mattie was two years old at that time. And she said, she and Wade, Sam and Mary walked. It was summer time and they didn't have shoes. They usually didn't get shoes until the weather got cold. They hitched these oxen to the wagon. They were really not oxen, they were steers. I believe she said they had a milk cow that they tied on behind. They had put their chickens in a coop and put them on there. They ate them on the way.
She said that they stopped at her Uncle Tom's and told him good-bye because it was on the way. They stayed just a few minutes and then they went on. They went across TN up into Kentucky and across the Ohio River to Golconda, Illinois. There they inquired about work, for you see, they had been on the trail just about two months getting that far. Along the way, they would buy a few eggs and other things that they needed, and people gave them stuff to eat, like turnips and different things, and they would camp out. She said that they would go about 15 miles a day on a good day. On a bad day, they would not get that far. She said, by the time they got to Golconda it was getting colder, about the last of October, and it was frosting. They had to try to find places to walk where they would not step on the grass, because it would be frozen and cold to their feet. They were needing shoes and were out of food and money. So her dad asked if there was any work that they could get around there. A man there on the river front told him that there was no work around there, but e had heard that there was work down around Thebes, Illinois. He told them that there was a tie-yard there (railroad ties) and they were building a railroad yard there. So he thought they might get work there.
So they went from there, Golconda, down to Thebes. They passed through Jonesboro and camped out down where the road now goes from Route 127 to Route 3. They camped out where that creek was, and she said that she had never been so hungry in her life. They had hardly had anything to eat in two days. Just water. They could get a cold drink of water there out of the creek. She said that they didn't have nothing to eat that night. She (Ida) said, "Wade and I cried ourselves to sleep that night, for our stomach hurt so. We were so hungry." The next morning they got up and got them another cold drink of water. He (Ida's Dad) said, "Let us go as far as we can today and see if we can get to Thebes." It was real early when we got up, Ida remembers. We walked all day and it was evening when we got to Thebes. My Dad went to the tie-yard and asked, "Is there any work here? My family is in bad shape. We are hungry and we don't have any clothing except what we have got on our backs. We need shoes. We are going over to Missouri to where my brother lives, but I need money to get across on the ferry." The man said, "Well, I am sorry. I don't have any work. I just hired a man. I just don't have any work I can give you".
Jack Durham was there unloading a load of railroad ties. He had heard them and listened to what they were talking about. He looked them over, and felt sorry for them. He came over to them and said, "You say you haven't had anything to eat and you don't have any place to stay?" It was getting cold and was starting to mist rain, a freezing rain. He said, "I tell you what, I have a log cabin out on my place. It is not much, but it has got a fire place in it. If you want to follow me out there, you can put up in that log cabin and you can build you a fire. And I will see that you get something to eat. You can help me cut railroad ties until you get enough to go to your brothers house." Well, that was the best offer they had, you know. So she (Ida) said that her and Wade, Sam and Mary got to ride on the wagon. It was just a log wagon used for hauling ties, and they held on for dear life. They went out to his house and went to that cabin. It was sort of leaning over this way, you know. Jack Durham said, "I think I will hold up for tonight, but tomorrow we will get some shims to put under it and some poles to prop it up." He said, "You can pick up some branches and sticks around here to build you a fire." So they dispatched Mary and Sam to doing that. Wade also helped with the sticks. Her Dad said, "Ider, you can come with me. We are going to go over to Mr. Durham's house and get some food." She said that she went over there with him. "I can see it yet," she said. "He took a bowie knife off his belt, reached up in that smokehouse and held on a side of meat and cut it right down the center and handed it to us. He gave us sorghum, dry beans out of a lard can, lard, butter, cornmeal, flour, dried pumpkin, and hominy. We took that home and had supper that night for the first time in a long time. We went to bed that night and I was not hungry."
She said, "I never was hungry again in my life." She said, "This is the garden spot of the world and you are not going to get me to leaving here, ever." They lived there that winter and the kids started to school. Aunt Susan had got us some clothing for school. Other people around the neighborhood had given us clothes that they had outgrown. My Dad began to make some money making ties. So they just decided to stay until Spring. They stayed until Spring. Jack Durham had given them a plot to put their cow on to pasture. He had given them a heifer too that was fresh for them to milk. He gave them some chickens too, because they had ate theirs up on the way. She said that in the Spring he gave them some ground to grow stuff on. It was new ground and they had to get the roots out of it.
Anyway, they lived in that little old house there on the Durham's for two or three years. This place was located up there by Gale where Hasting's Ranch is located now. There East of Gale just before you get to Bean Ridge. I'm sorry, I did not finish that part about the red-haired man in buckskin clothes. Well, years later. You see, they did not know who he was. But years later, their mother, Seaney, told them who he was. He was her first husband Mary and Sam were his children He had killed her brother and he had been sent to prison He had spent several years in the penitentiary there in TN. While he was gone she had married Riley Dyer. She was afraid that he would kill him, so that is why they got out of there Now she told me his last name, but I forgot. I believe his last name was Stevenson. I believe his first name was Tom. I remember she said it was Tom. My mother's name (Ida's mother) was Seana Swingum.
"Doc" Caldwell adds, "I remember my Mom tell about, I believe, grandma's Dad and two brothers were killed in that war. She was 15 years old, so she well remembered it. This Cavalry outfit used their place there in Cookville as Headquarters for several weeks. She told all about how they treated them. They took all their livestock, chickens and everything. They had one old gray mare and they saved her by hiding her up behind the chicken house in a ditch. They didn't discover her. They had that old mare. They had some money. They had put their gold coins in a split log they used for a bench. The legs appeared to come through, but they didn't. The top, you see was false. They had their gold coins down in that. The troops sit on that bench and sit right on the money and didn't know it." That was the story I was told.
My grandfather was in the Civil War. I always heard he was in the 31st Illinois Infantry, I don't know. But he was from Fruitland, Missouri. May be he came over to Illinois to enlist, I don't know. His name was Horace Caldwell.
Edna adds, "The Dyers lived there on the Durham place for a good while. Then they bought a place of their own. He did timber work. Now Jack Durham was our Grandma Bedwell's (Edna Irene Durham Bedwell) brother. Isn't it strange how peoples paths cross in this life " (Floyd L. Bennett).
Nancy's children mentioned in story.
Sam Dyer married Mary Ellen (Mamie) Ford
Mary Dyer married Merritt Smith Sanders
Ida Lucy Dyer married William Lee Caldwell Sr.
Other brother and sister of Riley and Nancy Dyer mentioned in story.
Wade Dyer married 1Emily (Emma) Tadlock 2 Emily sister Ada Tadlock.
Martha Mattie Dyer married Allie McAllen
Other children of Riley and Nancy Dyer.
McFarling Finley Dyer married 1 Carrie Hill, 2 Phena Norris Griswold, 3 Bessie Chloe Courtney.
Noretta "Nordie" Dyer married Alvie Holshouser.
(Sam, Ida and Mary are 3 of the main participants in the story that connect to the 3 family groups of DYER/FORD, DYER/SANDERS and DYER/CALDWELL---Paul E. Dale).
William Riley DYER death certificate; died Thebes, Alexander Co., IL 24 Dec 1932. Register #17, County Clerk's Record #540. Spouse; Nancy DYER. Date of birth; 13 Oct 1849. Age; 83 years 2 months 11 days. Occupation; Farmer. Place of birth;
Cookeville, TN. Name of father and birthplace; don't know. Name of mother and birthplace; don't know. Informant; Sam Dyer, Thebes, IL. Place of burial; Thebes Cemetery, Village of Thebes, Alexander Co., IL. on 12/25/1932. Statement; "I hereby certify that I attended deceased from 22 Dec 1932 to 24 Dec 1932. I last saw him alive PM 23 Dec 1932. Death is said to have occurred on the date stated above at 12:30 AM. The principal cause of death and related causes of importance were as follows: Old Age and Influenza. No operation or autopsy performed. Death confirmed by general conditions". Signed; W. A. Phelps, Thebes, IL, 24 Dec 1932. Undertaker; H. C. Marchildon. Filed; 24 Dec 1932, Kenneth Pettitt, Thebes, IL.
Newspaper Obit; Cairo Evening Citizen. William R. DYER, age 83 years, died at his home in Thebes Friday night. He had been ill but a short time. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock, followed by interment in Thebes Cemetery. He is survived by three sons, Sam and Wade DYER of Thebes, Farling DYER of Wood River, IL and two daughters, Mrs. William CALDWELL of Thebes and Mrs. Loretta HOLSHOUSER of MO., besides 33 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Nancy Kisire "Seana" SWINGUM wife of William Riley DYER; Nancy K. "Seana" SWINGUM was married to a man with the last name of "STEVENSON' (first name unknown), but believed to be "Tom", about 1870. This man, while drunk, killed Seana's brother about 1875 and was sent to prison for 30 years. About 3 years later, she married Riley DYER. Her children, born in this marriage to STEVENSON, Mary and Sam, took the name of "DYER" for the remainder of their life. (Source; Finley S. "Doc" CALDWELL, 21 Oct 1998).
�Floyd L. Bennett Notes and References for CALDWELL/DYER AND COLLATERAL FAMILIES:
Generation No. 1.
Horace L. CALDWELL/Annie ???; Buried at Old Thebes Cemetery.
Blaine CALDWELL; Buried at Old Thebes Cemetery.
Logan CALDWELL; Buried at Old Thebes Cemetery.
1850 District 12, Jackson Co., TN Census
Dyer, Edmond Head 35 M TN
Mary Wife 33 F TN
Jefferson Son 2 M TN TN TN
William Son 1 M TN TN TN
Bohon, Henry Boarder? 26 M
1860 District 7, Putnam Co., TN Census
Dyer, Edmond Head 35 M TN
Mary Wife 32 F TN
Jefferson F. Son 12 M TN TN TN
William R. Son 11 M TN TN TN
John W. Son 9 M TN TN TN
Margaret J. Daughter 6 F TN TN TN
Nancy M. Daughter 5 F TN TN TN
James C. Son 4 M TN TN TN
Edmond C. Son 1 M TN TN
1900 Thebes, Alexander Co., IL Census
Dyer, William R. Head W M 51 TN TN TN
Nancy K. Wife W F 47 AL TN AL
Samuel E. Son W M 23 TN TN AL
Mc Farlen Son W M 15 IL TN AL
Nordie Daughter W F 8 IL TN AL
1930 Thebes, Alexander Co., IL Census
Dyer, William R. Head 80 M TN TN TN
Wade M. Son 49 M TN TN TN
Eunice G Daughter 18 F IL TN IL
Earl G Son 13 M IL TN IL
Alline G Daughter 9 F IL TN
�Paul and Phyllis Dale 1997-2008
Date this page was last edited
02/03/2012
