No. 10956 Mrs. Micah Dyer
From Skteches of Representative Women of New England. (Boston, 1904),
Juia K. Dyer, widely known and beloved as Mrs. Micah Dyer, has been associated for over forty years with nearly every large philanthropic work started in Boston, serving in every office she has been appointed to with noble unselfishness. Her maiden name was Julia Knowlton. She was born August 25, 1829, in Deerfield, N.H., near the birthplace of General Benjamin F. Butler. Her parents were Joseph and Susan (Dearborn) Knowlton. The Immigrant progenitor of the Knowlton family of New England was Captain William Knowlton, who died on the voyage from London to Nova Scotia, and whose sons a few years later settled at Ipswich, Mass., the earliest to arrive there, it is said, being John in 1639.
Through her maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Dearborn, who married Comfort Palmer, of Haverhill, Mrs. Dyer is descended from Godfrey Dearborn, who came from England and was one of the earliest settlers of Exeter, N. H., in 1G’.ii), and later removed to Hampton, N.H.
Her great-grandfather, Edward Dearborn, fought at the battle of Bunker Hill, as did her paternal grandfather, Thomas Knowlton. In the Revolutionary Rolls of New Hampshire, Edward Dearborn is named as a private in Captain Benjamin Titcomb’s company in 1775; as a soldier from Dover in the Continental army in April, 1776: in Captain Drew’s company, February, 1777; on the pay-roll of Captain Nathan Sanborn’s company. Colonel Evans’s regiment, which marched September, 1777, from New Hampshire to re-enforce the Northern Continental army at Saratoga; also sometime member of the Fifth Company, Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment, which was commanded by Colonel George Reid, 1777-79.
Edward Dearborn married Susanna Brown, whom he left, when he entered the army, to care for the farm and three small children, the nearest neighbor being ten miles away. Susanna Brown was the daughter of Nehemiah and Amy (Longfellow) Brown, of Kensington, N.H., and grand-daughter of Nathan Long- fellow. The last named was probably the Nathan born in 1690, son of William and Anne (Sewall) Longfellow, of Newbury, Mass., and brother of Stephen, born in 1681, from whom the poet Henry W. Longfellow was descended.
Joseph Knowlton, Mrs. Dyer’s father, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and her brother, Joseph H. Knowlton, in the Civil War. The patriotism of Mrs. Dyer is thus shown to be inherited.
During her infancy her parents removed to Concord, N. H., and in l839 they took up their residence in Manchester, N.H., where for twenty years her father was connected with the Land and Water Company, besides tilling important positions of trust. Up to the age of fourteen h(>r education was gained in private schools. She then went to a boarding-school ii Concord, N.H., where she remained one year, after which she entered the New Hampton Institute, known at that time as one of the best schools for girls in the country, from which she was graduated with honors before the age of eighteen. Returning to Manchester, she taught in the high school for one year French, English, Latin, and the higher mathematics. Associated with her at this school was Miss Caroline C. Johnson, who afterward came to Boston and established a school for girls on Bowdoin Street, which she kept for twenty years. Miss Johnson was a cousin of John G. Whittier. It was with her and her sisters that the poet in his later years made his home at Oak Knoll, Danvers.
At this period Miss Knowlton met Mr. Micah Dyer, Jr., then a rising young lawyer of Boston. After a short engagement they were married. May 1, 1851, and took up their residence in Boston. Ten years later they purchased the fine estate which for a generation had belonged to the Clapp family, at Upham’s Corner, Dorchester. The house is situated on an elevation, and is surrounded by carefully kept lawns, with shade trees, many of which are more than one hundred years old. It is an interesting fact that the first tulip bulbs brought to America were planted in this garden.
Family duties occupied all of Mrs. Dyer’s time during the first ten years of her married life; but as the children grew up — and she was blessed with three, two sons and one daughter — she found time for the demands of charitable work. During the Civil War she, with scores of other brave women, did what she could to alleviate the sufferings of the soldiers. An amusing incident recently appeared in the Boston papers, in which Mrs. Dyer figures as having fired a shot in the war — not a bullet shot, however, and, so far from doing any deadly injury, it saved a man’s life. While riding in a slow Southern train, she passed in the early morning through a strip of territory picketed by Union men. It was a dangerous section, and the train was barely creeping along. Mrs. Dyer, all alert, was gazing out of the window on the lookout for danger, when she espied a soldier asleep at his post, an offence punishable by death if discovered. He had evidently been overcome by fatigue. Could nothing be done to save him? She was on her way to one of the hospitals with delicacies for the soldiers there. Among these were oranges. She seized one, and, with an accuracy of aim gained from a youthful fondness for archery, hit him squarely in the chest, arousing him instantly. After a bewildered moment he sprang to his feet, then, catching sight of his deliverer, who was waving to him from the departing train, he bowed his heart-felt thanks, orange in hand.
The first public work of Mrs. Dyer was on the Board of Management of the Dedham Home for Discharged Female Prisoners, to which she was appointed in 1864. For twenty- eight years she never failed, except during serious illness, to pay her monthly visit. When the Ladies’ Aid Society was formed to aid the Soldiers’ Home, Mrs. Dyer was made its secretary, and the next year, 1882, its president, a position that she held for ten years. The military strain in Mrs. Dyer’s blood fitted her peculiarly for this office. Under her guidance, the numbers rapidly increased, and thousands of dollars were raised to give comforts to the home. The society has furnished rooms, provided a library and all sorts of smaller luxuries. A fine portrait of the “right bower of the Soldiers’ Home” (as the trustees call Mrs. Dyer) hangs in the chapel of the home, and one of the rooms is set apart and named for her.
Her rare executive ability combined with an even temperament makes her a natural leader of large bodies. During her presidency of the Ladies’ Aid she conducted several fairs, which netted handsome sums. The Ladies’ Aid table at the Soldiers’ Carnival under her direction cleared nearly six thoasaml dollars. Later a kettledrum for the .same benefit netted four thousand dollars, and another fair for the Soldiers’ Home netted ten thousand dollars. For this fair someone facetiously offered, when told they could give anything they chose, a live pig. Mrs. Dyer, readily .seeing a novel feature for her fair, accepted the offer. Piggy was comfortably ensconced in an improvised pen, presiding over a box inscribed with bright verses from this lady’s fertile brain, inviting contributions for his maintenance. Thirty dollars was realized from this exhibit. Then the pig was sent to the Soldiers’ Home, where in the course of time he was served.
The Boston Educational and Industrial Union in 1885 asked Mrs. Dyer to take charge of an entertainment for its benefit, and she arranged a Dickens Carnival, which brought in seven thousand dollars. In 1888 Mrs. Dyer was at the head of the. Board of Managers of the great fair held in Music Hall by which the sum of thirteen thousand dollars was raised in a single week for the benefit of The Home for Intemperate Women.
The Charity Club of Boston, which has become so yell known, was the outgrowth of this fair. The committee of fifty women who had worked so successfully and harmoniously under Mrs. Dyer’s guidance banded themselves together to raise money for any good object. Mrs. Dyer conceived the idea of starting a free hospital for respectable women without means in need of important surgical operations. A house at 38 Chester Park was bought, and a hospital started when the Club had not a cent in its treasury. How the owner was induced to take a mortgage for a sum less than he had asked for the property, leaving the Club an equity for nothing, how many ingenious devices were resorted to to furnish, to pay interest, taxes, and running expenses, only the Club members know; but the good work went on and prospered. The president, whose faith was so great, buoyed up the others.
In 1892 a hew hospital was completed at Parker Hill, between Brookline and Boston. The Legislature subsequently granted fifteen thousand dollars, which cleared off its indebtedness. The Club now numbers nearly seven hundred members, and this hospital-stands a proud monument of their good work. Mrs. Dyer has been the president from the first. The badge of the Club is a circular pin surmounted with the head of the president in bronze.
Mrs. Dyer is the organizer and president of the Wintergreen Club, to which only women of fifty are eligible. It is named for the real wintergreen, which is green and glossy under the snow, retaining its youthful freshness, as good women do. Among its members are Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Maria H. Bray, Mrs. Kate Tannatt Woods, and Mrs. Louis Prang.
Another little society which Mrs. Dyer initiated a few years ago is the “Take Heed,” from the text, “Take heed that ye speak not evil of one another.” She is also president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Upham’s Corner, an office she has filled for seven years, being its second president, resigning at one time, and accepting the office again in 1899. She is a valued member and one of the board of directors of the Castilian Club, and a life member of the Bostonian Society. Among other societies and clubs with which she has been actively connected may be named the Moral Education Society, the National Prison Association, the Benefit Society for the University Education of Women, the Helping Hand Society, the Dorchester Woman’s Club, and the Book Review Club of Dorchester, the last-named two being strictly literary clubs. It has been estimated that some- thing like a quarter of a million has been raised for charities through her inspiring leadership. Early inclined to literary work, for which the duties that came to her left little time, Mrs. Dyer has written, mainly for her clubs, in her scant leisure, many acceptable essays and poems. Her one great grief has been the loss of her husband, whose hearty support she had in all of her undertakings. Since his death, November 24, 1898, she has made her home with her son and his wife, on Columbia Road, Dorchester, having her own suite of rooms, where she still continues to dispense her bountiful hospitality.
Mrs. Livermore, in her characteristic, impulsive way, summing up Mrs. Dyer’s amiable qualities, says, “I always think of her as always cheery, always charming, always harmonious, and altogether the most delightful woman of my acquaintance.”
July 6, 1907 [Boston Evening Transcript?]
Mrs. Dyer’s Funeral
Pilgrim Church at Upham’s Corner Crowded with Large Number of Well-Known Persons–Services Conducted by Revs. Allbright, De Normandie and Horton
Seldom has a larger and more distinguished company gathered within the borders of Dorchester than last Saturday afternoon, when Pilgrim Church, Upham’s Corner, was crowdded with the many friends of Mrs. Micah Dyer, Jr., who gathered to pay a final tribute of respect to a woman who for many hears has shone forth as one of the leaders of her sex in this country, in matters educational and philanthropic.
Her life, which closed suddenly last week, ahs been an active one in behalf of humanity and her passing has been the cause of much sorrow not only in this City, but over the entire country, where she was well known and loved. The church in which the funeral services were held, is situated almost directly opposite her home on Columbia road, which is a large old-fashioned structure with plenty of green lawn in front of it and many shade trees about it.
Mrs. Dyer has been so well known because of her long humanitiarian work and her affiliation with so many women’s organizations that she had endeared herself to a large proportion of the members of these clubs, and they were well represented. The large attendance in itself was an honor to her memory. At the church, members of the Woman’s Charity Club, of which for twenty years Mrs. Dyer had been president, acted as ushers under the leadership of Mrs. R. D. Cushing, herself formerly an office of the club for twelve or more years, serving as its corresponding secretary. People found quantities of beautiful flowers massed within the chancel of the Church and about the pulpit, mute evidences of the general love and respect felt for Mrs. Dyer. These silent tributes represented many clubs, including the Woman’s Charity club, and also its individual members, as well as many family friends and relatives.
The service was conducted by the pastor of the church, Rev. William H. Allbright, who read from the scriptures, and whose ministrations were shared by Rev. James De Normandie, minister of the First Religious society, of Roxbury, long a friend of Mrs. Dyer, and Rev. Edward A. Horton, who stood in a like relation to her in his friendship, and who has been “adopted” by the Charity club as its honored member and only “son.” He frequently has been present at the club’s formal functions and often has been heard as a speaker on these occasions. Saturday it fell to him to speak in tribute to the sterling worth and strength of character of his friend, and of her place in the community, so long well and capably filled in the pursuit of good works, and he recalled her uplifting help always to those associated with her in this humanitiarian or charitable work. Much that found a deep echo in the hearts of everyone present who had known Mrs. Dyer well was said by Rev. Mr. Horton, whose hearers were deeply affected. Rev. Dr. De Normandie’s part in the serviced included the prayers. The Apolllo Quartet, Walter E. Paine and E.E. Holden, tenors; Frank A. Henderson, baritone; and George E. McGowan, bass, sang several selections which had been dear to Mrs. Dyer’s heart in her love of music. The selections were “One Sweetly Solemn Thought,” “Crossing the Bar,” the musical setting of Tennyson’s verses; “Eternal Goodness,” Whittier’s verses, and “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
The burial , which was private, took place at Mount Auburn cemetery and the honorary pall bearers were chosen from the staff of surgeons at the Woman’s Charity club hospital in Roxbury maintained by the club, and from the advisory board of directors of its interests.
Julia (Knowlton) Dyer was born in Deerfield, N.H., in 1829. Her parents were Joseph Knowlton and Susan Dearborn. Her great-grandfather, Nathaniel Dearborn, was a soldier of the French war, and fought at Bunker Hill, as did her grandfather, Thomas Knowlton. Her father served in the war of 1812 and her brother was wounded at the battle of James Island in the Civil War. She was educated in Concord, partly at a private school, and later attended the New Hampshire institute, where she was graduated at 18 with high honors. Then she taught for year in the high school at Manchester, her specialties being belles-lettres, French and mathematics. Her marriage to Mr. Dyer took place in May, 1851, and since then this daughter of New Hampshire has been a loyal daughter of Massachusetts, where she has lived ever since her marriage. Her husband’s death about ten years ago greatly saddened Mrs. Dyer.
Her first public work was on the board of management of the Dedham Home for Discharged Female prisoners, to which she was appointed in 1864, and in which one month of every year was her charge, as visitor. She had since assumed exacting responsibilities in from twenty to thirty different associations. Of these one of the most important is the Ladies’ Aid Association, tributary to the Soldiers’ Home at Chelsea. Mrs. Dyer was one of those summoned to attend the preliminary meeting in 1861 to organize this society. She became corresponding secretary, and afterwards president, holding the position for a number of years. She resigned the higher office in 1892, yet continued her interest in the work of the society. During her years of activity as an officer the society accomplished much good work in behalf of veterans of the Civil war.
Some of the other organizations which are indebted to Mrs. Dyer for her activity or oversight are the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Bostonian Society, the Home for Aged Couples, the Moral Educational Society, the National Prison Association, the Daughters of New Hampshire, the Beneficent Society for the University Education of Women, the Helping Hand Society, the Dorchester Woman’s Club, the Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Book Review Club of Dorchester, the Castilian Club, and the Home for Intemperate Women at Brookine. At the head of a great fair for the benefit of the latter institution in 1888 she was greatly the means of raising, $13,000. The soldiers’ carnival, under her direction in the fifties, cleared neary $6000, and a domestic kettledrum in her own house netted $4000 for the Soldiers’ Home. The Boston Educational and Industrial Union in 1885 asked her to take charge of an entertainment for it benefit, and she arranged a Dickens carnival which brought it $7000. Her ladies’ aid table at the Ladies’ Carnival in 1887 cleared more than $5000, all evidence of her leadership in any good cause.
So great was Mrs. Dyer’s ability in this direction that the Woman’s Charity club was formed under her presidency to be an agency for helping any good work which might demand auxiliary aid. Mrs. Dyer was soon led to concentrate her energies upon the idea of a free hospital for respectable women without means, in need of important surgical operations. Having discovered a good situation for the institution, she called [undreadable] and brought about [unreadable] the purchase of the house No. 28 Chestnut Park to start a hospital. Years later she led the movement to build a larger hospital building on Parker Hill, Roxbury, the present hospital maintained by the Woman’s Charity Club. Mrs. Dyer seldom had missed attending the regular monthly business meeting of the Club and its other gatherings of a more social nature and frequently her hospitable home in Dorchester has been opened to its members.
Undoubtedly while keenly interested in various lines of beneficent and uplifting work, Mrs. Dyer has in later years held dearest to her heart and energies the work and purposes of the Charity Club. She had never been permitted to drop the reins of the office of president. But recently had been more of an interested observer than active presiding officer, the vice-president Mrs. Esther Boland, relieving her of the [undreadable] of the chair.
[Unreadable] It is named for the real wintergreen, which is green and glossy under the snow, long retaining its youthful freshness. Mrs. Julia ward Howe, the late Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. Kate Tannatt Woods, Mrs. Walton and Mrs. Charles G. Ames have been among its members. Another little society in which Mrs. Dyer belonged is called “The Take Heed,” from the text “Take heed that ye speak not evil one of another.”
Mrs. Dyer is survived by her son Walter R. Dyer, with whom and his wife she made her home at 555 Columbia road; and by an elder son, Dr. Willard K. Dyer, of this city. She also leaves a sister, Mrs. Susan D. Garland, wife of Dr. Garland, of Gloucester. The house where Mrs. Dyer has lived, surrounded by trees and well-ordered grounds, is roomy and old-fashioned, with spacious rooms. She had her own suite of rooms on the second floor—a library, with a business-desk constantly used, a boudoir and bed room, furnished with heirlooms, and usually fragrant with flowers. Mrs. Dyer had written some beautiful poetry and her lectures have been heard in many places. It has been said of her, “Of all the beautiful works which Mrs. Dyer has accomplished,