DYER, SIDNEY M.: 1814-1898.
Sidney M. Dyer , father of Mattie Dyer Britts, was born in Cambridge, N. Y., on Feb. 11, 1814. Although he attended Amity Street Classical School in New York City for a time, he was chiefly self-taught. In 1836 he began the study of theology, and he was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1842.
After serving as a missionary among the Choctaw Indians and as secretary of the Indian Mission Board in Louisville , he came, in 1852, to Indianapolis as pastor of the First Baptist Church. He remained there for about seven years before going to Philadelphia as district secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society. He died in 1898.
He is principally remembered for his songs–he composed the lyrics for a great many–but he was also the author of several books.
Information from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II, and Parker and Heiney–Poets and Poetry of Indiana.
- Voices of Nature, and Thoughts in Rhyme.
Louisville
1849.
- Dyer's Psalmist; a Collection of Hymns and Sacred
Songs for the Use of Baptist Churches.
Louisville, 1851.
- An Olio of Love and Song Delivered Before the Athenian
Society of Indiana University, July 31, 1855.
Indianapolis, 1855.
- Songs and Ballads. New York,
1857.
- The Drunkard's Child. New
York, 1865.
- Home and Abroad; or, the Wonders of Familiar Objects.
Philadelpkia, 1872.
- Black Diamonds; or, the Curiosities of Coal.
Philadelphia, 1873.
- Great Wonders in Little Things.
Pkiladelphia, 1874.
- Boys and Birds; or, Miss Truat's Mission.
Philadelphia, 1874.
- Hoofs and Claws. Pkiladelpkia,
1875.
- Ocean Gardens and Palaces; or, the Tent on the Beach.
Philadelphia, 1876.
- Elmdale Lyceum; or, God's Mighty Workers.
Philadelphia, 1877,.
- The Beautiful Ladder; or, the Two Students.
Philadelphia, 1881.
