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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 26, 1999
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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.
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