THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
"Go West, Young
Man"--Bluford Lumpkin Dyer and Some of His Descendants
I
received a letter from my distant cousin John Dyer’s widow,
Pauline. In it she stated, simply, “Your
cousin John died February
2, 2008 in Kalispell,
Montana after a valiant
battle
with cancer.”
John and I shared the same ancestors,
going away back to Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (abt. 1785-1847) and
Elizabeth
Clark Dyer (abt. 1788-1861), the first Dyer settlers in the Choestoe Valley,
Union County.
This pioneer family was in the 1834 census, the off-year census
ordered
because the county was new, founded in 1832.
John Dyer of Kalispell, Montana and I
saw each other only two times in this earthly life, both times in the
1990’s
when John and members of his family returned to Union County to meet
some of
his Dyer kin here and find out as much as he could about our common
ancestors.
Immediately Cousin John and I
developed a rapport, which extended over the remaining years of his
life. He was a pleasant, hard-working,
family-loving man. He and his beloved
wife,
Pauline Smith Dyer, had fifty-seven years together prior to his death
with
cancer. John’s five sons loved their dad
and considered their lives blessed, indeed, for having him as their
father. Their names (and spouses) who
mourned their father’s passing on February 2 are Ray (and Margo) of
Kalispell,
Jeff (and Candy) of Fairbanks,
Alaska, Ronnie, Lonnie and
Mark
(and Wanda) of Kalispell. Eight
grandchildren were beloved by their grandfather John and had time to
learn from
him and catch a bit of his optimistic, forward-looking spirit: Tammy, Matthew, Leslie, Tracy (and Amy),
David (and Christine), Bryan (and Jamie), Brett (and Amber) and Chelsea. John loved his four great grandchildren:
Jessica, Anthony and Nicole Olsen and Hannah Dyer.
John’s parents who preceded him in death,
were Ray George Dyer and Dorothy Bernadine Sheldon Dyer.
Of the six children born to Ray George and
Dorothy Bernadine Dyer, only three survived at the time of John’s death: brother Kenneth Dyer (and Lona) of Washington
state; and
two sisters, Roberta Ann Dyer Arnold and Shirley Ellen Dyer McDaniel of
Kalispell. John’s siblings, Claire
Frances Dyer Kienas and James Roger Dyer preceded John in death.
Growing philosophical as I considered
John Chester Dyer’s death, I thought of the lines by Alan Seeger:
I
have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade…
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
John Chester Dyer had that
rendezvous, and
so will all of us, in due time. But the
English poet and minister, John Donne, in his “Holy Sonnets,” declared
“Death
be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for
thou art
not so,/For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, /Die not,
poor
death, nor yet canst thou kill me…/death, thou shalt die.”
And, thinking back over the
generations of people to the early pioneers in this county, where John
and I
made our connections, I thought of the tenth son of Bluford Elisha Dyer
and
Elizabeth Clark Dyer. His name was
Bluford Lumpkin Dyer, born in Habersham County
in 1832, who died October
29, 1907 in Kalispell,
Montana.
He married on February
8, 1854 in Union
County, Georgia
to Ruth (Ruthie) Turner, daughter of Jarrett Turner and Sarah “Sallie”
Collins
Turner. A mistake was made in
registration of this marriage in the Union County
marriage records,
and Ruthie was listed as “Tanner,” not Turner.
Mark this up to difficulty in reading penmanship when a “u”
looked like
an “a”. Bluford Lumpkin Dyer’s marriage
to Ruthie Turner brought ties of first settlers closer together. Jarrett Turner and his in-laws, Thompson and
Celia Self Collins, were also among the first families who settled Union County.
But what about the “Go west, young
man” which I mentioned in the title above?
Bluford Lumpkin Dyer served as
sheriff of Union
County
in the 1860’s, a difficult time because of the unrest caused by the
Civil
War. Following cessation of the war,
times were very hard. Bluford Lumpkin
and his wife, Ruthie, made the decision to move to the Loudsville area
of White
County,
“across the mountain” from Choestoe before 1870, for the family was in
the White
County
census of 1870. Son John George Dyer
(John Chester Dyer’s grandfather) was born in White County
on October 12, 1870. Just when Bluford Lumpkin Dyer got the strong
impression to “Go west, young man” is not exactly known, but it was
within the
decade 1870-1880. “Lump” (as he was
called) had a first cousin, Francis Marion Dyer (1863-1947) who had
gone
west. It is believed Francis Marion had
an influence on persuading Lump and Ruthie Dyer to move west.
Their westward pilgrimage was by
stages. They settled first in Gainesville, Texas
for awhile. Their next move was to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Then gold fever struck and Lump moved his
family to Colorado
and went prospecting. Evidently he did
not ever find that evasive lode which would make him rich.
The family’s next move was to Montana. Then
back to Ardmore, Oklahoma
for a short period, where their daughters, Rosetta and Sarah had
married and
settled. But there was a strong pull back
to Montana. Lump and Ruthie and their children still at
home returned there, bought a farm at Creston a little east of
Kalispell. There Lump’s first cousin,
Francis Marion
Dyer, wooed and wed his cousin and the daughter of Lump and Ruthie,
Mollie
Dyer, who had been born in Georgia in 1866.
Mollie died young and Francis Marion married, second, Helen Dann.
Lump and Ruthie remained on
their farm at
Creston, where Ruthie died and was buried.
After his beloved Ruthie’s death, Lump moved to Kalispell, Montana,
to be cared for in his last days by some of his children who lived
there. Bluford Lumpkin Dyer, former
sheriff of Union County,
Georgia,
died October 29,
1907 in Kalispell,
Montana.
Much more history exists between the
dashes—the period between the birth and death of John Chester Dyer
(1932-2008),
recently deceased, and Bluford Lumpkin Dyer (1832-1907), John Chester’s
Dyer’s
great grandfather who went west with a spirit of adventure to find a
new way of
life for his beloved family. I’m glad
John Chester Dyer came back to Georgia
on visits to find his roots; I’m glad we hold dear our common ancestry.
c2008
by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published March 6, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated June 3, 2018
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