Born: February 11, 1814, Cambridge, New York.
Died: December 22, 1898, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Ivy Hill Cemetery, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.
Sidney was the son of John Stevens and Eunice Hurd Dyer; father of Mattie Dyer Britts; grandson of William Dyer; and a descendant of William Dyre, an early settler of Massachusetts.
He studied in classical schools in New York City; at Indiana State University (AM); and Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (PhD).
He served in the Black Hawk War (1832–33); and returned to New York to study theology.
Ordained in 1842, he became a missionary among the Choctaw Indians, and subsequently Secretary of the Indian Mission Board in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1852, Dyer became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 1859, he became District Secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society, a position he held 27 years.
After retiring, he settled in DeLand, Florida, and later moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Dyer made numerous contributions to periodicals, and wrote many songs.
If you know where to get a good photo of Dyer (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),