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==Background==

==Background==

Dyer was born in Franklin County in central [[Ohio]], one of eight children of Samuel Dyer (1786-1871) and the former Cassandra Foster (1792-1869)<ref name=oldcolocom/> and largely reared thereafter in [[Illinois]]. He had little formal education and was considered eccentric.<ref name=jfagan/> He was converted to [[Jesus Christ]] at the age of eighteen. He was a veteran of the [[Black Hawk War]] of 1832.<ref name=oldcolocom/> The next year, he wed the former Harriet Foster (1812-1847), and the couple had five children. He farmed and then worked in the lead mines near the village of Potosi in Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin.  Harriet died at the age of thirty-five, two months later, still 1847, their 13-month-old daughter, also named Harriet, also succumbed. Dyer was quickly remarried to a widow, Sarah Whiting, but he ended the arrangement when he found that she had never been divorced from a former spouse.<ref name=jfagan/> Whiting subsequently perished in a flood in 1851.<ref name=dyertimetable/>

Dyer was born in Franklin County in central [[Ohio]], one of eight children of Samuel Dyer (1786-1871) and the former Cassandra Foster (1792-1869)<ref name=oldcolocom/> and largely reared thereafter in [[Illinois]]. He had little formal education and was considered eccentric.<ref name=jfagan/> He was converted to [[Jesus Christ]] at the age of eighteen. He was a veteran of the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832.<ref name=oldcolocom/> The next year, he wed the former Harriet Foster (1812-1847), and the couple had five children. He farmed and then worked in the lead mines near the village of Potosi in Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin.  Harriet died at the age of thirty-five, two months later, still 1847, their 13-month-old daughter, also named Harriet, also succumbed. Dyer was quickly remarried to a widow, Sarah Whiting, but he ended the arrangement when he found that she had never been divorced from a former spouse.<ref name=jfagan/> Whiting subsequently perished in a flood in 1851.<ref name=dyertimetable/>

One day in the mine shaft, Dyer felt that he was about to suffocate when he claimed to hear the voice of [[God]] calling to him. He left mining and dedicated his remaining years to proselytizing for Christ.<ref name=tbio>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivia-library.com/a/biography-of-famous-preacher-father-dyer-part-1.htm|title=Biography of Famous Preacher Father Dyer Part 1|publisher=trivia-library.com|accessdate=January 19, 2014}}</ref> Dyer promptly left his four surviving children, Joshua, Elias, Elizabeth "Abbie", and Samuel, in the care of a sister while he accepted the call to the )circuit riding ministry, based on the technique used in England by [[John Wesley]].<ref name=jfagan/> The commitment kept him away from home for weeks at a time. After a decade of circuit riding in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Dyer, at the age of forty-nine in 1861, left Lenore, [[Minnesota]], for [[Denver]]. He was likely the oldest of all the circuit riders at the time.<ref name=oldcolocom/>

One day in the mine shaft, Dyer felt that he was about to suffocate when he claimed to hear the voice of [[God]] calling to him. He left mining and dedicated his remaining years to proselytizing for Christ.<ref name=tbio>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivia-library.com/a/biography-of-famous-preacher-father-dyer-part-1.htm|title=Biography of Famous Preacher Father Dyer Part 1|publisher=trivia-library.com|accessdate=January 19, 2014}}</ref> Dyer promptly left his four surviving children, Joshua, Elias, Elizabeth "Abbie", and Samuel, in the care of a sister while he accepted the call to the )circuit riding ministry, based on the technique used in England by [[John Wesley]].<ref name=jfagan/> The commitment kept him away from home for weeks at a time. After a decade of circuit riding in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Dyer, at the age of forty-nine in 1861, left Lenore, [[Minnesota]], for [[Denver]]. He was likely the oldest of all the circuit riders at the time.<ref name=oldcolocom/>