Representative women of New England/Julia K. Dyer
JULIA K. DYER, widely known and beloved as Mrs. Micah Dyer, has been associated for over forty years with nearly every large philanthropic work started in Boston, serving in every office she has been appointed to with noble unselfishness. Her maiden name was Julia Knowlton. She was born August 25, 1829, in Deerfield, N.H., near the birthplace of General Benjamin F. Butler. Her parents were Joseph and Susan (Dearborn) Knowlton. The Immigrant progenitor of the Knowlton family of New England was Captain William Knowlton, who died on the voyage from London to Nova Scotia, and whose sons a few years later settled at Ipswich, Mass., the earliest to arrive there, it is said, being John in 1639.
Through her maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Dearborn, who married Comfort Palmer, of Haverhill, Mrs. Dyer is descended from Godfrey Dearborn, who came from England and was one of the earliest settlers of Exeter, N. H., in 1G'.ii), and later removed to Hampton, N.H.
Her great-grandfather, Edward Dearborn, fought at the battle of Bunker Hill, as did her paternal grandfather, Thomas Knowlton. In the Revolutionary Rolls of New Ham])shire, Edward Dearborn is named as a private in Captain Benjamin Titcomb's company in 1775; as a soldier from Dover in the Continental army in April, 1776: in Captain Drew's company, February, 1777; on the pay-roll of Captain Nathan Sanborn's company. Colonel Evans's regiment, which marched September, 1777, from New Hampshire to re-enforce the Northern Continental army at Saratoga; also sometime member of the Fifth Company, Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment, which was commanded by Colonel George Reid, 1777-79.
Edward Dearborn married Susanna Brown, whom he left, when he entered the army, to care for the farm and three small children, the nearest neighbor being ten miles away. Susanna Brown was the daughter of Nehemiah and Amy (Longfellow) Brown, of Kensington, N.H., and grand-daughter of Nathan Long- fellow. The last named was probably the Nathan born in 1690, son of William and Anne (Sewall) Longfellow, of Newbury, Mass., and brother of Stephen, born in 1681, from whom the poet Henry W. Longfellow was descended.
Joseph Knowlton, Mrs. Dyer's father, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and her brother, Josph H. Knowlton, in the Civil War. The patriotism of Mrs. Dyer is thus shown to be inherited.
During her infancy her parents removed to Concord, N. H., and in l839 they took up their residence in Manchester, N.H., where for twenty years her father was connected with the Land and Water Company, besides tilling important positions of trust. Up to the age of fourteen h(>r education was gained in private schools. She then went to a boarding-school ii Concord, N.H., where she remained one year, after which she entered the New Ham])t()n Institute, known at that time as one of the best schools for girls in the country, from which she was graduated with honors before the age of eighteen. Returning to Manchester, she taught in the high school for one year French, EngHsh, Latin, and the higher mathematics. Asso- ciated with her at this school was Miss Caroline C. Johnson, who afterward came to Boston and established a school for girls on Bowdoin Street, which she kept for twenty years. Miss Johnson was a cousin of John G. Whittier. It was with her and her sisters that the jjoet in his later years made his home at Oak Knoll, Danvers.
At this period Miss Knowlton met Mr. Micah Dyer, Jr., then a rising young lawyer of Boston. After a short engagement they were married. May 1, 1851, and took up their residence in Boston. Ten years later they ])urchased the fine estate which for a generation had belonged to the Clapp family, at Upham's Corner, Dor- chester. The house is situated on an elevation, and is surrounded by carefully kej)t lawns, with shade trees, many of which are more than one hundred years old. It is an interesting fact that the first tulip bulbs brought U) America were planted in this garden.
Family duties occupied all of Mrs. Dyer's time during the first ten years of her married life; but as the children grew up — and she was blessed with three, two sons and one daughtei- — she found time for the demands of charitable work. During the Civil War she, with scores of other brave women, did what she could to alleviate the sufferings of the soldiers. An amusing incident recently appeared in the Boston papers, in which Mrs. Dyer figures as having fired a shot in the war — not a bullet shot, however, and, so far from doing any deadly injury, it saved a man's life. 'hil(> riding in a slow Southern train, she passed in the early morning through a strip of terri- tory picketed by I'nion men. It was a dan- gerous section, and the train was barely creep- ing along. Mrs. Dyer, all alert, was gazing out of the window on the lookout for danger, when she e.spied a soldier asleep at his post, an offence punishable by death if discovered. He had evidently been overcome by fatigue. Could nothhig be done to save him She was on her way to one of the hospitals with deli- cacies for the soldiers there. Among the.se were oranges. She seized one, and, with an accuracy of aim gained from a youthful fond- ness for archery, hit him scjuarcly in the chest, arousing him instantly. After a bewildered moment he sjirang to his feet, then, catching sight of his deliverer, who was waving to him from the dei)arting train, he bowed his heart- felt thanks, orange in hand.
The first |)ublic work of Mrs. Dyer was on the Board of Management of the Dedham Home for Discharged Female Prisoners, to which she was appointed in 1864. For twenty- eight years she never failed, except during serious illness, to pay her monthly visit, ^'llen the Ladies' Aid Society was formed to aid the Soldiers' Home, Mrs. Dyer was made its sec- retary, and the next year, 1882, its pre.'^ident, a position that she held for ten years. The military strain in Mrs. Dyer's blooil fitteil her peculiarly for this office. Under her gui<lance the numbers rapidly increaseil, and thousands of dollars were raised to give comforts to the home. The society has furnished rooms, pro- vided a library and all sorts of smaller luxuries. A fine portrait of the "right bowei' of the Sol- diers' Home" (as the trustees call Mrs. Dyer) hangs in the chapel of the home, and one of the rooms is set apart and named for her.
Her rare executive ability combined with an even temperament makes her a natural leader of large bodies. During her presidency of the Ladies' Aitl she comlucted several fairs, which netted handsome sums. The Ladies' Aid table at the Soldiers' Carnival under her direction cleareil nearly six thoasaml dollars. Later a kettledrum for the .same benefit netted four thousand dollars, and another fair for the Soldiers' Home netted ten thousand dollars. For this fair some one facetiously offered, when told they could give anything they chose, a live pig. Mrs. Dyer, readily .seeing a novel feature for her fair, accepted the offer. Piggy was comfortably ensconced in an improvi.sed ]X'n, presiding over a box inscribed with bright ver.ses from this lady's fertile brain, inviting contributions for his maintenance. Tliirty tlollars was realized from this exhibit. Then the pig was .sent to tiie Soitfifrs' Home, where in the cour.se of time he was served.
The Boston Educational and Industrial Union in 1885 asked Mrs. Dyer to take charge of an entertainment for its benefit, and she arranged a Dickens Carnival, which brought in seven thousand dollars. In 1888 Mrs. Dyer was at the head of the. Board of Managers of the great fair held in Music Hall by which the sum of thirteen thousand dollars was raised in a single week for the benefit of The Home for Intemperate Women.
The Charity Club of Boston, which has become so yell known, was the outgrowth of this fair. The committee of fifty women who had worked so successfully* and harmoniously under Mrs. Dyer's guidance banded themselves together to raise money for any good object. Mrs. Dyer conceived the idea of starting a free hospital for respectable women without means in need of important surgical operations. A house at 38 Chester Park was bought, and a hospital started when the Club had not a cent in its treasury. How the owner was induced to take a mortgage for a sum less than he had asked for the property, leaving the Club an equity for nothing, how many ingenious devices were resorted to to furnish, to pay interest, taxes, and running expenses, only the Club members know; but the good work went on and prospered. The president, whose faith was so great, buoyed up the others.
In 1892 a hew hospital was completed at Parker Hill, between Brookline and Boston. The Legislature subsequently granted fifteen thousand dollars, which cleared off its in- debtedness. The Club now numbers nearly seven hundred members, and this hospital-stands a proud monument of their good work. Mrs. Dyer has been the president from the first. The badge of the Club is a circular pin surmounted with the head of the president in bronze.
Mrs. Dyer is the organizer and president of the Wintergreen Club, to which only women of fifty are eligible. It is named for the real wintergreen, which is green and glossy under the snow, retaining its youthful freshness, as good women do. Among its members are Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Maria H. Bray, Mrs. Kate Tannatt Woods, and Mrs. Louis Prang.
Another little society which Mrs. Dyer initiated a few years ago is the "Take Heed," from the text, "Take heed that ye speak not evil of one another." She is also president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Upham's Corner, an office she has filled for seven years, being its second president, resigning at one time, and accepting the office again in 1899. She is a valued member and one of the board of directors of the Castilian Club, and a life member of the Bostonian Society. Among other societies and clubs with which she has been actively connected may be named the Moral Education Society, the National Prison Association, the Benefit Society for the University Education of Women, the Helping Hand Society, the Dorchester Woman's Club, and the Book Review Club of Dorchester, the last-named two being strictly literary clubs. It has been estimated that some- thing like a quarter of a million has been raised for charities through her inspiring leadership. Early inclined to literary work, for which the duties that came to her left little time, Mrs. Dyer has written, mainly for her clubs, in her scant leisure, many acceptable essays and poems. Her one great grief has been the loss of her husband, whose hearty support she had in all of her undertakings. Since his death, November 24, 1898, she has made her home with her son and his wife, on Columbia Road, Dorchester, having her own suite of rooms, where she still continues to dispense her bountiful hospitality.
Mrs. Livermore, in her characteristic, impulsive way, summing up Mrs. Dyer's amiable qualities, says, "I always think of her as always cheery, always charming, always harmonious, and altogether the most delightful woman of my acquaintance."