James C.-1824-1897. Married in 1849 to Martha
Camp. Their children - David A., George

C., Joseph W., John H., Leonidas C., Mary,
Nancy, Anne, Virginia, Emma.

Nancy J.-1827-1915. Married in 1845 to Douglas
Wyatt.

Elizabeth H.-1829-1913. Married in 1850 to John

E. Ball.

Louisa B.-1833-1903. Married in 1854 to W. L. Carter.

Married in 1882 to J. E. Carstarphen.

Rachael M.-1834-1920. Married in 1853 to Dr. J. M. Foreman.

David P.-1838. Married in 1860 to Lizzie C.
Hunt. Their children - Ezra Hunt, Emma

Grace, Lizzie Logan, David P., Horace Levi,
Maria Louise.

The twelve children of my parents were born in Henry County, Virginia.

All of my children were born in Louisiana, Pike County, Missouri, with the exception of Louise, who was born in St. Louis, and at the present time all are living.

Ezra Hunt- Married Julia F. Gregg, daughter of

of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Gregg of St. Louis. After her death he married Lelia B. Larendon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. Washington Larendon of New York City. Of the first marriage there was born one childOrian Elizabeth, who married Clarke S. Smith, now Colonel of Engineers, U. S. Army. They have three daughters, Orian Elizabeth, Julia Frances and Lucy Clarke.

Emma Grace - Married Edgar White Hunting of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They have three sons- David Dyer, Robert Cutler and Edgar Hunt. The second son, Robert, married Elinor Sawtelle of Memphis, Tenn., and they have one son, Robert Cutler, Jr.

Lizzie Logan-Has not married.

David Patterson, Jr.- Married Maud Ensign, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Ensign, then living in New Orleans, Louisiana. They have one daughter, Louise Ensign, who married Dr. Henry Ford Haskins, now of Peoria, Ill.

Horace Levi-Married Elizabeth Edgar, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Selwyn C. Edgar, of St. Louis. After her death he married Betsey E. Wilcox, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Byron Wilcox of Palmyra, N. Y. By this second marriage are two sons - David Wilcox and John Cogswell.

Maria Louise-Married Amos F. Fay, Jr., of St. Louis. They have one daughter, Claudine. So it will be seen that at the time of this writing I have six children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. None have died.

My grandfather on my mother's side (John Salmon), was of Irish descent, and also served in the Revolutionary War. My father, David Dalton Dyer, and my mother, Nancy Reynolds Salmon, were born in Henry County, Virginia, in the years 1791 and 1794, respectively. Each of them was of humble birth and their parents were poor so far as the world's

goods were concerned. They were married in 1810 —my father at that time being nineteen years of age and my mother sixteen. They could not boast (as most Virginians do) of kinship with either Washington, Jefferson, Marshall or Lee. Without distinguished ancestry and without property of very great value, they had to rely upon their native talents and strong arms for a living. They had an abiding faith in each other and were splendidly equipped with energy, industry, health, and courage for the hard battle that lay before them. They had at the beginning only that superficial knowledge of books that was vouchsafed to the poor. This limited learning was added to during the long winter evenings by diligent study and research in such additional books as could be found in the neighborhood and the light by which they read came mostly from "pine knots" burned in the fireplace of a log house in which they lived. They courageously and hopefully tilled the soil of Henry County for a living where they were renters and not the owners of the land.

This continued until the "call to arms" was sounded for the war of 1812. The husband promptly answered and enlisted in a Virginia regiment. The wife with one young child remained at home to carry on the fight for a living until the husband and father should return after the battles were won and peace declared. Victory and peace came, and the soldier returned; the thread was again taken up and the struggle as before continued. As they were reasonably successful in the acquisition of property, in a few years they were made comfortable and with increased learning and knowledge the husband became

an influential and much respected citizen in the community in which they lived. For twelve consecutive years he was a representative in the legislature (House and Senate) of Henry and adjacent counties. He was a member of the Senate at the date of my birth, February 12, 1838, and my middle name, Patterson, was after a senator by that name who was a colleague of my father.

I was the youngest of twelve children, and when I married, on the 15th of November, 1860, all twelve were living. Today I am the only survivor. There were five brothers and seven sisters, and of these, George, Joseph, Mary, Martha, and John were married before I, the twelfth, was born. I have nieces and nephews older than myself which does not occur very often in a family.

The five eldest children of David and Nancy Dyer left Virginia in 1840 and came to Missouri and settled in the counties of Warren and St. Charles. They were all farmers. In 1841 my father and mother, with the seven remaining children and a few slaves, left the old home in Henry County, Virginia, and after six weeks of hardship on the way, came to Missouri.

The means of transportation used by my father from Virginia to Missouri consisted of two large wagons (made by convicts in the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond), each of which were drawn by four horses. In these two wagons were placed the household goods that had accumulated in the Virginia home. Everything being ready, the "whip was cracked" and the start was made for Missouri, a thousand miles and more away. For six long weeks

they journeyed before the goal was reached. Over hills and through valleys, over mountains and across rivers, they traveled from Virginia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, until the great Mississippi River was reached and crossed.

The children (except the youngest) and the negroes "footed it" practically all of the way. At nightfall camps were made on the roadside, tents pitched, fires lighted, horses tethered, watered and fed, meals cooked on open fires, beds made in wagons and on the ground, prayers said, and beneath the twinkling stars sleep was eagerly sought by each and every one of the tired party composing that group of hopeful and joyous "movers." A place was temporarily rented in the southern part of Warren County. This had a brick dwelling on it, the only building of its kind in the county. It was known far and wide as the "Brick House Place."

The master, the leader, who had turned his back on the thin land of Henry County, Virginia, was looking, as most Virginians did, for "bottom land and living water." In this search he passed over the rich and fertile uplands of St. Louis and St. Charles counties and finally came to the bottom lands on Big Creek in Lincoln County. Here he found the place he was seeking. He bought of a man named Chambers, two hundred and sixty acres of bottom and hill land. The bottom land was rich and productive, but the hill land, while splendid with timber, was thin and poor. There were a few acres of cleared land in the bottom that had been cultivated by Chambers and a cabin in which he had lived, that was situated near the clearing and close by a well of "living water."