February 11, 1814, Cambridge, New York.

Sidney was the son of John Ste­vens and Eu­nice Hurd Dy­er; grand­son of Willi­am Dy­er; and a des­cen­dant of Will­iam Dyre, an ear­ly set­tler of Mass­a­chu­setts. He stu­died in class­ic­al schools in New York Ci­ty; served in the Black Hawk War (1832-3); ret­urned to New York to stu­dy the­ol­o­gy, and be­came a mis­sion­ary among the In­dia­ns, and sub­se­quentl­y Sec­re­ta­ry of the In­dian Miss­ion Board in Lou­is­ville, Ken­tucky. In 1852, he 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 De Land, Florida, and lat­er moved to Ger­man­town, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Dyer made num­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions to per­i­od­i­cals, and wrote ma­ny songs. His works in­­clude:

• Ruth, a can­tat­a
• The Win­ter Eve­n­ing En­tert­ain­ment, a can­ta­ta
• Songs and Ball­ads, 1853
• Great Won­ders in Lit­tle Things
• Home and Abroad
• Black Di­a­monds
• Hoofs and Claws
• Ocean Gard­ens
• Elenor Dale Ly­ce­um
• Beautiful Lad­der
• Songs in the Night, a vol­ume of hymns, 1899

• Johnson, Volume III

1. Resting By and By