Walter Benton Dyer - City Cemetery, Wright City, MO, USA
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 49.913 W 091° 01.266
15S E 671768 N 4299981
There are three of these old stones, all Dyer children, and next to the Seger child, in this old section of the cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM1C8WF
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/05/2025
Views: 0
County of dove: Warren County
Location of dove: N. Elm St. & N Service Rd., N. of Wright City
Walter Benton Dyer, and not an unusual middle name, who is buried along side (in a row) his two siblings, Freeland and Warner. There is another brother, buried here, but these is no longer any stone to mark the exact spot. Warner was the son of Thomas and Mary Dyer. He passed away at the age of two.
The dove here, is again, at the top of this old limestone tombstone. As history and time has told us, limestone was not a good choice for a marker, it weathered badly.
"The dove is most frequently seen animal symbol in the cemetery. It is portrayed in a number of poses, but most frequently it is seen holding an Olive Branch, a reference to the dove sent out by Noah to search for lane, as in Genesis 8.
"The dove then became a symbol of purity and peace because God had made peace with man. It also became a powerful symbol of the Holy Ghost, as illustrated in Jon 1.
"A dove, dive-bombing from the heavens, with an olive branch or a cross in its beak is the symbol for the Holy Ghost. This representation of a dove comes from John I." ~ Stories in Stone, by Douglas Keister, 2004, pages 79, 142
"The Dyer Family
Three years after his birth in 1837 in Kentucky, Thomas Benton Dyer and his parents moved to a farm in St. Charles County. As a young teen, Thomas worked for a farmer in Warren County and attended school here. Near the start of the Civil War, Thomas enlisted in the Union Army. His cavalry unit was engaged in fighting at Fort Donaldson, Chattanooga and Chickamauga and was eventually sent to Georgia. While being pursued by Confederate soldiers, his unit crossed the Chattahoochee River. During the crossing, his horse was lost, and he was forced to travel on foot. Pvt. Dyer and a companion were captured by southern soldiers. Thomas spent a month in a Confederate prisoner of war camp before he managed to escape. He traveled to the Union lines in Marietta, GA and a day after his arrival he took part in Gen. Sherman's Battle of Atlanta. After the war, he returned to Warren County and was named school commissioner for the county. In this role, he supervised the education of hundreds of children in the many one-room schools scattered across the county. He married Mary Rose in 1875. She died 14 years later. Three of the couple's five children died in childhood. Thomas died in 1897 at the age of 60. He is buried by his wife and four of their children." ~ From Historic Marker on site