Mrs. Sally Ann Dyer
Passing of One of Andover’s Oldest and Most Respected Residents,
Mrs. Sally Ann Dyer, who died at her home three miles southeast of this village last Sunday morning, was the last of the original family of Gordon and Margaret Stout who settled in this section more than eighty years ago. Mrs. Dyer was born in the year 1814 on the 12th of January and came into the vicinity of Andover when eight years of age, thus she had lived eighty-five years in touch with the life of this community and with a full knowledge of its important happenings for more than half a century.
In 1843 Miss Stout was married to Mr. M. Dyer a prosperous farmer of the town of Independence and in 1848 moved to the home near this village where the remainder of her life was spent.
Mrs. Dyer was a woman of more than ordinary intellectual ability. She was a school teacher in the early days and taught in the first school house in Andover. Up to within a few months of her death she retained her memory and intellectual vigor in a wonderful manner and delighted in relating to her callers incidents of long ago. While teaching school in Andover before her marriage she united with the Presbyterian church here and had been a faithful member for sixty-six years; her husband being one of the leading men of the church in his day and generation.
Mrs. Dyer was a Christian of the true type. Cheerful, optimistic, charitable, full of human sympathy she went her way unto the end, living every year of the ninety-two of her existence. It was an inspiration to sit and hear her talk. Only a few months ago she said to a caller: “I suppose I have lived really longer than I ought to but I can’t help it. I have no desire to die. I enjoy living.” She was ready to live or die as God saw fit and her long years of vital existence will leave a beautiful abiding memory with all who knew her.
The funeral was held from the Presbyterian church on Tuesday p.m., Jan. 2nd , 1906, at 2 o’clock, the Reverand R. D. Bacon officiating. She leaves to mourn her loss one daughter, Mrs. Georganna Hardy; a stepson and step daughter, Mr. J. C. Dyer and Mrs. J. L. Cunningham, all of Andover, besides a host of immediate relatives who will long revere her memory.
from Andover News, 1/5/1906 - transcribed by Ron Taylor