DYER, ISADORE:
By: Cyrus Adler, Henry Cohen
American merchant and communal worker; born in Dessau, Germany, 1813; died at Waukesha, Wisconsin, 1888. He went to America while young, living first in Baltimore, whence in 1840 he moved to Galveston. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits till 1861, when, after a successful business career, he retired. In 1866 he was elected to the presidency of the Union Marine and Fire Insurance Company of Galveston, which position he filled until the company discontinued business in 1880. He held high place in the Odd Fellows' lodge, and was among the earliest of its grand masters. The first Jewish religious services in Galveston were held at his house (1856). He made provision in his will for the maintenance of the two Hebrew cemeteries, and left bequests to the Congregation B'nai Israel ("to afford increased pews and seating capacity for the poor Israelite families who are unable to purchase or rent same"), and to the Protestant Orphans' Home of Galveston.
- Records of the City of Galveston, 1840-88;
- Encyclopedia of the New West, 1886;
- Records of the Probate Office of Galveston, Texas, 1888;
- Publications Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. No. 2, 1894.
