Wiley Dyer was born in North Carolina in 1775. Of his early life we know very little but judging from his later years, he must have been very active. In 1799 he married Nancy Woolbright, daughter of Jacob Woolbright, a Revolutionary War soldier. We do not know where this marriage took place but it was probably in South Carolina where no records of marriages were kept by the county officials until after the beginning of the twentieth century. In a book of biographical sketches of prominent lawyers of Arkansas, Melvin Nathaniel Dyer states that his grandfather, Wiley Dyer, moved 53 times during his lifetime! His son, Edwin was born in Saltville, Virginia; Wiley Meeks was born in Wilkes County, Georgia; James Harrison and Polly were born in Kentucky. Wiley Dyer owned and operated salt mines and other property in Lawrence County, Kentucky, but his real home was in Georgia, near Lafayette. The family traveled between the two places often. Records of land transactions in Kentucky lend support to Melvin N. Dyer's statement that his grandfather came to Texas in 1839. Family tradition says that he made several trips to Texas and that he bought land on the Brazos for each of his sons. Since the court records in this section have been burned this cannot be verified. We do know that he brought his slaves to Texas to build a home and started back to Georgia, in 1847, to get his family. One story says that he died after eating some frozen turnips he had pulled from a patch he passed. The other says that his horse stumbled and his gun went off, killing him. No matter which tale is true - he did die and was buried beside the trail near the present town of Daingerfield, Texas. Wiley and Nancy (Woolbright) Dyer had eleven children,