E. H. Dyer

Who was E. H. Dyer?

Ebenezer Herrick Dyer was an American businessman who established the first successful commercial beet sugar mill in the U.S., and as such was called the "father of the American beet sugar industry".

Dyer was born in Sullivan, Maine; his family was one of the original colonists of New England. Unlike his brother Ephraim who was drawn by the California Gold Rush, Dyer stayed in Maine when the number of immigrants to California skyrocketed. However, Ephraim needed help running a farm, and asked his brother to join him. Dyer had previously run lumber and quarry companies and as an 1883 biography states, "Seeking a wider field he came to California." He arrived in 1857 and determining that the situation was favorable, returned to Maine for his wife Marion Wallace Ingalls, whom he had married in 1850, and two children. Returning in April 1858, they settled on Ephraim's farm in Alvarado. After his wife's death in 1863, Dyer married Olive Ingalls, his sister-in-law. In total, he had six children, three sons and three daughters, three from each of the sisters.

In 1859 he was elected County Surveyor of Alameda County and re-elected two years later. Also that same year he was appointed United States Deputy Surveyor by Surveyor General E. F. Beale, and he served in that position for about ten years. In 1876 he was chosen by the Second Congressional District of California as a delegate to the Republic National Convention at Cincinnati, Ohio.