Oliver Dyer (April 26, 1824 – January 13, 1907) was an American journalist, author, teacher, lawyer and stenographer. A pioneer in phonography, he developed his own shorthand system which was the first to be adopted for use in the United States. It was used not only for courtroom testimony but also for recording political events such as the Free Soil Convention in Buffalo, New York, and sessions of the 30th United States Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1848. It was in the latter role that he became the first Congressional shorthand reporter.
Dyer also had a successful career as a columnist for a number of popular publications, such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Ledger and The Sun, during the 1850s and 60s. He was prominent among the reformers who campaigned against the various saloons, clubs and other "immoral establishments" of New York's underworld. His 1868 exposé of John Allen caused the saloon keeper to become infamously known as "the wickedest man in New York" and forced to close his dance hall. Dyer was also one of the signatories of the Water Street Revival "street preaching" document, which supported attempts by religious leaders to convince saloon keepers and other criminal figures to abandon crime as a way of life.
Biography
Born in Porter, New York on April 26, 1824, Oliver Dyer moved with his parents to Lockport where his father, Jeremiah Dyer, opened a shoemaking shop. Dyer spent most of his early life in the city and became a schoolteacher in 1840. During this time, he became interested in phonography, a popular type of shorthand system then being used in Great Britain, and soon developed his own system. A student of Sir Isaac Pitman, developer of Pitman shorthand, Dyer initially practiced by copying Sunday sermons verbatim and later began teaching phonography classes in which he demonstrated his new system. He began teaching and lecturing in cities across the county. In Philadelphia, he established the first American shorthand periodical, the American Phonographic Journal, as well as the first experimental classes in shorthand at Central High School. After receiving permission from the school, he taught a volunteer after-school class of 250 students free of charge from which would emerge some of the most prominent shorthand writers of the period such as Dennis F. Murphy. These classes were so popular, with the students showing much promise, that shorthand was officially added to the school's curriculum the next year under a regular instructor.
Dyer's system became widely used throughout the decade, and Dyer was eventually considered the leading authority on shorthand in the United States. In 1847, he began supplying the first phonographic reports published by the New York Tribune and for a newspaper in Toronto, the latter being the first published in Canada. This system was especially used in courtroom testimony and was used to record the proceedings of the national Free Soil Convention in Buffalo, New York, on August 9–10, 1848. Dyer later travelled to Washington, D.C. to record sessions of 30th Congress as its first shorthand reporter. He was a strong supporter of the abolitionist movement and often had disagreements with then Congressman Horace Greeley. Dyer studied law while living in Washington, but later chose to pursue a career in journalism instead.
By the early 1850s, Dyer was a full-time writer for a number of magazines and publications such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Ledger and The Sun. It was in the field of journalism that he gained his greatest fame. In 1852 as editor of the Musical World and Times, he hired Fanny Fern from Boston as the first woman to have her own newspaper column, to great success and rapid fame. The next year he helped her find a publisher for her first book, which became a major bestseller in its first year. She was such a success that by 1855 she was the highest-paid newspaper writer in the nation.