David Patterson Dyer, from Union Army Colonel to Republican Congressman and Federal Judge
Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute David Patterson Dyer, born February 12th 1838. Outbreak of civil war, this young attorney enlisted with the 49th Missouri Volunteers. Battlefield success merited promotion to Colonel. Dyer won two terms in the state house and was delegate for the 1868 Republican National Convention. There followed a term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Banning the Ku Klux Klan received his vote. President Ulysses Grant named him federal prosecutor. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him federal judge. His nephew, Leonidas Dyer, became a Republican Congressman and anti-lynching activist. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see...