From the Steuben Library archives, dated 1885, author unknown:

In 1786, Capt. Henry Dyer and John Yeaton resided in Cape Elizabeth, near Portland; they followed the sea and worked on their farms.  As land was dear and lumber scarce, they concluded to move down east where land was plenty and lumber cheap.  Henry Dyer’s family consisted of five sons and seven daughters.  John Yeaton had three sons and three daughters.

In September of that year, these pioneers put all their goods and chattels, wives and children, on board of a small vessel and sailed east, following down the rock-bound shore of eastern Maine. They were strangers to the coast, but when they saw the big blue mountains of Mount Desert they knew very nearly where they were. They sailed on and made the island of Petit Manan [Bois Bubert Island], which stretched out so far into the sea they thought it not safe to go by so decided to make harbor.

Standing to the north they thought they saw a bay lying inside of a range of ledges that run across the mouth of it. This discovery was accidental; they ran in between these ledges and behold they saw a large smooth sheet of water protected from wind and wave by an eternal breastwork of granite ledges. Sailing up this bay five or six miles, they came near the head of the harbor; here they anchored for the night. They spent the next day prospecting the new country and were well pleased with its appearance. Here stood the towering pine, the oak, birch, beech, and maple with their wide-spread branches, their leaves just putting on their scarlet hues.  How beautiful the scene!  The primeval forest in all its original grandeur, the streams teeming with fish, and the woods literally alive with game. It was not strange that these pioneers were pleased with the prospect before them.  The next day they commenced building a log house.  In a few days the house was finished and all hands moved in.

Let us look upon the group as they sit around the spacious stone fireplace with its smooth granite hearthstone.  Suspended by a line hangs a dressed goose captured on the passage down. Before the hardwood fire two large cornmeal cakes are spread on pieces of barrel-heads.  The teakettle and teapot simmer in the corner.  Capt. Dyer relates some of his hairbreadth escapes when on the ocean.  They seem perfectly happy in their new home. John Yeaton married Capt. Dyer’s sister, so they might be called one family.

Capt. Dyer was the first man known to sail a vessel into that beautiful harbor; hence the name Dyer’s Bay.  It was a fortunate thing that Capt. Dyer and Mr. Yeaton settled in this part of the country.  They were honest and smart men, possessed of much energy and genius. Their descendents hold true to the lineage of the pioneers of Dyer’s Bay. The grandsons and great-grandsons may well be proud of their ancestry.  Henry Dyer has now living a large number of grandchildren.  They are a go-ahead family. This is a marked trait.  For example, take Ezekiel Dyer of Milbridge, the well-known shipbuilder, he never worked a day with anyone to learn a trade, yet he can take a vessel from the stump to do the work in the several parts and sail her when finished.  He has a large share of energy an ingenuity, proving that he is especially true to the Dyer and Yeaton lineage.  His sons too, are developing these traits to a remarkable degree.

Joseph Sawyer married Capt. Henry Dyer’s daughter in Portland before the captain moved east.  In the course of a few years Mr. Sawyer followed his father-in-law to Dyer’s Bay, and settled at the head of the bay, on the west side of the creek or brook.   Mr. Sawyer built a log-house on the bank of the brook, and raised up a family of five sons and seven daughters.  It may be worthy of note that the five sons held commissions in the militia.  Henry Sawyer and L.B. Sawyer held colonel’s commission.  L.B. commanded the first regiment in the second brigade and seventh division, and took an active part in the Aroostook war, –the most of the soldiers were drafted from the first regiment; hence the officers were selected from the several companies comprising the first regiment.

One of Joseph Sawyer’s daughters married Joshua Dyer, of Sullivan.  They had a large family of sons and daughters; some of these children still reside in Sullivan.  The sons went to California early in the gold mania.  Joshua Dyer’s family all partook largely of their predecessor’s energy and genius.  I think that Ephraim Dyer, Joshua Dyer’s father, was distantly related to Capt. Henry Dyer of Dyer’s Bay.  The monument in a small family cemetery on the 100 acre lot of Ephraim Dyer in East Sullivan, are engraved the names of Ephraim Dyer a soldier in the Revolution, died July 6, 1833, aged 75.  Hannah, his wife, died April 10, 1840, age 77.  Joshua Dyer, died January 1, 1865, age 82.  Sally Amer, his wife died 1808.  Betsy his second wife, died February 23, 1831, age 41.  If any of the Herald correspondents have anything to add or correct in the foregoing sketch, I should be pleased to hear from them through the columns of this journal.  The facts are mostly taken from records and diaries of the Dyer and Sawyer families.  There might be much said in praise of Capt. Henry Dyer’s own family, but the writer is fearful of trying the editor’s patience.

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Steuben, Jan. 23, 1885.