Elisha Dyer

Elisha Dyer III (October 23, 1862 – June 2, 1917) was an American socialite prominent in Newport and New York society during the Gilded Age.

Early life Dyer was born on October 23, 1862, in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents were Rhode Island Governor Elisha Dyer Jr. (1839–1906) and Nancy Anthony (née Viall) Dyer (1843–1920), who was the daughter of William Viall and Mary Brayton Anthony. Together, they were the parents of his siblings including George Rathbone Dyer, who died young; Brig. Gen. George Rathbone Dyer, who married Grace Gurnee Scott; and Hezekiah Anthony Dyer, who married Charlotte Osgood Tilden. He worked as a broker with Ulman & Co. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom. Dyer, a renowned dancer and cotillion leader, was known as "one of the most popular men in the Newport Summer colony" and was an undisputed leader of society. the daughter of Sidney (née Patterson) Turner and William Fauntleroy Turner. Sidney was also the grand-niece of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and a great-granddaughter of a Baltimore merchant William Patterson. They did not have any children together, however, he was the stepfather of his wife's daughter from a previous marriage (to Donnell Swan), Laura Patterson Swan, who married Andrew Robeson in 1913.

Upon his father's death in 1906, he and his siblings inherited $250 each with the remainder of the estate, valued at about $250,000, left to his mother. His father left $5,000 to Miss Francis E. Kinnicutt, his private secretary. He was interred in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence. In November 1917, his widow sold their five-story residence at 37 West 56th Street in New York City. After his widow's death in 1933, the estate (valued in excess of $1,000,000) was left to Sidney's granddaughter, Lauretta Patterson Robeson.