Thomas Dyer (January 13, 1805June 6, 1862) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1856–1857) for the Democratic Party. He also served as the founding president of the Chicago Board of Trade. Biography Thomas Dyer was born in Canton, Connecticut on January 13, 1805. He was a meat-packing partner of former mayor John Putnam Chapin, who was one of Chicago's first meat packers. Chapin built a slaughterhouse on the South Branch of the Chicago River in 1844. Running as a "pro-Nebraska" Democrat (aligned with Stephen A. Douglas, who publicly backed his candidacy), Dyer won the contentious 1856 Chicago mayoral election, defeating former mayor Francis Cornwall Sherman (who ran as an anti-Nebraska candidate). He died in Middletown, Connecticut on June 6, 1862, and was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. References External links Inaugural Address Biography of Mayor Dyer at Chicago Public Library site 1805 births 1862 deaths Mayors of Chicago 19th-century American politicians Meat industry Meat processing in the United States Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago)