Looking Back: Memories of Tyer Road

 by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 

     I grew up in a much smaller Grain Valley when four school buses delivered everyone to and from school. By the time I reached high school the buses each had two routes. There was a longer route for kids in “the country” and a shorter route of maybe 5 or 6 miles for the kids that lived closer to town.
     Tyer Road was on one of the short bus routes that traveled from the school, turned west on RD Mize to Brizendine Road where it turned around and headed back east to Tyer Road. The bus turned north on Tyer to Duncan, west on Duncan to Porter Road where the bus would again turn around and head back to school. 
     In all, the bus drove past only about 15 houses. Back in the early 1950s, only three of them were on Tyer Road between RD Mize Road and Duncan Road if you didn’t count the Shrout House on the northwest corner of Mize and Tyer. 
     The Officer Family lived in the first house, (opposite of where the water tower is today)  The bus picked up Linda Corne  at the “Old Tyer Place” at the curve in the road and further down toward Duncan was Vickie Brown’s house. I really don’t remember her family but I think she had brothers.  They didn’t live there very long.
     Luther Tyer’s parents were John Wilson Tyer (1839-1919) and Amanda Isabel George (1847-1879).  They owned farmland with a post office address of Napoleon and Mr. Tyer was an officer at the Bank of Buckner. Amanda’s parents were David C. and Nancy George of Oak Grove.
      Luther Wilson Tyer (1873-1945) was living at Lake City, Missouri in December of 1896 when he married Paulina Agnes Dalton (1874-1952). “Lina” was the daughter of Lucy (1842-1931) and Reverend James G. Dalton (1824-1910) who served as the pastor at Lobb Cumberland Presbyterian Church for over 50 years. 
     Many members of the Dalton and Tyer families are buried in the Lobb Cemetery on the west side of  Missouri Highway 7. At Strode Road go West ½ mile to Lobb Cemetery Road and then North ½ mile to the cemetery.
     According to the U.S. Census of 1910, Luther Tyer, his wife Lina and their infant son, Dalton Luther Tyer lived in Sni-A-Bar Township northwest of Grain Valley. Luther was a farmer and later a WPA carpenter.  After Luther’s death in 1945 his wife moved to Chicago to live with their only son, Dalton.
     He was a teacher in the Chicago area for a number of years before his retirement in California. The Tyer house and land was first sold to a family named Shepard.  Glen and Willa Belle Corne bought the house and land in 1953. 
     Take a drive down Tyer Road. While a couple of the old houses are gone, the Tyer house is still there.  It would appear that much of the farm land has been divided into 5 to 10-acre plots with more than 10 newer and much larger homes along the route.  And that is all on the mile of Tyer Road before you reach Duncan Road!