BIO:  Joseph WIERMAN, Huntington Township, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 465-466

JOSEPH WIERMAN (deceased) was born January 13, 1795, a son of Nicholas and Lydia 
(Griest) Wierman, and died December 11, 1871.  He owned and operated the old 
mill, and was also a farmer.  He married May 4, 1826, Susan Wierman, who was 
born October 13, 1805, and died May 7, 1848.  They had nine children:  Alfred 
A., Adaliza S., Theodore N., John W., Mary E., Martha M., Joseph E., Henry H. 
and Lydia J.  John W. Wierman, one of the above family, was born May 4, 1832, 
and was reared to and learned the milling business at the old stand of his 
father.  At the age of twenty-seven he went West, and worked at the milling 
business near Sterling, Ill., for two years.  At the outbreak of the Rebellion 
he returned home, and in August, 1862, enlisted in Company C, Fifteenth Regiment 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, for three years.  The regiment was mustered in 
at Carlisle and recruited as a body-guard for Gen. Beull, but as he was 
superseded, they were sent to Louisville, Ky.  There the regiment was equipped 
and sent to Nashville, Tenn., as escort or body guard for Gen. Rosecrans.  Their 
first engagement was at the battle of Stone River, where they suffered severely.  
For meritorious conduct while on a scout, Mr. Wierman was made first duty 
sergeant and served in that capacity until mustered out June 11, 1865.  He took 
part in the battles of Chickamauga, Strawberry Plains, siege of Knoxville, and 
was on a scout through Mississippi and Alabama; captured two pontoon trains of 
Gen. Hood and wagon trains, burning them all.  In the spring of 1865 he started 
from Knoxville, Tenn., to meet Sherman on his march, and engaged in an 
expedition to destroy the rebels’ railroads.  He, with a detachment, was sent on 
this errand, and while in the rear guard was taken sick, and stopped in a house 
to rest with a comrade.  In the night the house was surrounded by rebels, and 
they were captured and detained at Statesville, N. C., until the close of the 
war, which lasted only three weeks longer.  Besides the engagement mentioned, 
Mr. Wierman was in innumerable scouting expeditions.  He returned home after the 
war, and in 1866 rented his father’s mill.  In 1877, on the death of his father, 
he succeeded him in the business, and in 1880 became its owner by purchase.  He 
was married in 1877, to Nannie E. Myers, who was born May 27, 1850, a daughter 
of Cornelius and Lovina (Brough) Myers.  They have one child, Maud L., born May 
4, 1881.  Mr. Wierman is a Republican, and has served in various local offices, 
as school director, etc.  He is a member of the Society of Friends; Mrs. Wierman 
is a Lutheran.