BIOGRAPHY: Thomas Thornburg WIERMAN, Mifflin County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Frank Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://files.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/ http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/1picts/runk1897/runk-bios.htm __________________________________________________________________________ The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 434-436. __________________________________________________________________________ THOMAS THORNBURG WIERMAN, civil engineer, for fifty years prominently engaged in developing the internal improvements and transportation facilities of the State, principally along the Susquehanna and Juniata river valleys was born in Menallen township, Adams county, Pa., May 13, 1813. He was a direct descendant of Dr. William Wierman and Gertrude Sateman, his wife, who came to this country from Holland in the latter part of the seventeenth century, settling at Germantown, near Philadelphia; they belonged to the Society of Friends. On his maternal side, he was of good old English Quaker stock. His father was Isaac Wierman, and mother Susanna Comly Wierman. Their estate of some 250 acres included a flouring and saw-mill located seven miles north of Gettysburg, near Arendtsville, in Adams county, among one of the numerous Quaker settlements in that section of the State, their place of worship being the Menallen meeting-house near by, on property granted to the Society of Friends by William Penn. Thomas T. Wierman was the only son; he and two sisters, Sarah and Hannah, constituted the entire family. They were brought up under the influence of Quaker parents of strict moral and religious faith, whose marked characteristics were love of the truth, sobriety, industry, economy, integrity and peace. These qualities developed in this State that notable citizenship which has so marked the progress and prosperity of this great commonwealth, and whose influence we trust will ever be felt by future generations. Mr. Wierman, as a boy, attended in the winter months the local schools in the neighborhood, working on the farm in the mornings and evenings, and all day long in the summer months; later attending the private school of Judge McLean, at Gettysburg, and Amos Gilbert, at Strasburg, Lancaster county. Thus equipped with the best education his section of the State afforded in the early thirties, he spent the winter months for two or three years in teaching school, passing the summer season in farming at home. Interested in the development of the internal improvements of the State then in prosecution, he succeeded in 1836, through the favor of the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, canal commissioner, in obtaining an appointment, and began his professional career as a rodman on the State Survey for the North Branch canal from Wilkes-Barre to the New York State line, under James D. Harris, chief engineer. By untiring energy, inflexible integrity, and close application to his duties, coupled with constant study in the line of his chosen profession, he won the confidence and esteem of his superior officers and associates, and soon established a reputation as an able and energetic engineer, which increased throughout his long and busy career. On September 22, 1845, Governor Francis R. Shunk wrote the following: "Thomas T. Wierman, of Pennsylvania, is most favorably known as an engineer employed in the construction of the public works of this (Pennsylvania) State, in which he was engaged for a number of years. He is correct in his habits, sound in his morals, shrewd, intelligent, industrious and energetic. The reputation he has acquired here commends him strongly to those who require services in the line of his profession." From his appointment in 1836, above named, he was constantly employed by the State until the appropriations were cut off by the legislature in 1842. Between 1836-1838, he was engaged directly under James D. Harris, chief engineer, in locating and making estimates for the proposed canal from Wilkes-Barre to the New York state line; 1838-1840, in surveys near Philadelphia to avoid the Incline Plane on the State railroad, as assistant to Chief Engineer A. B. Warford; from 1840, he was employed on the repairs and improvements of the State canals from Harrisburg to Wilkes- Barre, and was stationed at Northumberland, until 1842, when, State appropriations being withheld, the work stopped. Mr. Wierman then repaired to his father's farm in Adams county and took up the business of raising and selling fruit trees, which he carried on until 1846, when he was re-employed the State as agent to stake out and superintend the construction of the eastern reservoir of the canal near Hollidaysburg. After the completion of the same he entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, then constructing its line between Harrisburg and Pittsburg paralleling the State work. Between 1847-1850, he was employed as assistant engineer, later as one of the principal assistant engineers, under the direction of J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer, on the construction of the line between Harrisburg and Huntingdon, the greater portion of the time with headquarters at Duncan's Island. In the fall of 1849, he moved to Lewistown and was until the summer of 1850 in charge of the track-laying to Huntingdon. In 1850, he resigned, to accept a similar position, that of principal assistant engineer, under the State, to construct the North ranch canal, upon surveys which he had been engaged fourteen years before. This work was conducted by him in an able manner, being completed in 1853, and led to his being chosen chief engineer of the Chemung canal, a line of twenty miles in length connecting the North Branch canal from New York State line to Elmira, N. Y. This work he completed in 1855, when he resigned from the employ of the State for the last time, to accept the chief engineership of the Barclay Railroad and Coal Company, organized to build a line of railroad including planes from Towanda, Bradford county, Pa., running southwest to open out and develop coal properties. He remained there two years, until 1857, when he was for short period engaged as engineer on the Brooklyn Water Supply, conducting topographical surveys on Long Island. From that place, later in 1857, he went to Huntingdon, Pa., as superintendent of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad. When the main line of the State canal was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1858, Mr. Wierman again entered the service of that company, becoming resident engineer of the canal department with headquarters at Harrisburg. Later the organization was separated from the railroad company, becoming the Pennsylvania Canal Company, and embracing some 250 miles of inland water navigation. The North and West Branch (Susquehanna river) canals were subsequently acquired by the Pennsylvania Canal Company. This gave Mr. Wierman as chief engineer and manager, a wide field of operation. His twenty years of varied experience as an engineer above enumerated, thoroughly equipped him for the numerous duties is responsible positions demanded, and for nearly thirty years he administered the affairs of the Pennsylvania Canal Company entrusted to him in a manner highly favorable to its interests, and with equal satisfaction to the business world its territory embraced until death claimed him in 1887. His official positions brought him in contact with a large acquaintance throughout the central districts of the State, principally between Harrisburg and Hollidaysburg, along the Juniata river valley, and between the first-named city and Lock Haven and Wilkes-Barre, along the Susquehanna river valleys. In the territory as above described, from the almost isolated hamlet to the thriving town and city, his name is well known and his personality is remembered by many friends and acquaintances who survive him at this period (1897). His sense of justice was so keen that no one ever feared to leave to his decision the determination of what was right; and he carried this high rectitude into all the details of life. When first employed by the State on the North Branch survey, Mr. Wierman, while a resident of Towanda, met Miss Emilie Victorine Piollet, daughter of Joseph Marie Piollet, of Wysox, but originally of France. The acquaintance resulted in their marriage, on January 30, 1840. Five children survive them: Thomas T. Wierman, Jr., chief engineer, Pennsylvania Canal Company; Victor Wierman, superintendent Lewistown division, Pennsylvania Railroad Company; Theresa E. wife of Rev. Dr. S. S. Mitchell, of Buffalo, N. Y.; Sue Marie, wife of Theodore N. Ely, chief of motive power, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Philadelphia; and Miss Sarah Wierman, Harrisburg. Emilie V. Piollet (Mrs. T. T. Wierman), was born at Wysox, Bradford, county, Pa., in 1817. Her father, when scarcely past his boyhood, served as lieutenant of artillery under Napoleon, and was wounded in the battle of Marengo. He was afterwards connected with the banking house of Talleyrand, in Paris, and came to the north of Pennsylvania as the representative of certain French capitalists in the real estate transactions. He married Elizabeth Whitney, of Massachusetts. Their children were: Victor E.; Joseph E; Theresa; Emilie Victorine (Mrs. Wierman); and Elizabeth. Mrs. Wierman possessed a strong character and decided convictions; united with a sympathetic and benevolent nature. From the year 1859, she was a member of the Pine Street Presbyterian church, at Harrisburg, and was deeply interested in its work. She took part in founding the Home for the Friendless, besides lending her aid to many similar institutions. The memory of her many beneficent deeds, of her private charities as well as these more public actions, will long be cherished. Her death occurred very suddenly, at her in Harrisburg, without apparent pain or distress, on the day after her return from a visit to her son, Victor Wierman, in Lewistown, Pa. During that visit, on the Sunday previous to her death, she attended services at the Presbyterian church in Lewistown, which she had frequented during her residence in that place nearly fifty years before, early in her married life. Mr. Wierman died August 2, 1887, and his wife March 3, 1897. Both are interred in the beautiful cemetery at Harrisburg, located on the bluff east of the city, facing the Susquehanna river, along whose banks almost their entire lives had been spent. A Harrisburg newspaper, August 7, 1887, in speaking of him said: "The death of Thomas T. Wierman removes from the field of action one who was interested, almost from their infancy, the public improvements in this State; and by his industry and efficiency as a civil engineer, with his great executive ability, has added largely to the development and prosperity of his native State. He was a man of the strictest probity, cultured and companionable when among friends, and never harsh; and attached to the enjoyment of his happy home life. He was affable to his employees, though demanding of them that honest attention to duty which so markedly characterized him. By reasonable frugality he amassed a considerable fortune, and was fond of recounting how, having at an early age saved $100, it was stolen from him by a thief while passing through a crowd near the Jones House in this city; it taking his "all" necessitated his footing it home thirty-four miles to his father's house, near Gettysburg.