BIOGRAPHY: Victor WIERMAN, Mifflin County, PA 

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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 433-434.
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  VICTOR WIERMAN, civil engineer, Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., 
superintendent Lewistown division, Pennsylvania railroad, is the son of 
Thomas T. Wierman, an eminent civil engineer for thirty years chief engineer 
of the Pennsylvania Canal Company, and Emilie Victorien Piolett Wierman. He 
was born at Towanda, Bradford county, Pa., December 20, 1855. His parents 
moved from there to Huntingdon in 1857, and from there to Harrisburg, in 
April, 1859. Mr. Wierman's early education was obtained in the private 
schools of Miss Sue Wilson and later of Professor Haus. In 1868, he entered 
the Harrisburg Academy, presided over by Prof. Jacob F. Seiler, which 
institution he regularly attended until entering Lafayette College, in the 
Pardee Scientific School, in September, 1872, graduating from that 
institution June 28, 1876. During his vacations, and in fact before entering 
college, he was frequently employed in the engineer corps of the 
Pennsylvania Canal Company, the capacity of axman, chainman and rodman. For 
two months during the summer of 1872 he was regularly employed as rodman on 
an engineer corps on the Bedford and Bridgeport railroad, under John Fulton, 
chief engineer, with headquarters at Bedford. After graduating Lafayette in 
the fall of 1876, he entered the service of the Pennsylvania Canal Company, 
at the chief engineer's office, Harrisburg. During the summer and fall of 
1877, he was constantly employed as transitman on right of way surveys, 
extending from Pittston along the Wyoming division of the canal as far south 
as Danville. In the winter of the same year in the chief engineer's office, 
Harrisburg; for a period in 1878 on topographical maps for the Pennsylvania 
State Geological Survey; also in the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
Company, looking up right of way data from the records in the Auditor 
General's office, Harrisburg. When the engineer corps of the canal company 
took the field in the summer of 1878, he again resumed his position as 
transitman. The party had reached a short distance above Harrisburg in the 
first week on November when Mr. Wierman was summoned to the office of 
General Manager Frank Thompson, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 
Philadelphia, and was gratified to learn that his application, made many 
months before, had been remembered. An appointment as assistant supervisor, 
division "B", New York division, was tendered him, which was promptly 
accepted, his service dating from November 14, 1878, with headquarters at 
New Brunswick, N. J., under James McCrea, superintendent, and immediately 
under E. F. Brooks, supervisor. On May 1, 1882, he was appointed supervisor 
of the same division, and was successful in the seasons of 1882, 1883, and 
1884, in carrying off the General Manager's first prize for the section of 
track between Pittsburg and Jersey City. December 8, 1884, he was appointed 
assistant engineer in charge of maintenance of way department of the West 
Pennsylvania division, with headquarters at Blairsville, Indiana county. 
January 25, 1886, he was transferred to a similar position on the main line 
of the Pittsburg division, with headquarters at Pittsburg. Mr. Wierman's 
experience on that important division was extended and varied, and included 
what is know at "the flood period" of 1889, when eight miles of the 
company's three and four track railroad, with bridge, buildings, roadbed and 
equipment, were entirely demolished and washed away by the breaking of the 
South Fork reservoir, May 31, 1889. Mr. Wierman and party were in the very 
teeth of the flood, being overtaken by that unprecedented besom of 
destruction when one mile east of Conemaugh station, endeavoring to open up 
communication with the east, which had been cut off earlier in the day by 
the high water and land slides. The party he accompanied, fifteen in all, 
were reported as "lost in the flood," notice to that effect appearing in the 
newspapers the morning after the disaster; but the entire party came out all 
right, though they had a narrow escape. He was employed day and night for 
two weeks in opening the road for traffic, and for the remainder of the 
summer was camping out in the flooded district, repairing the damage caused 
by the flood. October 8, 1894, he was appointed superintendent of the 
Bedford division, with headquarters at Bedford division, with headquarters 
at Bedford, and October 1, 1895, was transferred to his present position.
  On October 15, 1890, Mr. Wierman was married to Miss Agnes Metcalf, 
daughter of Orlando and Agnes McElroy Metcalf, at Colorado Springs, Col. Mr. 
and Mrs. Metcalf were originally of Pittsburg, Pa., and in 1893, took up 
their residence there again. Their first child, Agnes Victorine, born 
September 4, 1891, died February 14, 1892. Their only living child, Victor, 
was born July 13, 1896, at Lewiston, being the first male child bearing the 
family name born since his father's birth.