Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Bierer, Everhart January 9, 1827 - ????
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Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 138
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley
Colonel Everhart Bierer, who won distinction as an
officer on the field battle and later in the forum as a
lawyer, is now successfully engaged in the practice of his
profession at Hiawatha, Kansas.
He is a son of Everhart Bierer and Catherine Margaretta
Bierer and was born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, January 9,
1827. He received a good education at the private schools
and at Madison College in his native town. Leaving college
in 1845 he commenced the study of the law in the office of
Joshua B Howell, Esq, (afterwards colonel of the Eighty
fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers who was killed by a fall of
his horse before Richmond, Virginia, in 1864), and was
admitted to the bar March, 1848. After two years in
traveling through the west and in some desultory literary
and educational work, he returned to his native town and
entered upon the practice of his profession.
In October, 1850, he was elected the first district
attorney of Fayette county, the office having been
previously appointive. He performed the duties of the
office during the term of three years and successfully
continued the practice of his profession until April 23,
1861, when he left his office and raised the first company
of Volunteers in Fayette county in the war for the Union.
His company afterwards became Company F of the Eleventh
Regiment Pennsylvania Reserved Corps; he continued in
command of it until September 14, 1862. He served mostly in
the Army of the Potomac, and was in the battles of
Drainesville, Mechanicsville, and Gaines Hill or Cold Harbor
before Richmond where he was surrounded and captured with
his command June 27, 1862. With his company he made, it is
believed, the last desperate resistance on that bloody
field. He and the survivors were taken to Libby Prison and
Belle Island from which they were released by exchange
August 14, 1862.
Six days afterward he returned to Washington where he
was granted, by Secretary Stanton, a twenty days' leave of
absence on account of ill health and went home; but learning
by telegram of the impending battle of Second Bull Run, he
returned to the army and joined his command on the day of
the last battle, August 30, 1862. He was also in the battle
of South Mountain, September 14, 1862, where he was severely
wounded in the left arm, the ball fracturing the arm and
passing through the elbow joint and lodging there from which
it was not extracted until November 25th following.
Having become convalescent on October 24, 1862, he was
appointed commandant of Camp Curtin at Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, with the rank of colonel where he organized
the One Hundred and Seventy first, One Hundred and Seventy
second, One Hundred and Seventy third, One Hundred Seventy
sixth, One Hundred Seventy seventh and One Hundred Seventy
eighth regiments of infantry; on November 18, 1862, was
commissioned colonel of the One Hundred Seventy first.
After service in southeastern Virginia with headquarters
at Suffolk, his regiment was ordered to New Berne, North
Carolina, marching overland to Ballard's Landing on the
Chowan river, there taking shipping. From there he was
engaged in several expeditions and several skirmishes in the
interior of that State. Subsequently he was ordered to
Washington, North Carolina, on the Pamlico river, in April,
1863. In the months of May and June he was in command of
the Military District of the Pamlico and part of the time in
command of General Henry Prince's division, Eighteenth Army
Corps.
He was in an engagement at Blount's Creek near
Washington, North Carolina, April 7, 1863, commanding a
brigade under General F B Spinola, now a member of Congress
from Brooklyn, New York. Spinola's forces were obliged to
retire before superior numbers under rebel General Hill. To
Colonel Bierer was assigned the command of the rear guard,
the enemy following in heavy force. The duty was critical.
Spending the entire night in the midst of intense darkness
through pine forest and cypress swamps, the march was
conducted. He finally succeeded in bringing off the column
with the train, artillery and all the wounded.
July 1, 1863, Colonel Bierer returned with his regiment
to Virginia, going with General Dix on his expedition to
Richmond, while Lee with the Rebel army was in Pennsylvania.
The expedition marched from White House landing on the
Pamunkey river to within eight or ten miles of Richmond,
destined as it was then supposed, for an attack upon the
rebel capitol. Dix had a large force and the rebel force
around Richmond was small. After some skirmishing with the
Rebels, Dix ordered the expedition to return to Fortress
Monroe, much to the surprise and disappointment of colonel
Bierer and many other officers.
Colonel Bierer with his regiment went on to Washington
and thence to Boonsville, Maryland, via Harper's Ferry where
he joined General Meade, and on the 7th of July was given a
brigade command and afterwards assigned to duty as commander
of Western Maryland with headquarters at Frederick City.
September 26, 1843, he was mustered out; the regiment's term
of service having expired. During the winter of 1863 and
1864, Colonel Bierer served in the Veteran Reserve Corps,
but in March, 1864, on account of illness and suffering from
his wound, resigned. October, 1865, after the close of the
war, he migrated with his family to Kansas. Settling on a
beautiful farm one mile east of Hiawatha in Brown county,
resuming the practice of law.
April 8, 1852, at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, he married
Ellen Smouse, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Smouse, a
lady of extensive family connections in Alleghany county,
Maryland, and in Somerset and Bedford counties,
Pennsylvania.
They have eight children, all living: the eldest,
Everhard Bierer, graduated from Kansas University at
Lawrence, in the class of 1877 and has been for nearly eight
years engaged in various departments in Washington, District
of Columbia, now on the Board of Re-review in the Pension
Bureau.
One son, Andrew G Curtin Bierer, is engaged in the
practice of law at Garden City, Kansas. The youngest son,
Bion B Bierer, is a cadet at the United States Naval
Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. The others are engaged in
mercantile pursuits and farming.
The Colonel was originally a democrat, and as the
nominee of that party, he was elected district attorney of
Fayette county in 1850. His opposition to the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise and the extension of slavery, caused him
to support Fremont for president in 1856. In 1860 and 1864
he supported Lincoln and in the latter campaign he was
elected one of the electors of Pennsylvania. In 1867 he was
elected representative from Brown county, Kansas, to the
legislature of Kansas.
In 1868 he supported Grant for president but with
considerable misgivings on account of the financial policy
and the reconstruction measures of the republican party
which he bitterly opposed. He was thoroughly disgusted with
the carpet bag policy at the South, and with the
administration of Grant generally; and believing as he did
that the republican party had abandoned its early principles
and was no longer the party of 1856 and the war; he with
such men as Seward, Chase, Curtin, Sumner, Fessenden,
Trumbull, Julian, Palmer, and nearly all the old founders of
the republican party supported Greeley for the presidency,
in opposition to Grant in 1872. Colonel Bierer has
supported all the democratic nominees for the presidency
since.
He became a member of Fort Necessity Lodge, No 254,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Uniontown in February,
1852; subsequently he joined the Encampment branch, has been
district deputy grand master and district deputy grand
patriarch of the order in Fayette county, and member of the
Grand Lodge and Grand Encampment of Pennsylvania. He also
became a Mason at Uniontown, and is versed in all the
mysteries of the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Commandery
and historical degrees of Masonry.
Colonel Bierer has been all his life a careful student
of the Bible, and is well acquainted with the other
religious systems of the world, especially Buddhism,
Mohammedanism, and Confucianism. He believes in inspiration
of the moral and religious teachings of the Bible, the
divine Sonship of Jesus and the efficacy of His life and
teachings for the purpose of redemption; but he does not
believe in the doctrines of the Trinity, vicarious sacrifice
and eternal punishment. He accepts a salvation by conduct
as well as belief, and includes all in the family of the
Universal Father who act according to their highest
conceptions of life, right and duty, whatever may be their
creed or religious belief.
Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.
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