John Jacob Trier was born in 1838, fought in the Civil War, and was last heard of somewhere in Europe during World War I. He led an unsettled life but was the subject of some candid and piercing portraits, of the man and of his household.
Let's situate John Jacob Trier in the family tree. My grandmother Helen Greenock Jackson's mother was Flora Rebman Greenock. Her mother was Sarah Trier Rebman. John Jacob Trier was her brother, and therefore my third great uncle.
Three months later we find him in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, already hanging out with the wrong crowd and involved in his first court case. In this one, at least, he's just a witness.
Commonwealth vs Suter
Lewis Suter was charged with malicious mischief, specifically for poisoning five of Emanuel Shober's horses September 17, 1860. Trier was a witness for the prosecution. In an edition of the paper that also covered bloody riots in Baltimore, the defense of Fort Sumter, and state-by-state succession movements, the Lancaster Examiner and Herald covered the trial on April 24, 1861.
Civil War
The next we know of Trier, he had enlisted in the Pennsylvania 122nd Infantry, a volunteer regiment organized in Lancaster. Later records indicate that Trier enlisted on August 11, 1862, and served until May 15, 1863. This was the entire nine-month life of the regiment. He was a corporal in Company C.
This regiment saw duty including the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, and the Chancellorsville campaign in May 1863. Records indicate that the regiment lost 16 men in battle, and another 50 to disease. For context, a regiment is nominally 1,000 men during this period, but likely much smaller in reality. Given that, the losses seem light by Civil War standards.
In June 1863 Trier registered for the draft as an unmarried 23-year-old coachmaker in Lampeter, Pennsylvania. The registration notes his prior service in the 122nd, and that he claims an exemption. Some claims of exemptions give a reason but this one doesn't, and it appears that most other veterans of the 122nd do not claim an exemption.
Incidentally, a couple of pages earlier in the registration book is Jack Turner, 22, "colored", currently serving in the 54th Massachusetts.
It's not clear whether Trier spent any more time in the Army; as we'll see later on, he told several other stories.
First Marriage
Somewhere around 1863, Trier married 18-year-old Anna Mary Parmer in Pennsylvania. They had three children: Harry (1864-1907), Anna (1867-1952), and Barbara (1870-1959). All three children appear to have been born in Pennsylvania, but in 1866 the family was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to a city directory, Jacob Trier was a shoemaker living on Cedar St.
Commonwealth vs Jacob Trier
By 1869 the couple was living in Pennsylvania again, and Trier was in legal trouble. The following appeared in the Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) on April 21, 1870. It is again a lurid story, and this one includes graphic descriptions of domestic violence.
Second Marriage
By 1873 Trier was in Iowa, and on April 16 he married Mary Lorena Ames in the town of Delhi. A year later, we see that Trier hadn't changed his ways: The Davenport, Iowa Morning Democrat had the following item on April 22, 1874:
Divorce
In September 1879 Trier was divorced. Not from Mary Ames, the wife with whom he then lived in Iowa, but from Anna Parmer, the wife still living in Pennsylvania. It looks like Trier had jumped the gun a bit when he got re-married six years earlier. The following legal notice appeared in the Lancaster Examiner on October 1st, and then again on October 8th:
Anna would go on to marry Dayton Froelich in 1880, and had four additional children.
In the 1880 census the second Trier family was living in Shopiere, Wisconsin. Jacob and Mary have three children: John (1874-1942), Kate (1875-1962), and Matilda (1879-1952). According to documents below there were five other children, three of whom died young.
Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire, but apparently a Special Schedule of that census that recorded Civil War veterans survived, or at least Trier's entry did. This was taken in Kendall, Wisconsin, and Trier reported his rank as corporal, but he reported his enlistment as running from Spring 1861 to September 1, 1863, for a total of two years and one month. The discharge date isn't far off, but since the 122nd wasn't formed until August of 1862, it's hard to reconcile that enlistment date.
On August 9, 1892, Mary Ames Trier died at the age of 39. Exactly a week later, the following appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette:
Name Veteran: Trier, John Jacob
Residence: Coggon, Iowa only from Mar. to Aug 1892.
Date Birth: July 2, 1838 Place: Buffalo, NY
Date Death: Unknown Place: probably some place in Europe
Places of Residence: Lancaster, PA until his divorce in 1871 - then Chicago, Ill. and many parts of Ill. Wis. and Iowa. North Eastern Missouri a short time.
Occupation: Carpenter, wagon maker and painter.
We were small children when our mother died. He left us with our mother's people in Iowa. None of us had any of his papers.
War Service: Enlisted: (blank) 1861 as 1st Lieut Residing Lancaster Co., PA
Regiment: 22d State: Pennsylvania Infantry or Cavalry
Re-enlistment: Wounded 2d Battle Bull Run August 1862
Member in G.A.R. Posts: Nos: 457 Located Coggon July 9, 1892 Discharged May 27, 1893
Father: Jacob Trier Place Birth: Somewhere in Germany in 1808
Was Father Civil War Veteran: No
Mother: Maria Elizabeth Schweiger Place Birth: Old-Hornbach, Bayern, Germany Nov 14, 1811
Married Buffalo, NY Dec 19, 1836
Brothers in Civil War (With Co. & Regiment): None
I don't know the maiden name of the first wife -- there were four children -- two still living in Penn. Divorced while they were very young.
Second Wife: Mary Ames Trier Date & Place Birth: (illegible) N.Y Apr 3, 1853
Date & Place Marriage: Delhi, Iowa Apr 16, 1873 Date Death: Aug 9, 1892 Coggon, IA
Children (with addresses of those living):
Signature: Mrs. Kate Trier Dolley
It's not quite fair to say that none of his brothers were in the Civil War -- his next-older brother Charles was, in fact, a musician.
After 1892 we have no documents related to Jacob Trier; the only hints about the rest of his life come from his daughter's report he went first to Chicago, and then that they heard from him in Denmark some 25 years later during World War I. He would have been around 75 at the time.
We have an unusually candid perspective on Trier and his life, but inevitably that's because he was a profoundly troubled human being who left a trail of harm.
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| John Jacob and Mary Lorena (Ames) Trier. Probably taken around 1878. |
Nancy Quaid had this to say about him:
Jake left home when he was very young and only came home to visit for a short time now then when he was broke. Buzzie (Adolph Rebman, John Jacob Trier's nephew) didn't know if he ever married.The 1860 census, taken June 1st, finds Trier still living with his family in Northfield, Illinois. He is a 21-year-old middle child with 10 siblings, in a deeply religious household.
Three months later we find him in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, already hanging out with the wrong crowd and involved in his first court case. In this one, at least, he's just a witness.
Commonwealth vs Suter
Lewis Suter was charged with malicious mischief, specifically for poisoning five of Emanuel Shober's horses September 17, 1860. Trier was a witness for the prosecution. In an edition of the paper that also covered bloody riots in Baltimore, the defense of Fort Sumter, and state-by-state succession movements, the Lancaster Examiner and Herald covered the trial on April 24, 1861.
Jacob Trier, sworn. -- After October Court, short time, asked Suter what Shober would make out of suing him; Suter took box out of pocket and said Shober must be a fool if he thinks I can't get poison anywhere else; said he had enough there to, poison Shober and horses. On a Sunday, he took me up stairs and offered me a $10 note to set fire to Shober's stable; Suter told folks that he would like to see me.Later in the trial, character witnesses are lined up for and against Trier.
Cross-examination: Did not tell any man Shober was to give me $50 to testify; Shober offered me nothing; can't tell whether it was Oct, Nov or Dec; boarded there since complaint was made; didn't tell Mr. Strauss that I would make a nice thing of it.
Sampson Resh, Michael Flinn, David E. Potts, Frederick Miller, Herman Strauss, John Swint, Augustus Strauss, Gotleib Swilky, Earnst Heilman and Philip Ginter were called, all testifying to the general bad reputation of Trier, saying they would not believe him on oath.And a little while later...
George Snyder, Jacob Harnish and Samuel Charles testified to the good character of Trier.That must have been hard for a young man to sit through in public, but I suppose you learn who your friends are. I've left out the heart of the case, but nonetheless I'm sure you're interested in hearing how it came out.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty, after being out but a short time. Suter's counsel made a motion for an arrest of judgement until reasons could be filed for a new trial. The Court, at the instance of the District Attorney, required the defendant to give additional bonds, in default of which he was sent to prison. The motion for an arrest of judgement was afterwards withdrawn. When Suter was called up for sentence, his counsel asked the Court, in view of the conflicting testimony given at the trial, to be lenient in its judgement; and further asked as a favor that the prisoner be sent to the Lancaster County Prison, where he would be able to hear more frequently from his large family of small children. The Court sentenced him to pay a fine of one dollar, pay the costs of prosecution, and, moreover, undergo an imprisonment in the Lancaster County Prison for a period of two years and six months. Suter wept loudly when brought into Court to receive sentence. He has been before Court regularly so long, and exhibited the same symptoms of penitence and contrition so often, that they occasion little attention or emotion amongst those accustomed to witness them. The highest penalty for the offense Suter has been convicted of is three years' imprisonment.As an aside, these trial reports are lurid, but great reading. In this terse summary you get vignettes of life as it was lived, plus the back-and-forth of the trial. They're a cross between Cops and Perry Mason, all through the eyes of an experienced courtroom observer with an eye for detail and a clear narrative voice.
Civil War
The next we know of Trier, he had enlisted in the Pennsylvania 122nd Infantry, a volunteer regiment organized in Lancaster. Later records indicate that Trier enlisted on August 11, 1862, and served until May 15, 1863. This was the entire nine-month life of the regiment. He was a corporal in Company C.
This regiment saw duty including the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, and the Chancellorsville campaign in May 1863. Records indicate that the regiment lost 16 men in battle, and another 50 to disease. For context, a regiment is nominally 1,000 men during this period, but likely much smaller in reality. Given that, the losses seem light by Civil War standards.
In June 1863 Trier registered for the draft as an unmarried 23-year-old coachmaker in Lampeter, Pennsylvania. The registration notes his prior service in the 122nd, and that he claims an exemption. Some claims of exemptions give a reason but this one doesn't, and it appears that most other veterans of the 122nd do not claim an exemption.
Incidentally, a couple of pages earlier in the registration book is Jack Turner, 22, "colored", currently serving in the 54th Massachusetts.
It's not clear whether Trier spent any more time in the Army; as we'll see later on, he told several other stories.
First Marriage
Somewhere around 1863, Trier married 18-year-old Anna Mary Parmer in Pennsylvania. They had three children: Harry (1864-1907), Anna (1867-1952), and Barbara (1870-1959). All three children appear to have been born in Pennsylvania, but in 1866 the family was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to a city directory, Jacob Trier was a shoemaker living on Cedar St.
Commonwealth vs Jacob Trier
By 1869 the couple was living in Pennsylvania again, and Trier was in legal trouble. The following appeared in the Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) on April 21, 1870. It is again a lurid story, and this one includes graphic descriptions of domestic violence.
Commonwealth vs Jacob Trier, indicted for assault and battery on his wife Elizabeth Trier [Should be Anna], on Sunday morning, July 18, 1869, at their home in Safe Harbor, this county. The testimony of the wife, who is a good looking, delicately formed, plainly dressed woman of about 25, was to the effect, that on the day above stated she told her husband, that the children were very ragged, and that he ought to get them some clothes. He replied that he could not afford to get them any; when she answered that he got other things that cost more money than clothing, and were not so much needed about the house. Whereupon with oaths and abusive language he caught her by the throat, struck her, and threw her out of the house. When she ventured in again, he caught her roughly by the arm, and seizing his shoemaker's strap, whipped her unmercifully over the back and shoulders. She was enciente [pregnant] at the time. On another occasion he drove her out into the street when she had a baby three weeks old. He had often whipped her and otherwise abused her before, but she was afraid to bring suit as long as she lived with him, for fear he would either kill her or her children, as he had frequently threatened to do. She now lives with her father, Mr. Palmer [actually Parmer], in East Lampeter township. On cross-examination, Mr. Davis, counsel for the husband, intimated that whatever bad treatment she had received, was the result of conjugal infidelity. With unfeigned astonishment, indignation, and tears, the witness repelled the charge and hoped that she might be stricken-dead on the witness stand, if she had ever been anything but a true and virtuous wife to her husband. The husband offered no testimony, and without leaving the box, the jury rendered a verdict of guilty.The Lancaster Examiner had a succinct summary of the same proceedings a few days later that helps understand the nature of Jacob Trier's statement:
A surety of the peace case, between the same parties, was next heard. Mrs. Trier testified that on the 5th of February last, her husband staid out very late at night; that she sat up for him a long time, but becoming drowsy, she finally went to bed and fell asleep. She soon afterwards heard her husband coming towards the house, and got up and let him in. He brought with him some things that her mother had sent her. He then fell to cursing her and her mother and upbraided her for loving her more than him; that she would do everything for her mother, but would not care for him if he was hanging by the neck. After much more abuse he took a lamp, went into the cellar, saying he might as well go to hell now as at any other time. He picked up an axe that was in the cellar, and as he was returning up stairs she ran across the street, believing he intended to kill her. Then, fearing he would kill the baby, that was in the bed, she returned to the front door and remonstrated and plead with him. Receiving no answer, she ventured in and saw him lying in the bed with the baby, the axe lying across his breast. She urged him to put it away, but he paid no attention to her except to lay it on the back part of the bed. He afterwards became reconciled to her on her promising to never to take her mother's part any more. He had frequently at other times abused and beaten and threatened to kill her, and she broughts [sic] these suits for fear that he would put his threats in execution.
The evidence of Mrs. Trier was given in a sad and tremulous voice, and evidently carried conviction of its truth to the judgement of all who heard it. At this point, the District Attorney stated that there were two other indictments against the prisoner -- one for larceny, and the other for desertion, and asked the Court to defer the sentence until these were heard. At the request of prisoner's counsel, the prisoner was permitted to make a statement to the Court. He is a rather good-looking man, thirty odd years of age, and spoke very intelligently, and with as much feeling and apparent truthfulness as his wife.
He said that it was with the profoundest grief and shame that he stood before the Court to make a statement of he wrongs that he had suffered, and the disgrace that had been brought upon him by his wife, who had been so false to him while he had been so true to her. He had married her about seven years ago, and for a year or two things had went well enough -- at least he thought so. But he soon found that other men had greater attractions for her than he had. To wean her from her sinful ways, he had removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but there she pursued the same disgraceful course of conduct; and finally when he was absent from the city at his usual work, she sold all his furniture, pocketed the money, and ran off with another man. He then removed to Summit county, Ohio, and after his wife had been absent from him fifteen months she wrote him a letter expressing repentance for her conduct, asking him to receive her back again, and promising fidelity to him forever hereafter. On account of his children and the great love he yet bore for her he concluded to take her back, and sent her money to pay her way to Summit county. She came to him all in rags, bringing with her a child but two months old, although she had been fifteen months absent. They left Ohio, and came to Safe Harbor, this county, where she resumed her evil practices, spent his earnings for liquor and tobacco for her own use, and neglected her family duties. On one occasion, when he came home at night he was locked out, and was only admitted after repeated thumping at the door, and as he entered, a strange man left the house through the back window, leaving his pantaloons behind him. He wanted to know whose they were, when his wife with much obscurity told him it was none of his business and that she intended to do with her own person just as she pleased. Enraged, he struck her with the shoe-maker strap. He was arrested, thrown in jail and has been waiting for months for his trial. What he has said is but a brief outline of the sufferings and wrongs he had endured at the hands of his wife.
Mrs. Trier listened with apparent amazement at the charges made against her by her husband, and the court, the bar and the spectators with open mouthed amazement to these two statements, so contradictory and yet both delivered with such apparent candor and truthfulness, by such honest looking and intelligent witnesses.
The court adjourned without further action until 9 o'clock this morning.
The defendant in cases of this kind being entitled to make a statement to the Court -- without the administration of an oath -- told his side of the story, which, if half of what he said was true, he was a greatly injured man, and his wife a degraded prostitute. As there are several other charges pending against the defendant, the Court suspended judgement for the present.On the following day (reported in the same edition of the paper) the court heard about some of Trier's less serious misdeeds:
In the case of the Commonwealth vs Jacob Trier, indicted for the larceny of a pair of pants and vest, the property of Emanuel Palmer [Parmer, his brother in law], the jury without leaving the box returned a verdict of not guilty, it appearing that the clothing had been loaned to Trier by the prosecutor, and he refused to return them.And on Saturday, the judgements were given.
Jacob Trier, convicted of assault and battery on his wife, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the county jail. In the case of the Surety of Peace in which his wife made complaint against him for making threats against her, he was ordered to give bail in the sum of $300 to keep the peace for 4 months.This was happening in April 1870. By the time of the 1870 census, taken in June, Trier was already back with the family in Northfield. Or was he? Most of the Trier children are listed in this household, although the older daughters (at least) have long since married and moved away, appearing in their own census entries elsewhere. Possibly the Trier parents didn't understand the instructions. If Trier was in Illinois, then it seems he got released early, or got credit for some of the time served before the trial.
Second Marriage
By 1873 Trier was in Iowa, and on April 16 he married Mary Lorena Ames in the town of Delhi. A year later, we see that Trier hadn't changed his ways: The Davenport, Iowa Morning Democrat had the following item on April 22, 1874:
John J. Trier, arrested for an assault on a woman, was discharged from custody on a writ of habeus corpus, Monday night. Judge Pleasants deciding that there was not sufficient evidence to hold him for trial. This clears Trier from an unpleasant charge.It's possible we know more of Trier's history than did Judge Pleasants, or he might have thought differently.
Divorce
In September 1879 Trier was divorced. Not from Mary Ames, the wife with whom he then lived in Iowa, but from Anna Parmer, the wife still living in Pennsylvania. It looks like Trier had jumped the gun a bit when he got re-married six years earlier. The following legal notice appeared in the Lancaster Examiner on October 1st, and then again on October 8th:
Divorce Notice
Anna Trier, by her next friend Daniel Parmer [her brother], vs. Jacob Trier
Alias Subpoena for Divorce.
September Term, 1879, No. 57.
To Jacob Trier: -- You are hereby notified and commanded to be and appear in your proper person before our Judges, at Lancaster, at the Court of Common Pleas to be held on MONDAY, the 20th day of OCTOBER, A.D. 1879, at 10 o'clock, a.m., to show cause, if any you have, why the said Anna Trier should not be divorced from the bonds of matrimony contracted with you.
JACOB S. STRINE, Sheriff.
Sheriff's Office, Lancaster, Sept 12, 1879.
Anna Trier, by her next friend Daniel Parmer [her brother], vs. Jacob Trier
Alias Subpoena for Divorce.
September Term, 1879, No. 57.
To Jacob Trier: -- You are hereby notified and commanded to be and appear in your proper person before our Judges, at Lancaster, at the Court of Common Pleas to be held on MONDAY, the 20th day of OCTOBER, A.D. 1879, at 10 o'clock, a.m., to show cause, if any you have, why the said Anna Trier should not be divorced from the bonds of matrimony contracted with you.
JACOB S. STRINE, Sheriff.
Sheriff's Office, Lancaster, Sept 12, 1879.
Anna would go on to marry Dayton Froelich in 1880, and had four additional children.
In the 1880 census the second Trier family was living in Shopiere, Wisconsin. Jacob and Mary have three children: John (1874-1942), Kate (1875-1962), and Matilda (1879-1952). According to documents below there were five other children, three of whom died young.
Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire, but apparently a Special Schedule of that census that recorded Civil War veterans survived, or at least Trier's entry did. This was taken in Kendall, Wisconsin, and Trier reported his rank as corporal, but he reported his enlistment as running from Spring 1861 to September 1, 1863, for a total of two years and one month. The discharge date isn't far off, but since the 122nd wasn't formed until August of 1862, it's hard to reconcile that enlistment date.
On August 9, 1892, Mary Ames Trier died at the age of 39. Exactly a week later, the following appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette:
J. J. Trier of Coggon, was before the commissioners for the insane yesterday afternoon. The examination resulted in a finding of insanity. He was taken to Independence today.I don't know Mary's cause of death or any other details around these events, but clearly there was torment for everyone involved. Their daughter Kate, writing 50 years later in an attempt to record her father's Civil War service, touches in passing on how the events here affected her family:
July 6, 1949Kate Dolley also filled out a form with everything she remembered of her father's military career, and lots of other details besides.
Miss Amy Noll
Des Moines, Iowa
This was brought to my attention yesterday and I think it may have reference to my father John Jacob Trier. We lived in Coggon during 1892 when my mother died, and our home was broken up. The last word we had from him came from Denmark during World War One. So we don't know when or where his death occurred.
He was born July 2, 1868 [1838] at Buffalo, N.Y. and at the opening of the Civil War he lived at Lancaster, Penn. near his first wife's people. He entered the the war as first lieutenant of the 22nd Pennsylvania Volunteers and served until he was wounded at the second Battle of Bull Run. A bullet passed clear through his body an inch or two below his heart (I have seen the scars often). I do not know if he was able to service later before the war was over, or when he was mustered out, but I do know he never received a pension and his family could have made good use of one.
If there is anything further you need for the record, I shall be glad to supply anything I can.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Kate J. Dolley
P.O. Box 23
Hopkinton, Iowa
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| From ancestry.com |
Department of Iowa, G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic)
State House, Des Moines, Iowa
Name Veteran: Trier, John Jacob
Residence: Coggon, Iowa only from Mar. to Aug 1892.
Date Birth: July 2, 1838 Place: Buffalo, NY
Date Death: Unknown Place: probably some place in Europe
Places of Residence: Lancaster, PA until his divorce in 1871 - then Chicago, Ill. and many parts of Ill. Wis. and Iowa. North Eastern Missouri a short time.
Occupation: Carpenter, wagon maker and painter.
We were small children when our mother died. He left us with our mother's people in Iowa. None of us had any of his papers.
War Service: Enlisted: (blank) 1861 as 1st Lieut Residing Lancaster Co., PA
Regiment: 22d State: Pennsylvania Infantry or Cavalry
Re-enlistment: Wounded 2d Battle Bull Run August 1862
Member in G.A.R. Posts: Nos: 457 Located Coggon July 9, 1892 Discharged May 27, 1893
Father: Jacob Trier Place Birth: Somewhere in Germany in 1808
Was Father Civil War Veteran: No
Mother: Maria Elizabeth Schweiger Place Birth: Old-Hornbach, Bayern, Germany Nov 14, 1811
Married Buffalo, NY Dec 19, 1836
Brothers in Civil War (With Co. & Regiment): None
I don't know the maiden name of the first wife -- there were four children -- two still living in Penn. Divorced while they were very young.
Second Wife: Mary Ames Trier Date & Place Birth: (illegible) N.Y Apr 3, 1853
Date & Place Marriage: Delhi, Iowa Apr 16, 1873 Date Death: Aug 9, 1892 Coggon, IA
Children (with addresses of those living):
- John Charles, died at Tulare, S. Dak. Aug 13, 1942
- Mary, Effie and Elsie died in early childhood
- Sarah Jane (Coonley) died at Hampton, IA July 31, 1920
- Grace (Erbe) died at Colesburg, Iowa Dec 8, 1916
- Mrs. Edith T. Allen, Belmond, IA
- Mrs. Kate T. Dolley, P.O. Box 23, Hopkinton, Iowa
Signature: Mrs. Kate Trier Dolley
It's not quite fair to say that none of his brothers were in the Civil War -- his next-older brother Charles was, in fact, a musician.
After 1892 we have no documents related to Jacob Trier; the only hints about the rest of his life come from his daughter's report he went first to Chicago, and then that they heard from him in Denmark some 25 years later during World War I. He would have been around 75 at the time.
We have an unusually candid perspective on Trier and his life, but inevitably that's because he was a profoundly troubled human being who left a trail of harm.
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