John M. Wimer (May 8, 1810January 11, 1863) served as Postmaster,

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

and the seventh person to serve as mayor of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Born in Amherst County,

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in 1810, he came west in 1828, initially a

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in St. Louis. He served two terms as mayor (1843-1844 and 1857-1858), the ninth and nineteenth term served as mayor of St. Louis. Between terms he received his postmaster's appointment on June 14, 1845, after President James K. Polk entered office and just 17 days before the effective date of the 1845 postal reforms, which paved the way for adhesive stamp use by simplifying the rate structure. As Postmaster, John Wimer is known for issuing the " St Louis Bears" a set of provisional postal stamps that are now highly valued as collectibles. Wimer was replaced as postmaster in 1850. Although he opposed slavery, when the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

broke out, Wimer spoke out strongly for the Confederacy and his native state of Virginia; In 1862 he was arrested and held at Gratiot Street Military Prison and

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Penitientiary, but Wimer escaped in December 1862 and reached southwest Missouri where he joined the Confederate army under Colonel Emmett MacDonald and Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke. He was killed at the Battle of Hartville, in

Hartville, Missouri Hartville is a city in Wright County, Missouri, United States. The population was 594 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Wright County. History A post office called Hartville has been in operation since 1842. The community was settled ...

, during which, "Lieutenant-Colonel Wimer was shot dead whilst leading the detachment of Colonel Burbridge's regiment.". It is reported that Wimer was shot through the eye, and after he died that "the yankee Provost Marshal managed to steal his body during the wake, and buried him in an unknown potters field as a final act of desecration. After the war, his body was moved to

Bellefontaine Cemetery Bellefontaine Cemetery is a nonprofit, non-denominational cemetery and arboretum in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1849 as a rural cemetery, Bellefontaine is home to a number of architecturally significant monuments and mausoleums such as t ...

in St. Louis.Frelinghuysen Collection Part 1., St Louis Postmasters' Provisionals (Page 133). Robert A. Siegel Auctions. (2012, March 28) Retrieved 02:16, March 24, 2014, from http://siegelauctions.com/enc/pdf/StLouis.pdf

References

* * * * "Marmaduke's Expedition into Missouri". Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives. Congressional edition, Volume 2580. United States Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889, p. 207. https://books.google.com/books/about/Congressional_edition.html?id=bEBHAQAAIAAJ * Frelinghuysen Collection Part 1., St Louis Postmasters' Provisionals (Page 133). Robert A. Siegel Auctions. (2012, March 28) Retrieved 02:16, March 24, 2014, from http://siegelauctions.com/enc/pdf/StLouis.pdf

External links

John M. Wimer
at the St. Louis Public Library: St. Louis Mayors website. * Frelinghuysen Collection Part 1., St Louis Postmasters' Provisionals (Page 133). Robert A. Siegel Auctions. (2012, March 28) Retrieved 02:16, March 24, 2014, from http://siegelauctions.com/enc/pdf/StLouis.pdf * "Marmaduke's Expedition into Missouri". Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives. Congressional edition, Volume 2580. United States Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889. * https://books.google.com/books/about/Congressional_edition.html?id=bEBHAQAAIAAJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Wimmer, John 1810 births 1863 deaths Mayors of St. Louis People from Amherst County, Virginia 1863 in Missouri 19th-century American politicians United States politicians killed during the Civil War