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

Postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

and the seventh person to serve as mayor of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. Born in Amherst County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in 1810, he came west in 1828, initially a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

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, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

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 Alton 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, 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 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 mayors of places in Missouri Politicians killed in the American Civil War Confederate States of America military personnel killed in the American Civil War