Dabney Stuart Wier was born on March 18, 1841, in Mississippi to William and Elizabeth Wier. His father was an Irish immigrant and a Methodist minister who owned $300 of real estate in 1850. Wier grew up and attended school in Lowndes County, Mississippi. He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 24, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company B of the 14^th Mississippi Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. Union forces captured the regiment at Fort Donelson in February 1862, and he spent the next several months imprisoned at Camp Chase and Johnson’s Island. He was apparently exchanged in September 1862, and he was promoted to 2^nd lieutenant later that month. He was captured again in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 16, 1864. He remained in Union prison camps until June 17, 1865, when he swore an oath of allegiance.

 

Wier returned to Mississippi after the war, and he married Louise Rencher around 1869. They had at least nine children: Mary, born around 1871; Benson, born around 1874; Charles, born around 1877; Stuart, born around 1880; Stella, born around 1883; Ethel, born around 1886; Davis, born around 1888; William, born around 1891; and Ruth, born around 1892. They lived in Yazoo, Mississippi, and Wier worked as a store clerk. By 1900, he was working as a bookkeeper. He died in Mississippi on June 15, 1905.

SOURCES