Aaron Newton Missimer was born on October 21, 1836, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, to Aaron Missimer and Anna Morr. His father was a plasterer who owned $100 of real estate in 1850 and died around 1851. Missimer grew up and attended school in Lycoming County before beginning work at a sawmill. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1859, but poor health prompted him to return to Pennsylvania the following year.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 1, 1861, and mustered in as a bugler in Company B of the 8^th Pennsylvania Cavalry later that day. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. The army transferred him to the 16^th Pennsylvania Cavalry on July 24, 1865, and he mustered out on August 11, 1865.

 

He returned to Lycoming County after the war, and he married Rebecca Jane Wagoner around 1869. They had at least two children: Nora, who was born around 1870 and died in 1876; and Caroline, born around 1879. Missimer operated a hotel in Salladasburg, Pennsylvania, from 1869 to 1885 before moving to Montezuma, Washington, around 1888. Two years later, however, poor health forced him to return to Salladasburg, and he died there on March 22, 1899.

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