Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Brier, David

Born: 1808-08-25 Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1883-04-26 Topeka, Kansas

David Brier was an attorney, county government official, and civic official. Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Brier in his youth moved with his family from his native Pennsylvania to Dayton, Ohio. Around 1835 he left the family farm and moved to Covington, Indiana, to read law. Earning admission to the bar, Brier opened a law practice in Covington. In April 1840, Brier married Carolina Amelia Brackenridge (Breckenridge), with whom he would have four children. He also became active in Whig politics, representing Indiana at the 1844 Whig National Convention. In 1850, he owned real property valued at $2,100. Brier practiced law in Covington until 1855, when he moved to Bloomington, Illinois. Brier became involved in forming the Republican Party in Illinois. In 1857, he became president of the Bloomington Cemetery Association. In that same year, he was among the guarantors of a sum to allow the Board of Education for the State of Illinois to erect buildings for the Illinois State Normal University in Bloomington. He served as chairman of the McLean County Board of Supervisors in 1859, and was a trustee of Illinois Wesleyan University. In 1860, Brier owned real property valued at $4,500 and had a personal estate of $500.

Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society Bloomington, ILL.: Volume I. War Record of McLean County with Other Papers (Bloomington: McLean County Historical Society, 1899), 508; J. H. Burnham, comp., History of Bloomington and Normal, in McLean County, Illlinois (Bloomington: J. H. Burnham, 1879), 59, 120-21; Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850 22 April 1840, Fountain County (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Covington, Fountain County, IN, 61; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 4, Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 21; Gravestone, Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, KS.