Collins B. Weir

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Collins B. Weir

Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County New Jersey. Illustrated. Vol. II., Lewis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1899.

A progressive and public-spirited citizen of Morristown, Mr. WEIR was born in Jefferson township, Morris county, New Jersey, on the 4th of February, 1845, and is a son of John and Mary (MORGAN) WEIR, the former of whom was born near Hoboken, Hudson county, New Jersey, his death occurring at Rockaway, Morris county, in 1887, at the advanced age of seventy-six years. The mother departed this life, also at Rockaway, in 1890, when seventy-six years old. Collins B. WEIR attended school in his native township until eleven years old, and worked on the farm up to the time he was fifteen years old, when he entered the employ of Benjamin M. ROOME, one of the oldest land surveyors of New Jersey, and remained with him one year. In 1861 Mr. WEIR offered his services in defending the Union, and in September of that year he enlisted in Company E, Ninth New Jersey Rifle Regiment, in which he served until July 12, 1865. For six months he was a private and was then promoted a mounted orderly, remaining as such for a year, when he served as right general guide of the regiment during the ensuing year, and on May 29, 1863, he was promoted to first sergeant of Company E. On the 16th of May, 1864, he was wounded at Drewry's Bluff, near Richmond, and on April 2, 1865, he was commissioned second lieutenant of Company C, in the same regiment, serving in that capacity until honorably discharged.

Upon the close of the war Mr. WEIR came to Morristown and learned the carpenter's trade, which, in connection with architecture, he has since continued to successfully follow. Politically Mr. WEIR is a stanch Republican, and in 1879 he was elected assessor of Morristown and has continued to act in that capacity, either in the city or in the township, his present incumbency being in the city. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Morristown common council, serving as such for four terms of two years each.

Socially Mr. WEIR is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Master Mason degree, and he is a member of A. T. A. Torbett Post, No. 24, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of New Jersey. He is interested in real estate and is a notary public. In 1874 Mr. WEIR was united in marriage to Miss Gussie PETTY, and the issue of this union comprised four children, three of whom survive.

This biography was scanned and contributed by Catherine Smith DeMayo.