Jacob Schirmer, chief of police of Jefferson City, Mo., is a native of Weister, Bavaria, Germany, born May 9, 1839. His parents, John M. and Margaret (Schoeffel) Schirmer, were natives also of Germany, and the former was a blacksmith by occupation. They came to America in 1851, and the father worked in Honesdale, Penn., for some time. They then came west, and located at Osage City, where the father died in 1867, at the age of sixty-five years, and his wife followed him to the grave about a month later, leaving three sons: Andrew, who died in 1870, leaving two sons and a daughter; Jacob, and Lawrence, who lives at Osage City and has a family. Jacob Schirmer grew to manhood in Missouri, and during the war did duty for the Union in the Home Guards of the State, as orderly-sergeant, and upon the organization of the State Militia he served in that until the end of the war, as captain of Company H, Thirty-seventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry. After the war he was engaged in merchandising for a short time, and then in the steamboat business for some time. In 1879 he came to Jefferson City as jailer and deputy marshal, serving as such for four years. He afterward filled the position of marshal of Jefferson City. He was married in Cole County to Miss Elizabeth Maggie Diedel, a native of Bavaria and of the same district as Mr. Schirmer. They have two children, Eliza Maggie, a graduate of the high-school, and Charles Henry, a telegraph operator. Mr. Schirmer is a member of the G. A. R. and the I. O. O. F., and his wife is a member of the German Lutheran Church.

Transcribed from:
History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries, and Osage Counties, Missouri, Goodspeed Publishing Company (1889).