Otterbein Civil War Soldiers Biography

    Lesko Triest was born in Wittenburg, Germany on June 5th, 1844.  He was the son of a prominent official in the local government of Berlin, Prussia.  He was raised here and went to school at the nationally acclaimed Bonnell Institute, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering.  At the age of eighteen, he immigrated to the United States to pursue his career in, “A land whose material civilization was advancing with such progress and expansion.”  It appears he came into this country at Castle Garden, the immigration station at the Battery in lower Manhattan, New York sometime in 1862.  It also appears that he made the journey across the ocean without his parents.  
    During the next two years he made his way to Ohio where he entered the Union army on July 7th, 1864.  The military record has his name as Lesco Treast, a slightly different spelling than any other record found.  He was probably among the many immigrants who were drafted because they could not pay the $300.00 dollar commutation fee to the government to be excused from service in the army.  He fought with the 23rd regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He was in the army less than a year, being transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps on March 7th, 1865.  He was a private with company “E”.  No other military record is available.  At the time he was mustered in, the 23rd regiment was in Lynchburg, Virginia.  There is no mention of how Lesko joined the unit.
     He entered Otterbein College in the fall of 1867; coming from the U.S. Barracks in Columbus, Ohio with fifty cents in is pocket, a straw hat and the blue uniform of the Union army.  He graduated in June of 1868, after delivering, “A finely wrought oration, with its historic subject, “”In hoc vinces.””  By teaching, working, and saving, he left Otterbein with a good suit, a few books and no debt.  
    Lesko then immigrated to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania where, having been called to the ministry by God, he entered the Theological Seminary there.  He was licensed as a probationer in 1871 by the Presbytery of Allegheny.  He was then sent to a German church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was ordained a minister by the Presbytery of Memphis on March 24th, 1872.  He was soon sent to the German Theological Seminary of the Northwest in Dubuque, Iowa.  Because of his reputation for ability and attainment, he was offered a vacant chair at the Seminary, where he continued his work as a teacher for the next four years.  But his heart drew him to a more complete consecration of his time and talents and he once again became a preacher and pastor.  
    Having married Lucy Schwenden, a young lady from New Orleans, Louisiana on December 26th, 1874, he turned his steps in that direction so as to be able to administer to his German brethren in that city.  In November, 1876, he became the pastor of the First German Church, holding ecclesiastical connections with the Northern Presbyterian Church.  At the late Spring, 1877 meeting of the Presbytery of New Orleans, he and his church were received into the Southern General Assembly.  While performing his duties, he was attacked by yellow fever and died on October 16th, 1878.  He was in the seventh year of his ministry and the 35th of his age.  Survived by his widow and young son, who bore his name.  
    According to his eulogy, Lesko Triest was much beloved as a student, a teacher and as a minister.  He worked hard during his short life and by industry and economy he not only paid most of his expenses in the seminary, but had amassed a library of the rarest books valued at $500.00.  This was a life cut far too short.