BIO: CORNELIUS ZIMMERMAN, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson OCRed by Judy Banja Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/ _____________________________________________________________ >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 310-311 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ CORNELIUS ZIMMERMAN, carpenter and bridge builder for the Cumberland Valley Railway Company, has been a resident of Carlisle since 1891, and is one of the respected residents of that place. He was born in 1835 in Washington county, Md., and comes of a German family long ago established in this country, three brothers emigrating to America in an early day and settling near Lancaster, Pa. One returned to Germany, where he became very wealthy. Benjamin Zimmerman, father of Cornelius, was born in Frederick county, Md., and when a young man moved to Washington county, that State, where he settled, following his trade of carpenter. He died there about 1877. He married Mary Wygand, also a native of Maryland, who passed all her life in that State. Cornelius Zimmerman grew to manhood in the county of his birth, and received such educational advan- CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 311 tages as the subscription schools of the time and locality afforded, but they were quite meager, and as he was needed at home his boyhood had more of work than anything else in the way of training for life's responsibilities. After he reached his twenty-first year he took up studying by himself, in earnest, and made considerable progress, so that he may well be ranked among the intelligent, well-informed men of his community. He learned the trades of miller and carpenter, and in 1868 moved to Martinsburg, W. Va., where he was engaged on wood work in a plow factory. In 1869 he returned to his native place, remaining there until 1873, when he went back to Martinsburg to work in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad shops. Leaving there in the spring of 1889 he located in Chambersburg, Pa., for a while, coming to Carlisle in September, 1891. Since his last removal from Martinsburg he has been engaged as carpenter and bridge builder on the Cumberland Valley railroad, and he has proved a most reliable workman wherever he has been engaged. Mr. Zimmerman is especially proficient in mathematics, and one winter made a key to Parks arithmetic. In 1864 Mr. Zimmerman enlisted for service in Company B, 11th Md. V. I., in which he served as a private for one hundred days. His early home was not far from South Mountain, and he saw much of both armies throughout the conflict. In 1860 Mr. Zimmerman married Miss Elizabeth Keller, and by that union there were five children, three of whom still survive. On Sept. 8, 1891, he married for his second wife Miss Rebecca Redding, daughter of Carvill H. Redding, and they make their home in Carlisle, where she has passed the greater part of her life. She was educated in the public schools. Mr. Zimmerman was originally an earnest member of the United Brethren Church, in which he was an exhorter, but when the division occurred he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is still a zealous worker.