Jacob Zimmerman, for more than thirty years a resident of
Jay county, proprietor of a well-kept
farm in Noble township and lands
in the neighboring county of Mercer over in Ohio, and one of the
best
known farmers in his neighborhood, now living retired at his home in Noble
township, rural
mail route No. 3 out of Portland, has done well his part
in community development during the years
of his residence in this
county. Mr. Zimmerman was born on a farm in Auglaize county, Ohio, May
26, 1858, and is a son of Charles and Ann M. (Croft) Zimmerman, the latter
of whom was born in
Trumbull county, same state. Charles Zimmerman was
of European birth, born in the city of
Wittenberg in Prussian Saxony,
and was three years of age when he came to America with his
parents) the
family settling in the vicinity of Loraine, Ohio. Two years later they moved
to Marion
County, that same state, where the father bought a sixty acre
farm and established his home. It was
on this farm that Charles
Zimmerman grew to manhood. After his marriage at the age of twentyfour
years he moved to Auglaize county and settled on a forty acre tract of
timber land he had bought
and which he presently sold and then bought an
eighty acre farm in that same county. On this latter
place he spent the
rest of his life, gradually increasing his holdings until he became the
owner of 200
acres. He died on March 17, 1901, and his widow survived
for more than fifteen years, her death
occurring on August 19, 1916.
They were the parents of twelve children, ten of whom are still living,
those besides the subject of this sketch being Hannah, Henry, George, Lewis,
Mrs. Catherine
Hagger, Mrs. Phoebe Walter, Samuel, David and Frank E.
Reared on the home farm in Auglaize county, Jacob Zimmerman
received his schooling in the
schools of that neighborhood and remained
at home, assisting in the labors of the farm, until he had
attained his
majority, when he began working at the carpenter trade and continued thus
engaged for
four years, or until his marriage when he bought a tract of
sixty-four acres of timber land and
established his home on the same,
building a log cabin on the place out of hewed logs taken from a
barn
built on his father's place years before. Mr. Zimmerman cleared all but
eight acres of this
place and continued to live there until 1889 when he
sold it and came to Jay County) buying here a
partly cleared tract of
sixty acres in Noble township, the half of the farm which he now owns there
and on which he is living, having since then added another "sixty" to
the place, thus having a farm of
120 acres, well improved and well
cultivated. In addition to this tract Mr. Zimmerman owns an
"eighty"
over in Mercer County. For some time past he has been living practically
retired from the
active labors of the farm, renting his fields. He is a
Democrat and he and his wife are members of the
Lutheran church at Ft.
Recovery.
It was on October 4, 1883, that Jacob Zimmerman was united
in marriage to Caroline Stuber who
was born in this county, and to this
union ten children have been born. eight sons and two daughters,
all of
whom are living save one son, Leonidas, the others being John H., Clara E.,
Otto C., Charles D.,
Alma E., Harvey W., Roy E., Russell G. and Ernest
G., the last three of whom are unmarried and at
home. Clara E. and Alma
E. Zimmerman were both graduated from the nurse’s training school in
the
City Hospital at Lima, Ohio, and are occupied as trained nurses in that
city. John H.
Zimmerman, a druggist at Ray, Ind., married Edith Miller
and has two children, Forest D. and
Fern N. Otto C. Zimmerman, a
druggist at Ft. Recovery, Ohio, married Oma Hinkle and has one
child,
Harold E. Charles D. Zimmerman, a veteran of the World war and now serving
as a
telegraph operator in the office of the Big Four Railroad Company
at Angola, Ind., married Bernice
Lewis. The detachment to which he was
attached during the war was not called into overseas
service and he
received his discharge at Camp Sherman. Harvey W. Zimmerman also is a
veteran
of the World war and had some very interesting overseas service.
He enlisted at Cincinnati in May,
1918, for service in the Marine Corps
and was in service for fourteen months, a member of the 47th
Company of
the 5th regiment of the United States Marine Corps, attached to the 2d
Division. During
his service he was on the battle front in France from
October 3, 1918, until the armistice was signed on
November 11 and
during that time "went over the top" twice. Harvey W. Zimmerman, who is now
farming in the neighborhood of Spencerville, Ohio, married Hazel
Schaffer and has one child, a
son, Lowell E.
Mrs. Caroline Zimmerman, mother of these children, was born
in Noble Township and is a
daughter of John D. and Rosena (Myers)
Stuber, both of whom were born in the city of
Neckarwein, in the Kingdom
of Wurttemberg and the latter of whom is still living, now in the
ninetieth year of her age. She came to America when twenty years of age, the
sailing vessel on which
she had taken passage being thirty-nine days
making the trip. John D. Stuber came to America
when he was twenty-one
years of age, his passage over requiring twenty-eight days lie shortly
afterward made his way out into Indiana and bought a tract of sixty acres of
land in Noble township,
this county, ten acres of which had been cleared
and on which there was a log cabin for a dwelling
house. At Marion,
Ohio, he married Rosena Myers and immediately thereafter established his
home
on the place he had bought in this county. As his affairs prospered
he added to his holdings there
until he became the owner of a well
improved farm of 152 acres. There he spent his last days, his
death
occurring on July 10) 1921. Of the five children born to John D. and Rosena
(Myers) Stuber
all are living save one son, John Stuber, who died at the
age of nineteen years, Mrs. Zimmerman
having a sister, Mrs. Mary
Schalamb, and two brothers, Jacob and Henry Stuber.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D., History of Jay County Indiana,
Historical Publishing Co., Indpls.
1922, Vol. II, pp. 298-300.
Transcribed by Eloine Chesnut.