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From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 563
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, one of the well-known veterans of the war of the Rebellion located in Grant county, is a native of Bavaria, Germany, where he was born, May 28, 1836, a son of Joseph and Mary Ann Zimmermann. When the subject of this sketch was still a boy his parents decided to leave their native land and seek a new home across the ocean. Severing the ties of a lifetime, these worthy people made the long and dangerous journey, and after landing in the United States located at Buffalo, where they remained until their death.
The spirit of emigration burned, however, in the breast of their son, and in 1854, George ZIMMERMANN left the parental rooftree, and setting his face westward, journeyed throughout the West, and finally, in 1858, settled in Prairie du Chien, Wis., the next year locating in Elgin, Fayette county, Iowa. In his native land this young man had learned the trade of wagonmaker, and he has followed it all his life. When the Civil war broke out, like so many German-Americans, George ZIMMERMANN entered the service of the United States army, being enrolled in 1862 as a member of Company H, 38th Reg., I.V.I., for three years. Mr. ZIMMERMANN was mustered in at Dubuque, Iowa, and soon after left for the seat of war, participating in many important engagements, including the siege of Vicksburg, under Gen. Grant; capture of Forts Morgan and Blakely, and many others. At Houston, Texas, Mr. ZIMMERMANN received an honorable discharge, in 1865, and obtained his final pay, from the government, at Davenport, Iowa. Shortly after the war Mr. ZIMMERMANN located at Prairie du Chien, Wis., where he successfully followed his trade, and remained until 1873, removing then to Mount Hope, and two years later to the neighboring village of Patch Grove, where he lived about eight years, and then returned to Mt. Hope, where he has since made his home, and is now engaged in the repairing and making of wagons.
In 1859 Mr. ZIMMERMANN was married to Miss Henrietta KOEPP, a native of Germany, and seven children have been born to this worthy couple: A. G., an attorney of Madison, Wis., recently elected county judge; Mary, now Mrs. U. T. SCHNEYER, of Mount Hope; Oscar S., who displayed the same patriotic spirit that so many years ago animated his good father by enlisting at Tomah, Wis., and going to Porto Rico, as a member of Company K, 3d Wis. Regt., in the late war with Spain, and his family mourn his death, which occurred in Porto Rico in 1898; George J., principal of the Mt. Hope high schools; Fred J., cashier and stockholder in a mercantile establishment at Fennimore, Wis.; Edwin L., a journalist at Fargo, N. Dak.; and Miss Lou, a teacher.
Few men have better demonstrated their love for country than has this brave old soldier, who not only risked his own life, but offered up his young son on the altar of his country's honor; and during the long years of peaceful citizenship has done his duty as a man, a husband and a father, and therefore justly enjoys the respect and confidence of his fellow townsmen.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck