Hampshire County, West Virginia Biography of JOSHUA S. ZIMMERMAN This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 524-525 JOSHUA S. ZIMMERMAN has been a prominent member of the bar at Romney for over a quarter of a century. His practice has involved a great deal of business organization work, and he has been interested personally and as an at- torney in the commercial orchard development in this sec- tion of the state. Mr. Zimmerman was born near LaPlata, at his mother's old home in Charles County, Maryland, January 16, 1874. The Zimmerman family lived near Baltimore, and their estate in that vicinity was the scene of activity of five generations of the family. Rev. George H. Zimmerman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Baltimore County, on the ancestral estate, about three miles from the City of Baltimore, in 1838. He was a graduate of Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and entered the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. During the Civil war he was chaplain in one of the Virginia regiments in General Ros- ser's command in the Army of Northern Virginia. After the war he resumed his church work as pastor, and was also presiding elder of Moorefield, Roanoke and Baltimore districts. While in charge of the Baltimore District he died in 1898. Rev. Mr. Zimmerman married Henrietta A. Rowe, of Glymont, Charles County, Maryland, daughter of William H. and Ann (Cox) Rowe. She died in 1888, at the age of forty-six. There were three sons: Joshua S., of Romney; Edgar R., of Ruxton, Maryland, member of the firm T. T. Tongue and Company, Baltimore agents of the Baltimore Casualty Company; and George H., min- ing engineer of Whitesburg, Kentucky. As a minister's son Joshua S. Zimmerman lived in a number of towns in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. However, most of his youth was spent in Woodstock and Salem, Virginia, and he was a student in Roanoke College at Salem in 1885-86, and in 1888 entered Randolph-Macon College, where he graduated A. B. in 1892. For a time he was a tutor on a Mississippi plantation at Shelby, and in 1893 became a clerk in the Census Department of the Government at Washington, during the second Cleveland administration. He was a clerk there three years, and in the meantime studied law, attending the night law school of Columbia, now the George Washington University, graduat- ing LL.B. in 1896. Qualified by education and experience for his profession, Mr. Zimmerman located at Romney, opening his office in July, 1896. His first case before the Circuit Court was West Virginia vs Smith, charged with "breaking and en- tering with intent to commit larceny," which case he lost. Since then he has had a general practice in Hampshire and adjoining counties and in both the Federal and State Courts. Seven years after he began practice he was ap- pointed prosecuting attorney to fill the unexpired term of W. B. Cornwell, resigned, and was twice thereafter regu- larly elected to the office, serving altogther nine years and three months. Mr. Zimmerman is a member of the dominant political party of Hampshire County, has been a leader in the party, served as chairman of the county committee, member of the Second District Congressional Committee, and has attended judicial, senatorial and state conventions. He was elected to the House of Delegates in November, 1920, and was made floor leader of his party. Governor Comwell appointed him a member of the road commission to draft a new West Vir- ginia State Road Law in connection with the fifty million dollar bond issue authorized at the 1920 election, as an amendment to the State Constitution. Mr. Zimmerman also supported the strict prohibition enforcement legislation introduced and passed while he was in the House. Concerning his connection with the commercial orchard industry in this locality, he promoted several companies, is an officer in them and legal adviser, and is individual owner of 150 acres of apple orchard. He is attorney for the Capon Valley Bank at Wardensville, and handled the legal matters in connection with the incorpora- tion of this bank. During the World war Mr. Zimmerman was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the county and was attorney for the County Food Administration. He personally registered under the last draft. On October 10, 1900, near Eomney, Mr. Zimmerman married Miss Kitty Campbell Vance, daughter of John T. and Mary Elizabeth (Inskeep) Vance. The Inskeep and Vance families were pioneers in the South Branch Valley and have been associated by marriage with the Heiskells, Gilkesons and other well-known families of this region. Mrs. Zimmerman was born on the old Vance estate near Romney, second among four children. Her brother William A., lives at Clarksburg, her second brother, Henry Machir, is a farmer near Romney, and Frank Vance died in early manhood. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman are Mary Elizabeth, a student in the Mary Baldwin Seminary at Staunton, Virginia; George Henry, Vance and Kitty Campbell at home. Mr. Zimmerman is a member of the West Virginia Bar Association, is affiliated with the college fraternities, Phi Delta Theta and Phi Delta Phi, and is an active layman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, being steward of the Romney congregation and for a score of years has been superintendent of its Sunday school. He represented the church in district and annual conferences. Mrs. Zimmerman and several of the children are Presbyterians.