George H Zimbelman

ZIMBELMAN

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/11/2010 at 14:04:51

Among those who have been active in promoting the business development and material up building of Boone is numbered George H Zimbelman, whose efforts have largely been of a character that has contributed to public prosperity as well as to individual success. That he has undertaken he has carried forward to completion, and as the years have gone on he has demonstrated his ability to cope with perplexing business problems and legitimately turn them to his own advantage.
Mr Zimbelman is numbered among the pioneer residents of Boone, the family home being established here in 1856. He was then a little child of scarcely three yeas, his birth having occurred in Zanesville, Ohio, August 8, 1853. He is a son of John and Magdaline (Stranger) Zimbelman, both of whom were born in the year 1817, the former in Switzerland and the latter in Alsace. John Zimbelman crossed the broad Atlantic to the new world in 1832 and five years later was married in Ohio. He first visited Iowa in 1855, entering a tract of government land in Fort Dodge, and in the spring f 1856 brought his family to this state. They journeyed by boat to Keokuk and thence by teams (their own vehicles which they had brought with tem on the boat) to Boonesboro, then a village of 250 inhabitants. The date of their arrival was April 24, 1856. Subsequently Mr Zimbelman erected a house on the present site of the Gospel Tabernacle, being obliged to haul the lime from Webster City, Iowa by wagon. He eventually acquired 209 acres of land just west of Boone. He was a shoemaker by trade but after coming to his state took possession of a brewery in Boonesboro, which he conducted for some time. In 1878 two of his sons. Lafe and Alfred, took over the brewing business and the father then retired, spending his remaining days in the enjoyment of rest from further labor. He passed away December 16, 1890, and for fifteen yeas was survived by his wife, who died on January 3, 1906. In their fmily were ten children: Catherine who died in infancy, Jacob L deceased, Lafayette, long a prominent lumber dealer of Boone, but now of Los Angeles, William Deceased, Louise of Boone, Albert deceased, Rovena, the wife of John R Patterson of Boone, George H, Charles deceased and Alfred, living in Los Angels, California.
George H Zimbelman spent his youthful days in Boone and attended the public schools until he entered upon business activity. For two years he was associated with his father, but in 1875, when twenty-two years of age, went to Ogden, Iowa, where for two years he was engaged in the grocery business with O J Halliday. He then sold out to his partner and embarked in the grocery business in connection with his brother in law Mr Paterson. They conducted their store for about two years, and in 1880 Mr Zimbelman started for Colorado, driving a mule team from Boone to Leadville. He then began freighting between Como and Leadville, and in the fall of the same year drove the same team back to Boone. In the party with which he traveled were Samuel Johnson, now deceased, O J Halliday, and James Paxton. Following his return Mr Zimbelman again engaged in the grocery business as a member of the firm of Halliday, Ellis & Company and was thus connected until 1892, when he sold out. At that time, associated with others of the family, he began operating in the coal fields, sinking a shaft on his own property. For fifteen he continued to engaged in the mining of coal and then leased his land, so that he is now living retired.
Mr Zimbelman has always given his political support to the democratic party but does not seek nor desire office, having always preferred to give his undivided attention to his business affairs. He has a wide acquaintance in his county, where practically his entier life has been spent, and he has been uninterested witness of the changes which have occurred, bringing about its present condition of modern development and progress.

1914 Boone County History Book