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Author: revrehester
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.zimmerman/2465/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Hello, My name is Russel Hester.
Recently I was made aware of the find of a Family Bible in the possession of a
Zimmerman-DeWolf descendant who simply stated that he found the Bible on a bookshelf in
his mother's home. The Bible contains a wealth of family information for the
Countryman-Peters family, as well as the Countryman-Zimmermann family. There is also a
listing for Manning DeWolf, husband of Clara O Zimmermann. There are at least four or five
distinctly different handwritings across four pages of the bible and a torn segment of
paper that doesn't appear to have been part of the original bible. The earliest
entries mention John Peters and Clara Lucinda Countryman. The latest entries include Sarah
Zimmermann DeWolf , her husband Manning, and a list of Peters cousins.
The first page is a Weights and Measures page commonly found around 1880- present day
bibles. Three pages have a printed heading "Family Record". The final page is
the introduction to the New Testament. All the rest is hand written.
Starting with the second page, it is torn in the upper right hand corner area that seems
to have been listing the date of John Peters and Clarissa Lucinda Countryman's
marriage.
It reads:
Family Record
John Peters and C________________________
Countryman on the 8th day of _______________
John Peters was born in th ________
of our lord 1832.
Clara L. Countryman Wife ___
John Peters was born in the y_____
of our Lord 1842. April the 10
Births
John D A. Peters born March 30
1861
John S C. Peters was born June 12 _______
Died July the 20 .. . 1862.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Peters enlisted in Comp K
88 Reg. Ills Vols August 12 1862
Was killed in Battle near
Murfreesboro Tenn. Dez. 31. 1862
(There is a line of additional writing at the bottom of that page that appears
unreadable.
This entire page appears to be in one handwriting.)
The third page appears to start out with the same handwriting. It Reads:
Family Record
Tar
Gottlieb Zimmermann and Clara Peters
Married November the 12 1864.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gottlieb Zimmermann Husband of C__________________
was born Januara 12. A D 1837.
Clara L. Peters Wife of Gottlieb
Was born April 10 A. D. 1842
(The following lines are in a distinct different hand)
Charley C. Zimmermann
was born September th 26 A D
1866 katty S Zimmermann
was born November th 8 A D
1868
Philinda B. Zimmermann was
Born November the 8 A D 1868.
Sarah O. Zimmermann was
Born July the 28 A D
1871
Phillip G Zimmermann
Was born June the 19 A D
1874
The fourth page appears to be in the same hand as the last part of the previous page. It
reads:
Family Record
gottlieb zimmermann
the
Died in July 9 1875.
Katty Sophia Zimmermann
Died Oct 9 1889.
Barbara Philinda Zimmermann
Died Oct 25, 1886.
(The following lines appear to be that of a third handwriting.)
Clara E. Zimmermann Smith-
Ketchum . Died . May . 18 - 1922
Clara L. Zimmerman
Sun.
Died . May. 9th 1926. Irving
Wisc
John D. A. Peters died . Mar-17
1832 . At BR Falls Wisc.
Phillip Zimmermann died
Nov . 3rd 1936 in Irving Wis.
(The following line is in yet another handwriting)
Sarah Zimmerman DeWolf
Died June 1944 in Irving Wis
The fifth page is actually the Introduction Page to the New Testament and, where we get a
date of the copyright 1816 (This is not the date the bible was printed or sold. It could
have been any time after that. Most likely this bible dates between 1880 and 1910.)
Hand written on this page apparently by another handwriting is the record of the death of
Manning DeWolf. It reads:
Wed. 11.15 P. M
Manning DeWolf - died - Feb.19.1930
In Irving Wis.
The sixth and final page is not a page of the bible at all, but a separate sheet of lined
notepad paper.
It is in yet a fifth handwriting style, the notepad page reads:
Virginia May Peters May 5-32
Richard John Peters July 2 .30
Earnest Han Peters Sept 20-28
David Robert Peters 4-29-36
Francis Alberta Peters July 6-33
Joseph Floyd Peters - Apr.19.38
There is no name on the bible or in it other than what is listed here, making it difficult
to determine with any assurance the original owner of the bible, or any subsequent owners.
Any speculation, would be just that. However, based on the listings in the different
hands, I am led to believe that this bible originally belonged to Clarissa, Lucinda
Countryman, where she (sometime around 1880) would have acquired the bible and originally
recorded her first marriage to John Peters and the information about his death in the
Civil War, and then in the same hand recorded her second marriage to Gottlieb Zimmerman.
Although her information was indeed first hand, most of the information is probably not
first hand and little if any of the information is likely to have been recorded as each
event happened.
I believe it was then passed to a daughter. Sarah O. Zimmerman was probably the recipient
prior to or near the time of Clarissa's death, where she recorded the death of her
dad, Gottlieb, the births of her siblings, and the deaths of Katy Sophia and Barbara
Philinda Zimmerman. Subsequently after her death in 1944, it was likely passed down
through her family who would have recorded her death, the death of Clarissa, John D A
Peters, Phillip, Sarah, and finally their father or grandfather, Manning DeWolf, whose
death was probably recorded after Sarah's, even though he had died earlier.
The additional slip of paper was probably added later being a list of Peters cousins. It
was probably added by a child of Sarah's before the information could become difficult
to get. It would have simply been tucked away in the bible to prevent it's loss. The
Bible was then discovered just a few years ago in the possession of one of Sarah's and
Manning's descendants.
Submitted by Russel E. Hester 27 Jan 2010
Please contact me if you have any interest in these families. Photographed copies are
available via e-mail.
revrehester(a)yahoo.com
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