Samuel Zimmerman (7 March 1815 – 12 March 1857) was a Canadian railway promoter and entrepreneur instrumental in the construction of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

Biography

Zimmerman was born in 1815 in

Huntingdon, Pennsylvania Huntingdon is a borough in (and the county seat of) Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along the Juniata River, approximately east of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and west of Harris ...

and worked as a general labourer on various public works projects in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and moved to

Thorold, Ontario Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The Welland Canal passes through the city, featuring lock 7 and the Twin Flight Locks. History The first sur ...

to help build the

Second Welland Canal The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It forms a key section of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. Traversing the Niagara Peninsula from Port Weller in St. Catharines t ...

around 1842 to 1843 and settle in the Village Clifton on the Canadian side in the 1850s. He would help in the development of Clifton by opening Zimmerman Bank in 1855, built Clifton Gate House. The Zimmerman Bank issued its own chartered banknotes, which are on display in the Bank of Canada Museum. Zimmerman died on March 12, 1857, en route from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

to Niagara in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, one of the victims of the

Desjardins Canal disaster The Desjardins Canal disaster was a rail transport disaster which occurred near Hamilton, Ontario. The train wreck occurred at 6:15p.m. on when a train on the Great Western Railway crashed through a bridge over the Desjardins Canal, causing the tr ...

. He was buried at his estate and later moved to St. David's Methodist Church to be buried with his wife Margaret Ann Woodruff (b.1828, m. 1848 and d. 1851). He was survived by his second wife Emmeline Dunn (m. 1856) and sons (John and Richard) from his first marriage. His son Richard Zimmerman later became a doctor and returned with his Toronto born wife Emma Jane Rogers to Niagara Falls.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Biography
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

1815 births 1857 deaths Canadian people of German descent Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople American people of German descent {{Canada-business-bio-stub