Tales of the South Branch and Old Hampshire

The stories of J. S. Zimmerman came to me many years ago in the form of a small homemade booklet with a pale green cover titled, RECOLLECTIONS. I was fresh off of the publication of the Hanging Rock Rebel: Lt. Blue's War in the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia. I was looking for someone to tell a story. Writing has never been my thing , but I certainly know a good story when I read one. Both Lt. Blue and Mr. Zimmerman could certainly tell a good story! I can't even remember where I found the RECOLLECTIONS book; an auction, a gift; or just a lucky find. Immediately, I began typing the story (pre-scanner days) and once that was finished, I moved along on my plans for publication. At the time I was serving as president of the newly formed W. Va. Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Foundation and the Zimmerman Family was interested in donating to the school in honor of a past generation of relatives who worked at the school. From a letter dated Oct. 9, 1998 from Mrs. Archie Oliver Jenkins, II, Penny , granddaughter of Mr. Zimmerman, The real connection with the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind is more through personal relationships than through blood relationship Kitty Campbell Zimmerman McCracken and Mildred Sites Zimmerman both taught at the Schools, as did more recently a cousin, Mary Rose Pancake Hicks; and as I have told you, I even spent several nights sleeping over at the school with the superintendent's daughter, Mary Harris, in my growing up years when I was visiting Romney. In addition, the Zimmerman's were quite close to the Seton [Seaton] Family too; so our present interest in the school is actually a natural continuation of a long term relationship with the school itself and with a number of people connected to the school. Plans for publication were waylaid that year by work and life in general. It wasn't until 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic that I was motivated to work on this project and had the time to it. As you will be able to surmise in the biography of Mr. Zimmerman, he was a well-educated man, but as with all men of the early to mid-20th century, he was remarkably diverse in his interest. Not only was he an accomplished attorney, a member of the W. Va. House of Delegates but he was also an avid outdoorsman, as a bass fisherman and a turkey hunter. His time spend with his peers, both in the woods and out, would have been something to behold. I think it would have been very interesting to be a fly on the wall while these men sat around the Courthouse and told stories. His recollections are rarely dated and told in a way that reflects a less complicated time. This was on the front page of the original book: Father wrote these stories while he was recuperating from an illness during the latter part of his life, and I have transcribed them for the pleasure of his children. M. E. K. (Mary Elizabeth Kump) [his daughter] 1970