The name of the village from whence came the Virginia immigrant, Christopher Zimmerman, has been given here as Sulzfeld which is the spelling that I see on modern maps. Through history, it has had other spellings such as Sultzfeld and Sülzfeld.
Christoph was born 16 May 1692 in Sulzfeld, and before he was grown he had experienced death many times in the Zimmermann family. When he was barely past his eighteenth birthday, he married Dorothea Rottle who was a few years older than he. Their first child was Johannes, born 11 Apr 1711. He was an immigrant to Virginia. A second child in 1713 was stillborn, and the first wife, Dorothea, died 16 Jan 1714.
Christoph married again in 1714, to Anna Elisabetha (surname unknown). Nothing more than her given names are known. They were the parents of seven children:
The first was born in Sulzfeld;The second appears to have been born enroute to Virginia;
The other five were born in Virginia;
The first of the seven, Johann Martin, died very young. It was this child who had a Ludwig Fischer as a sponsor.
The other children were:
Andrew (born enroute, apparently);
Barbara,
Frederick,
Christopher,
Elizabeth, and,
Katherine.
Christopher was not sued by Alexander Spotswood (as were most of the other 1717 immigrants), but we do know he came in 1717 because he gave this date in his naturalization. He did have a land patent for 400 acres at an early date, and he added other land patents within a few years. Christopher was one of a few Germans who chose to live in the Mt. Pony area, actually a few miles to the southeast of the Mt. Pony area, on Potato Run. This was at a considerable distance from the Robinson River Valley, where the majority of the Second Colony moved.
A neighbor of Christopher was Frederick Kabler, who was also from Sulzfeld. Each of the men appears in the records as a cooper. The choice of Mt. Pony as a home may have been influenced by the trees used in barrel making. But, perhaps more likely, they were closer to their markets for the casks. Virginia needed tens of thousands of barrels, or casks, each year to ship tobacco back to England. Living and working in the Mt. Pony area put them at least twenty-five miles closer to the market for their products (than the Robinson River Valley would have).
Christopher was a Lieutenant in the militia in 1735 and 1742, showing that he adapted to his English neighbors very quickly. His will, dated 30 Nov 1748, and probated the next spring, mentions his wife, Elizabeth, and his six children, Christopher, Jr., John, Barbara Ziegler, Frederick, Elizabeth, and Catherine. The last two girls were unmarried. Andrew, or descendants of Andrew, are not mentioned.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.