John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 662

John Zimmerman, the eldest son of Christopher Zimmerman, was six years old when he came to Virginia in 1717.  He obtained his first land patent in 1735 when he was 24 years old.  Whereas his father lived in the Mt. Pony area, John took his land, 400 acres, in the Robinson River Valley.  This was about twenty miles west of his father.

John married Ursula Blankenbaker, the daughter of John Nicholas Blankenbaker.  From the record of people imported by Spotswood in 1717, we know that, in 1717, John Nicholas and Apollonia were not yet the parents of Ursula.  Whether Ursula or the land came first for John, we do not know.  Probably the land was first.  With John's acquisiton of the land in 1735, and with Ursula just up the road, the union probably came not long after this date.  John was aggressive in his land acquisitions, and he had, in the end, more than 1700 acres.  (John Hoffman, his immediate neighbor to the south, was even more aggressive as he acquired about 3500 acres, but Hoffman had a very large family.)

Thus, John moved from a community, which was definitely English, to a community which was definitely German.  This may have been his reason for moving.  Maybe he liked the women better.  Possibly, he was not on the best of terms with his stepmother and had moved out of the home earlier.

John was naturalized in 1743 with several other Germanna settlers.  He died in 1796 or 1797, when he was about 85 years of age.  In 1759, he and Ursula gave 200 acres of land to their son, John.  This was a pattern that continued.  The parents gave 150 acres to Margaret Zimmerman; 200 acres to their daughter, Dorothy Tanner, and her husband Jacob; 150 acres to their son Christopher; 150 acres to their daughter, Mary Zimmerman; 300 acres to their daughter, Rosanna Zimmerman; and 200 acres to their daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband Joseph Holtzclaw.  Thus, he and Ursula were generous in giving away their land before death, even unto the unmarried daughters.

The children of John Zimmerman and Ursula Blankenbaker were:

  1. John .  He was probably born about 1736-38, as his son seemed to be of age by 1779.
  2. Dorothy .  Perhaps she was born about 1740 or shortly thereafter.  She married Jacob Tanner.
  3. Elizabeth .  She became the second wife of Joseph Holtzclaw.
  4. Christopher .  He was born in the mid-1740's, as his child was born in 1769.
  5. Mary .  She seems to have never married.
  6. Margaret .  Though some people say she married Jacob Lipp, there are reasons, based on age, to doubt this.
  7. Rosanna .  She married Moses Samuel 16 Oct 1788.

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.