I will close out my comments on the Christopher Zimmerman family with this note. We discussed the family of John, the eldest son of Christopher, in the last note. John was the son of Christopher's first wife. There appears to be five surviving children of Christopher's second wife, who were Frederick, Barbara, Christopher, Jr., Elizabeth, and Katherine. Their brother Andrew seems to have died before his father did and left no heirs.
Except for Christopher, Jr., all of the children appear to have married. Frederick's wife is thought to be a Sarah, and three children, Reuben, Frederick, Jr., and Christopher, are usually assigned to Frederick, even though little is known about Christopher. In fact, his existence is in question.
Barbara married Leonard Ziegler or Ziglar, and the descendants of this family generally moved to North Carolina (I believe).
Christopher, son of Christopher the immigrant, probably did not marry, to judge by his will. In this will he mentions no wife or heirs, and leaves property to Kablers and Browns.
Elizabeth has mistakenly been assigned to Matthias Weaver as a husband. It is more generally considered that Matthias married Elizabeth Finks, to judge by the will of Mark Finks. One reason for doubting that Elizabeth married Matthias Weaver is that they lived about 25 miles from each other. Elizabeth was southeast of Mt. Pony, almost next to Salubria. Matthias was in the Robinson River Valley. And there is some evidence that Elizabeth married a Conner.
Katherine married William Slaughter, but nothing is known about their family. Nothing is known about the family of Elizabeth (Zimmerman) Conner either.
The best documented families are those of Frederick, Barbara, and John.
The reason that Christopher Zimmerman may have lived southeast to east of Mt. Pony is that he has been described as a cooper. He may have chosen land where he thought the trees would give him the best wood. But perhaps even more influential in his decision making was where the markets for barrels would be. Most of the "barrels" were casks for packing tobacco for storage and shipment. The Robinson River Valley would have been at the extreme edge of the market for barrels. The yearly demand for barrels was very high, as more than 10,000 casks of tobacco were shipped to England each year. Just building the casks kept many men occupied. Frederick Kabler, Christopher's friend from Sulzfeld, was also given once as a cooper.
(24 Oct 01)
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