John Levi Zimmerman was his parent's 2nd child to survive infancy, and their firstborn son. He was also their first child born in the new century. I can only imagine that the young couple, with their toddler daughter, were celebratory that holiday season, after little John's birth in early November 1901. John attended school near their home in rural Iowa (his father was from central Illinois, not terribly far from where Rachel is now) and his mother, born in the Netherlands, had arrived in Iowa at age 8. John appears in later family photos as a quite handsome young man, very serious in his trim suit and standing behind his parents and among the number of siblings who followed him.
He may have been especially close to his brother Henry, two years younger. As a young adult, he was the first sibling to leave Iowa for Illinois after marrying the daughter of his half-uncle John Folkers. The groom was just shy of his 24th birthday, the bride age 20. Was this a marriage of a lovely young couple who adored one another, or an arrangement among family? There exist several newspaper articles regarding visits by the Folkers to Iowa, so I would imagine that John and his new wife Rosa had known each other since they were tots.
As the Depression began, the young couple lived in Illinois with Rosa's parents, her father still working and John working as a garage mechanic. In 1930, they had 2 daughters, Elsie Elaine (named for Grandmother Zimmerman) and Violet. Carol was born later that year.
The next few years brought upheaval for the entire Zimmerman family. John's sister Elsie, youngest daughter and her mother's namesake, married in late 1931. Just 6 months later, Richard Zimmerman the elder was found in the Methodist Episcopal Church where he worked as a janitor, having turned on the gas and laid down into the oven. Perhaps he was experiencing grief over his emptying nest, perhaps he and his wife had been in danger of losing their farm. His death was mourned in his obituary and a few lengthy articles in the area paper. Only youngest son George was still living at home with his mother.
I don't know how this event was handled by his wife or by his children, but it does not appear to have ever been a secret. I'm no longer precisely certain when John and his much younger brother Richard set out to work in the mines at Laramie, Wyoming, but likely their father's death may have been an impetus, including needing steady work during the Depression. Rosa and their 3 small daughters went with John. Richard's sweetheart joined him as well. Richard and Dorothy Winkel were married at home in Laramie in March 1933.
In the spring of 1933, the jobs or at least the Zimmermans' time on those jobs ended, and Rosa and Dorothy returned to Iowa and to Illinois. Rosa was pregnant again, and perhaps relieved to be home. Richard and his bride hitchhiked home to Iowa, and letters from John to Rosa followed. There were a few letters, as well as his pay. There may have been a telegram or a few phone calls, but the job in Wyoming ended, the next little Zimmerman daughter was added to the family (Joyce Louise was given her father's initials, she was born the day after her father’s 32nd birthday). John did not come home.
Lost to time are the details of what happened next. John's mother had lost her husband tragically just 18 months prior, and brother Richard was among the last to see John. Certainly, there were letters and telegrams sent. He had apparently been verified at some point to have left Wyoming of his own volition. I remember hearing, when I was a kid, that John may have worked on the Panama Canal after having been in Wyoming, but I don't know what this rumor was based on. Rosa raised those 4 little girls with the assistance of her parents, and she worked as a schoolteacher for many years. Her daughters pursued higher education and had distinguished careers.
There continued to be articles listing Rosa's daughters among the atendees of family events in Iowa. When Richard and Dorothy divorced in the early 1940's, Dorothy took her young son and moved to Iowa to stay with her sister-in-law and enrolled little Dennis in school there, although he recalls the only ended up staying a few months. In later years, Dennis traveled a great deal in his retirement and visited his cousins. While Carol had died in the early 1980's, one or more of the other sisters had rekindled a search for their father. They found his "second family" in California, although that family declined their attempts to communicate. John had died, and there were additional details which unfortunately Dennis doesn't recall. Sadly, I can no longer ask his cousins as they too have all passed. I'm glad for them that they were able to at least determine what did become of their father, if not the "why" behind his having "flown the coop"
No comments:
Post a Comment