Of course, the DesJardin Canal link peaked my interest. Samuel Zimmerman can be considered the founder of Niagara Falls. (1) He was born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania in 1815. He came to Canada at 27, with only a horse and buggy, and settled in Thorold. (2) He worked in construction while in Pennsylvania, and the experience helped to shape him into a successful business man. (3) His projects included the construction of 4 locks and an aqueduct on the Welland Canal, 120 miles of the Great Western Railway, the first suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, as well as a rail bridge which connected the Great Western Railway to America. (4) He also built a number of other railways in Ontario and was contracted to build a road parallel to the Great Western Railway at the time of his death. He purchased 52 acres of property near the suspension bridge, which had an existing hotel on it called the Clifton House. The property went right up to the cliff edge, directly across from the American Falls. He owned other properties in Niagara, Toronto and Hamilton, and in total 18000 acres in Canada.(5) There's lots of information available about Samuel Zimmerman all over the internet. What I struggled with was finding cited sources. Lots of websites said he was born in Huntington County but not one sourced the information. I found very little original source information on Samuel on Ancestry. I decided to dig into Pennsylvania genealogy to see what I could come up with about his time before he came to Canada but even that has come up dry so far. Next I decided to see if I could find some newspaper articles from pre 1850.
Samuel married his first wife Margaret Ann Woodruff, of St Davids on 15 Aug 1848 in Stamford Church, Niagara Falls. Their marriage announcement appeared in the St Catharines Standard on 17 Aug 1848. (6) Margaret would pass away only 3 years later at their home (Clifton Lodge) after a short illness on 24 April 1851(7) at the tender age of 23. Samuel and Margaret had two sons John (born 1849) and Richard (born 1851).
Samuel remarried to Emmeline Catharine Dunn born in Trois Rivieres, Lower Canada on 16 December 1856 (8) This marriage would also be short lived.
From a statement given by one of the survivors sitting with Samuel and two other gentleman, he reported that they felt the car jump the tracks and the last he saw of Samuel and Mr Farr was when they hurried to the back of the car. The survivor stayed in his seat and braced himself for the fall and impact. He felt that had Samuel and Mr Farr done the same, they too would likely have survived the crash. (9) Another account from a Mr Hill states that Samuel had almost made it to the door and escape before the car went over the edge. Mr Hill was able to jump in time.(10) Sadly it also seems that as Samuel lay dead, he was robbed of a travelling bag, which he always carried with him that was full of silver toiletries, and reported missing. Samuel was interred in a private vault on his Clifton estate and the day of his funeral was declared a holiday in Niagara. The man who was viewed as the richest man in Canada in his prime, appears to have been rich on borrowed money. By 1888, his estate was acquired by the Queen Victoria Parks Commission and his body re-interred to his present location, beside his first wife. A little sadly, Samuel lay in his unmarked grave until 1940 when the Lundy's Lane Historical Society erected the metal plaque on the other side of the monument that he dedicated to Margaret.(11)
I was curious about what happened to Emmeline, John and Richard. They all appear in the 1861 Census in Welland.(12) I'm happy that she was able to care for the children. By 1863, Emmeline had married John D Sherwood, an American author on 29 Oct in York, Ontario.(13) I know from Wikipedia that Emmeline outlived John and that they had at least 2 children together and lived his last years New Jersey where he died in 1888.(14) John and Richard however stayed behind in Toronto and appear living togther with Robert and Amelia Gilmour in 1871. (15) Robert and Amelia were both born in Quebec, maybe Amelia and Emmeline were sisters? A year later, John married Victoria Jane Henry, on 24 April 1872.(16) The brothers continued to live together, however; in 1881, Richard is living with John, Victoria, and their daughters Mabel and Victoria.(17) Sadly, John, a wholesale jeweler died young. His brother, the attending physician, reported his death due to congestion of the lungs on 8 March 1885.(18) John Woodruff Zimmerman is buried in St James Cemetery.(19) Richard, 36 , a physician married 21 year old Emma Jane Rogers on 18 Apr 1887(20). Like his father, Richard's marriage was short lived. He died less than a year later of heart disease on 4 February 1888.(21) I uncovered something interesting, a marriage record for George Zimmerman, who at age 24 married 18 year old Dorsia Lafretta Scriver on 2 July 1929 in Toronto.(22) George was born to Richard Zimmerman (born in Pennsylvania) and Emma Rodgers in Ohio. Note, I didn't make a typo on George's age and in reality if it's the correct George, he had to be at least 41, if he was in fact Richard's son. Who really is George Zimmerman is a little bit of a mystery that I'll try to solve in a future post. As of yet, I can't find his birth registration. George and Dorsia were divorced on 14 March 1962(22)
(1) http://www.niagarafallstourism.com/blog/samuel-zimmerman-the-founder-of-niagara-falls-ontario/
(2), (5), https://books.google.ca/books?id=_J--6kixwUUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
(3) http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=4262
(6) St. Catharines Journal, 17 Aug 1848, p. 3
(7)St. Catharines Journal, 1 May 1851, p. 3
(8)St. Catharines Journal, 1 Jan 1857, p. 3
(9)Full details of the railway disaster of the 12th of March 1857 at the DesJardins Canal of the line on the Great Western Railroad:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=_J--6kixwUUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false(10)19 March 1857 Sarnia Observer
(11)https://niagarafallsmuseums.ca/discover-our-history/history-notes/zimmerman.aspx
(12) Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns For 1861; Roll: C-1081
(13)
(14)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Sherwood
(15)Year: 1871; Census Place: St Georges Ward, Toronto West, Ontario; Roll: C-9969; Page: 34
(16)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 59
(17)Year: 1881; Census Place: St James Ward, Toronto City, Ontario; Roll: C_13246; Page: 141; Family No: 957
(18)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 42
(19)https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166213169/john-woodruff-zimmerman
(20)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 59
(21)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 53
(22)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Series: MS 932; Reel: 908
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