Eugene Zimmerman was an American capitalist and railroad official.
Background
Zimmerman was born on December 17, 1845 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the son of Solomon and Hannah J. (Briggs) Zimmerman. In 1856 he removed with his parents to Clifton, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1858 his father, a native of Ohio, died, and two years later his mother died. Although his father had owned some property in Vicksburg, consisting of slaves and a foundry, and retained his business relations with that city after removing to Cincinnati, all of the property was lost during the Civil War.
Education
Zimmerman was educated at Farmers' College at College Hill, Ohio, and at Gambier, Ohio, where he prepared to enter Kenyon College. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he left school and joined the Federal forces.
Career
Zimmerman served with the navy and at the end of the war was acting-master of the Ouachita, in the Mississippi squadron. After the war he acquired an interest in a planing mill and a lumber yard at Hamilton, Ohio, which he sold after two years and invested in petroleum. In 1874 he sold his interest in this business to the Standard Oil Company. He entered the railroad business first as engineer in the construction of railroads out of Cincinnati and then helped build the Chesapeake & Ohio bridge at Cincinnati. As a member of the board of directors, vice-president, and president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, he was active in the reorganization and enlarging of the system. In July 1904 he obtained control of the Pere Marquette Railroad Company and, with it, the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad. In 1905 the Erie Railroad, which wanted the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton as a feeder, contracted with John Pierpont Morgan for the purchase of the stock of the latter road on a commission basis. On December. 4, 1905, Judson Harmon was appointed receiver of the roads. Later, on December 19, 1914, Frederick W. Stevens in testifying before the Interstate Commerce Commission claimed that Zimmerman and his associates loaded $24, 000, 000 worth of obligations on the railroad and doubled that property's annual interest payments in the first year after acquiring control; and that the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton road then entered into a 999 year lease of the Pere Marquette system and guaranteed that road's bonds. Subsequently Morgan volunteered to take the stock himself from the Erie, thereby incurring a loss, it is claimed, of more than $12, 000, 000. The sudden death of Zimmerman did not give him an opportunity to give his own explanation of this transaction. In 1910 Zimmerman sold the Ann Arbor Railroad Company, one of his properties in Michigan, and retired from active business, although he still retained control of his extensive coal and iron lands in the middle west and his large holdings of stock in the Standard Oil Company. Zimmerman died on December 20, 1914.
Achievements
Zimmerman was businessman, known as a president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad.
Connections
In 1878 Zimmerman married Marietta A. Evans, the daughter of Abraham Evans of Urbana, Ohio, who died in 1881, leaving one daughter, Helena, who, in 1900, married the ninth Duke of Manchester.
