Background
Zimmerman, Thomas C. was born on January 23, 1838 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Henry and Anna M. Zimmerman.
Zimmerman, Thomas C. was born on January 23, 1838 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Henry and Anna M. Zimmerman.
There he attended public school until he was thirteen years old, and was apprenticed as a printer with the Lebanon Courier.
He was also the editor of the Reading Times newspaper in Reading, Berkshire County, Pennsylvania. Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he went to Philadelphia to work at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1856, he became a journeyman printer with the Berkshire and Schuylkill Journal.
He relocated to Columbia, South Carolina in 1859, and returned to the Reading area at the outset of the American Civil War, where in 1863 he enlisted in Company Chamber of the 42nd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Although he is sometimes referred to as "Colonel," he saw no active service during the war. By 1897, he was the president of the Reading Times Publishing Company and editor of the Reading Times newspaper.
In 1903, a volume titled Olla Podrida was published of his translations. In 1904, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Zimmerman retired from his newspaper career in October, 1908.
Zimmerman was quite active in public life. He was trustee of the Board of the State Asylum at Wernersville, director of the Reading Free Public Library, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Superintendents and Trustees of Insane Asylums and vice-president of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua Association. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania German Society, and of the Historical Society of Berkshire County.
Zimmerman died in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1914.
Member or officer several societies, trustee Asylum for the Chronic Insane of Pennsylvania. Member National Conference Charities and Correction. Member board of trustees Reading Public Library.
Married Tamsie T. Kauffman (died 1900).