Individual Details

In the middle 1700’s, there lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a family of Swiss descent by the name of Zimmerman. George, the father, had emigrated from Switzerland (so stated in the Adam Carpenter family Bible) around 1740. One George Zimmerman arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Neptune and signed the oath of importation on October 25, 1746. This may have been our George. He moved westward from Georgetown, the present Washington, DC area, and into Pennsylvania, then down into the southern Shenandoah Valley near McGaheysville, Stonewall District, Peaked Mountain area. This is in the vicinity of the southern tip of Massanutten Mountain. This section was originally in Orange County, Virginia. In 1738, it was placed in Augusta County, and in 1777, it was made a part of Rockingham County as it is today. George Zimmerman was a well-to-do planter and also a surveyor. Family tradition indicates he may also have been a physician.

George Zimmerman and his family were members of the Peaked Mt. Church which in 1769 combined two congregations of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, and George Zimmerman was a signator to the agreement. In this church’s records are the dates of the the births of his eleven children and some of their marriages. Of the eleven children of George Zimmerman, immigrant from Switzerland, five moved to Kentucky and six remained in Virginia.

George Zimmerman married twice; his first wife’s name is unknown. His second wife was Ann Schulteli, daughter of Johannes Schulteli of Switzerland. Two sons were born to the first wife: John and George. In the family chronicles, we distinguish son George from his father by calling him George II or Junior. Four sons were born to the second wife: Conrad, Henry, Adam and William. There were five daughters in all: Anna, Barbary, Elisabeth, Margaret and Solema. Sometime during this period, the Zimmerman name was changed to Carpenter, but the two names are used interchangeably until after the Revolutionary War.

On May 21, 1767, one George Carpenter was appointed surveyor of highways in Rockingham County, whether Senior or Junior is unknown and immaterial since we know that both were surveyors, also Conrad and Adam.

The last court record of George Zimmerman, Sr., in Rockingham County concerns the bond for the administration of his estate in the sum of £10,000, given by Ann Zimmerman, his widow, George Zimmerman (II) and Adam Zimmerman, as executors of the last will and testament of George Zimmerman, on July 26, 1779, ‘in the 4th year of the Commonwealth’.

Apparently George Jr:
Virginia Court Records, in March 1782, George was awarded £5 5s for ‘one gun, shot, poutch and powder horn lost in the year ‘81 in the Battle at Jamestown Ford.’

In 1780, Carpenter’s Station was established on the waters of Hanging Fork near present-day Hustonville, Kentucky by three brothers: Adam, Conrad and John Carpenter from the western section of the present-day state of Virginia, all Revolutionary War veterans. The land they chose lies at a high point in south central Kentucky, covering the head waters of both the Green and Kentucky Rivers draining to the north and west into the Ohio River, and also within reach of the Cumberland River which runs south into Tennessee before emptying into the Ohio River in western Kentucky. This land lies in the northern foothills of the Cumberland Mountains and is often referred to as ‘The Knobs Region’ because of the densely wooded hills which rise abruptly and steeply out of the rolling terrain. Carpenter’s Station, rectangular in shape, was built on a low hill with knobs visible in almost every direction. A station was a walled settlement unmanned by military personnel.
Carpenter’s Station was among the very first permanent stations to be built in Kentucky, following Daniel Boone at Boonesborough, James Harrod at Harrodsburg, and Benjamin Logan’s Fort at St. Asaph, near the present city of Stanford, Kentucky. The station was located on a trace (ancient trail) leading from the Kentucky River to the Green River territory. The Kentucky Historical Society placed a memorial marker on the site in 1969, which reads as follows:
CARPENTER’S STATION
Established near this site, 1780, by the brothers Adam, Conrad and John Carpenter. All were American Revolutionary soldiers, sons of George Carpenter, Sr. who died while serving with the First Virginia Regiment. One of early stations through which the settlement of Kentucky was achieved. Carpenters once owned 3,000 acres in vicinity of this station.

Death	1779	Rockingham County, Virginia
Marriage		Unknown
Marriage		Anna Shulteli

Spouse	Anna Shulteli ( - )
Child	Adam Carpenter ( - 1806)
Child	Conrad Carpenter ( - 1829)
Child	Henry Carpenter ( - )
Child	Barbara "Barbary" Carpenter ( - )

Spouse	Unknown ( - )
Child	John Carpenter ( - )
Child	George Carpenter ( - )

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