Samuel G. Zimmerman, clerk of Shawnee county, has lived practically all of his life in Topeka and is a native Kansan, having been born at Alma, Wabaunsee county, Jan. 30, 1875. He is a son of George William Zimmerman, a native of Germany, who came to the United States in 1860 and located first in Dayton, Ohio, but later went to Louisville, Ky., where he was married, in 1873, to Anna Portennier, a native of Switzerland, but of both Swiss and French descent. George W. Zimmerman brought his wife to Kansas in 1874 and located in Wabaunsee county, where he entered a homestead, but in 1878 he removed to Topeka, where he resided until his death, Nov. 4, 1890, and where his surviving widow still lives. Samuel G. is the eldest of four sons born to these parents, his brothers being: Philip W., who is engaged in the fire insurance business in Kansas City, Mo.; Rev. David G., who is a Christian minister and was formerly pastor of the church of that denomination at Nortonville, Kan.; and Rev. John D., who was formerly pastor of the Christian church at Winchester, Kan.

Samuel G. Zimmerman was reared in Topeka and educated in the public schools and in the Topeka Business College. His first employment as a wage earner was as a bell boy in a hotel, and the next step in his business career was to enter the service of the Santa Fe Railway Company, on Sept. 1, 1892, as an office boy in its general offices in Topeka. He continued in the employ of that company ten years, during which he received various promotions and served as stock ticket clerk, stenographer, private secretary to the general passenger agent, rate clerk, and assistant city passenger and ticket agent. For one year he was stenographer in the general offices of the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railway Company at Prescott, Ariz., and also was chief clerk in the passenger department of the Rock Island Railway Company at Topeka one year, which concluded his railroad service. For the following two years he was cashier for the trustees of the Devlin estate, and then, in 1906, was elected county clerk of Shawnee county on the Republican ticket, which office he filled so acceptably to his constituents that he was reëlected to it in 1908, and again in 1910.

On Sept. 14, 1898, Mr. Zimmerman was united in marriage to Miss Lulu E. Mayhall, of Topeka, and to them have been born two daughters, Ruth and Lois, aged respectively, eleven and six years. Mr. Zimmerman, who is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, is a past master of his Masonic lodge and is past master also of the four Scottish Rite bodies. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also a member of the Commercial Club. He was formerly paymaster general of the Kansas National Guard, and United States distributing officer of the organized militia of Kansas, with the rank of colonel.