Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1917 — ONCE PRIVATE, NOW GENERAL [ARTICLE]

ONCE PRIVATE, NOW GENERAL

Brigadier General of New Ohio Brigade Started in Service as Private. - i • Cleveland, O.—“ What chance have I got, enlisted as a, private?” It’s the oft-repeated .question in these war times, and here is the answer : Charles X. Zimmerman has just been appointed by Governor Cox as brigadier general of the newly formed Third Ohio brigade. And there kr an Interesting lapse between 1879 and May, 1917—a life history to be proud of. His father died when he was five and Charles X. quit school at fourteen to help support his mother. He worked in a laundry, but he spent his evenings studying. He took bookkeeping, and at nineteen became a regular bookkeper. He also enlisted in the Fifth Ohio Infantry as a rookie, and a very green one at that. But he got ahead. He was made a corporal in a few months, then a sergeant and a first sergeant. And he kept on reading and studying, both business and military books. When the war with Spain came he had risen to a -captaincy in his regiment and in civil life to assistant city auditor. After the war with Spain he was elected colonel of the Fifth. In private life he kept pace by being manager of Luna Park and “father” of the Federal League club here. Last summer, on the border, he won further honors by receiving merits for the efficiency with which he handled his boys. He is popular with his men, and he has always seen to it that they had “all that was coming to them.” Now he is a brigadier general of the Third brigade and his “old boys” are flocking by the dozens to be transferred to his command.