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Conrad Zimmerman – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 14, 2018
Previously on this blog, it was reported that when Conrad Zimmerman died on 22 October 1930, he was the last surviving member of the disbanded Halifax G.A.R. Post. It was also reported that although Conrad Zimmerman was not married, for the last 30 years of his life, he lived with an African American woman, Roxie Weaver, and when he died, she was the informant for his death certificate. Roxie Weaver is buried next to Conrad at the Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery. She died in 1962.
During the Civil War, Conrad Zimmerman served in the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company I, as a Private, from 22 February 1864 through 16 July 1865.
After the war, Conrad Zimmerman openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 26 April 2016.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Civil War Research Project.
Conrad Zimmerman was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County will be presented over time.
Conrad Zimmerman is a 2nd cousin 2x removed to me. Sometimes it’s difficult to read about ancestors who held such beliefs but I value the truth and I appreciate your willingness to tell it. Thank you.