Zinn, Thomas H.

Thomas H. Zinn was born in Missouri in 1862 to Indiana natives George and Martha Zinn. Raised and educated in his native state, he spent the major portion of his early life developing experience in the lumber industry. In 1903, he migrated to California, eventually settling in Fresno County in 1909 to advance his career.

In Sanger, California, Thomas served for ten years as superintendent of the Sanger Lumber Company, managing ninety to one hundred employees across a sixty-acre plant. He married Texas native Nancy Peyton in 1888, with whom he had three children named Edna T., George P., and Thomas H., Jr. After resigning from the lumber company in 1918, he focused entirely on the Sanger Feed and Fuel Company alongside his brother Jerome V. Zinn, while also serving as a Baptist Church deacon and trustee for both the city of Sanger and Sanger High School.