Mr. Kimmerly was two years old when the family removed to Hudson County, and since then he has lived and labored within the county's limits. Having received a good public school education in Jersey City, he learned the machinist's trade, but soon found that he had no distinct liking for it, and he therefore did not follow it as a business. He took up the hotel business in Jersey City and continued it for several years, after which he engaged in the wholesale liquor business in New York City. He is now proprietor of a hotel in Bayonne and one of the popular and best known citizens of Hudson County

In politics and in business Mr. Kimmerly has achieved marked success and gained a high reputation. Identifying himself in early life with the Democratic party, he has long been one of its acknowledged leaders and able advisers, and in 1887 was elected a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Hudson County, serving two terms of five years each. From 1890 to 1893 he was also Police Justice of Jersey City. He is a prominent member of the Bayonne City Democratic Club, of the Robert Davis Association of Jersey City, of the Greenville Turners of New Jersey, of Bayonne Lodge, No. 434, B. P. 0. E., of Grant Lodge, No. 89, K. of P., of Jersey City, and of Steuben Lodge, Chosen Friends, of New York City. His duties and obligations, both public and private, have been discharged with ability and with that integrity of character which stamp the successful man.