De Zeng received a military education, and at the age of 18, he became lieutenant of the guard in the service of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel.

He was honorably discharged from the German service in 1783, and in 1784 married and purchased an estate at Red Hook, New York.

He was intimate with Governor DeWitt Clinton, as both were interested in the opening of the interior water communications of the state, and personally surveyed in 1790–92 the entire countryside from Albany to the Genesee River.

[4] De Zeng was associated with General Philip Schuyler in the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and in 1796, was one of three who established a window glass factory near Albany, the first in the state.

In 1812, he suggested measures that resulted in the improvement of the navigation of Seneca River and its associated lakes, and in 1814–15 began what ultimately became the Chemung Canal.