Solano County Biographies

REV. J. C. SIMMONS, JR.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
is a native of the State of Georgia, having been born in Butts county, May 26, 
1827, and graduated at Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, in 1848, after which he 
ministered in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in that State.  In 1852 he 
was sent to California as a missionary, reaching San Francisco February 26th of 
that year.  He was sent to Grass Valley, Nevada County, Cal., filling that 
appointment for two years.  In 1854 he moved to Stockton, where he remained for 
two years, at the end of which time he was sent to Mariposa, and thence to San 
Jose, remaining two years at each place, when he was appointed Presiding Elder 
of the San Francisco district, a position which he held for one year; he then 
moved to Sacramento, and there ministered for two years.  In the fall of 1862 he 
moved to Santa Clara, remaining there one year, thence proceeded to Petaluma, 
Sonoma county, where he ministered for two years and a half, and during the 
third year was elected Professor of English Literature in the Pacific Methodist 
College at Vacaville, a position he retained until the removal of the 
institution to Santa Rosa, in Sonoma county, in 1870.  The following year he was 
employed as Sunday School Agent for the Conference, and in the fall of 1871 was 
appointed, for the second time, Presiding Elder for the San Francisco district, 
holding the office for one year.  In 1872 he was stationed at San Jose, after 
which he left for Santa Rosa, where he was Presiding Elder for that district for 
four years.  In the fall of 1877 he was appointed agent for Pacific Methodist 
College, but during the year was moved and stationed in San Francisco.  In 1878 
he was a delegate to the General Conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, in May of 
that year, and in October he moved to Dixon, and has since had pastoral care of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South there.  In the fall of 1877 Mr. Simmons was 
appointed to deliver the quarter-century sermon at the session of his Conference 
held in Santa Rosa.  In 1852 he assisted in the organization of the Pacific 
Annual Conference, and is the only effective member now left.  Mr. S. married, 
June 28, 1853, Miss Margaret R. Campbell, of Madisonville, Hopkins county, Ky., 
by whom he has five children:  John C., Jr.; Mary Blythe, William A., James H., 
and Mardis C.
 
History of Solano County � San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley  & Co., East 
Oakland, pub 1879, pp 501-502