Ventura County Biographies

John Simpson

Submitted by Sandy Neder

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

 
John Simpson was born in Concord, New Hampshire, September 17, 1843, son of 
James and Eliza (Grant) Simpson. His father was born in Philadelphia, in 1808, 
his ancestors being natives of Massachusetts; and his mother was born in New 
Hampshire, in 1812. Her parents were also natives of the Granite State, and her 
father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. John Simpson was the second of a 
family of four children. He was educated in Lowell, Massachusetts, after which 
he served an apprenticeship in his uncle John Simpson's machine shop. 
    When the call for volunteers resounded through the land, in 1861, he 
enlisted in Company K, Fifty-seventh Regiment, Illinois Infantry, and was in the 
service two years and a half. He participated in all the battles of the Army of 
the Tennessee, under General grant and General Sherman, until the battle of 
Shiloh, where his regiment suffered heavily. Of the 520 who went into that 
engagement, 285 were lost. Mr. Simpson was wounded in the knee with a musket 
ball, and was crippled for six weeks. After he was wounded the army was driven 
back, he was captured on the field and was a prisoner four months in the South, 
at Mobile and Cahaba, Alabama, and at Macon, Georgia. While engaged with his 
regiment, supporting a battery, both the drums of his ears were so injured that 
he is quite deaf. After his exchange he served nearly a year on detailed duty, 
on account of his deafness. He was finally discharged for disability, and has 
since been in the railroad business. He learned telegraphy, and was in the 
employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Central Pacific and Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul.
In 1877 he came to California and served as agent at Davisville, Yolo County, 
until 1884. In 1887 he came to Ventura and accepted the position of railroad 
agent, which he now fills.
    Mr. Simpson was married in 1878, to Miss Lillie Pierce, a native of St. 
Louis, and daughter of Dr. T. B. Pierce, a dentist, of San Francisco. They have 
three children living: Arthur B. and George, born in Davisville; and Florence 
D., in Ventura.
    Mr. Simpson is a worthy member of the G. A. R. of Ventura, and also of the 
Masonic fraternity.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS 
OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 387