SIMPSON, John

SIMPSON, LUPTON, SHULL, PORTER, BURNS

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 15:14:12

SOURCE: "Biographical history of Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa" Lewis Pub. Co., Chicago, 1893

JOHN SIMPSON, farmer and stock-raiser of section 24, Boyer Valley township, Sac
county, Iowa, is one of the pioneer representative citizens who settled in the township in
1872, and is also an ex-soldier of the late war. He was born April 12, 1843, in New York,
a son of William and Margaret (Lupton) Simpson, natives of Lincolnshire, England. The
mother died near Sabula, Jackson county, Iowa, but the father living at Savanna, Illinois,
in his eighty-third year. He had three sons in the service during the late war. Robert, who
served in the Twenty-sixth Missouri Infantry, was wounded at Iuka and now lives at
Savanna, Illinois; William served in an Illinois regiment and now resides in Jackson
county, Iowa. Our subject enlisted in July, 1862, in Company A, Twenty-sixth Infantry,
when the call was made for 300,000 more men. He served two years and eleven months.
Was first under fire at Haines' Bluff, which was followed by the battles of Arkansas Post,
Jackson and Brandon, Mississippi; siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Moutain, Missionary
Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Marietta, Atlanta and Jonesborough, Georgia, took part in the
memorable march to the sea; was in the campaign through the Carolinas; at Columbus and
Jonesborough, and participated in the grand review at Washington, where he was
honorably discharged in 1865. He then came to Clinton, Iowa, where he received his pay,
after which he went for a short time to Charlotte, Clinton county, but later removed to
Jackson county.

At the last-named place he continued but one year, when he returned to Clinton
county, where he remained until 1872, when he made his final removal to Sac county,
Iowa, locating in Boyer Valley township. Here he engaged in farming on eighty acres in
section 29, and later bought forty acres on section 23. In 1887 he bought an improved
farm of 160 acres. The residence of Mr. Simpson bears a close resemblance to other
comfortable homes, being a one and a half story structure, 14x20, and an L, 14x16. Upon
the place he has a number of stables, sheds, feed-lots and all the necessary buildings
usually found in a well-ordered farm. Here he engages in general farming and stock-
raising.

He was married at the age of twenty-four years in Lyons, Clinton county, Iowa, to
Miss Ruth Shull, a native of Vigo county, Indiana. She was seven years of age when the
family removed to Clinton county, Iowa, and is a daughter of Hiram and Rebecca (Porter)
Shull, natives of Vigo county, in a locality near Terre Haute. The removed to Clinton
county at an early date, settling on Government land. The mother died at the age of fifty-
five, but the father lives in Nebraska, aged seventy years. They reared a family of seven
children, one son, Lewis, entering the Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry during the late war. To
our subject and wife ten children have been born, as follows: Arthur Wilburt; Thomas D.;
Clara E., wife of Warren Burns, of this county; William O.; Lura R. and Lewis J., twins:
Bertha Agnes; Eva E.; Robert E.; and Leonard H., who died at the age of four months.
Our subject takes an active interest in politics, votes with the Republican party and has
served in several capacities in the township. Socially he is a member of McDowell Post,
of Early. He is one of the men who have given Sac county its substantial position in the
State.