Alexander Simplot 1837-1914

SIMPLOT

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 11/2/2017 at 18:21:36

Thursday, April 6, 1876, Dubuque Daily Times (Dubuque, Iowa) Page: 8

History of Dubuque County (Oldt & Quigley), p. 690.

ALEXANDER SIMPLOT, the oldest of the living native born citizens of Dubuque, in fact in the State of Iowa, first saw the light of day on January 5, 1837. His father, Henry Simplot, was born in Besancom, France, in the year 1800, and when twenty two years old married Miss Susan LeClaire, with whom, at an early date, he immigrated to America. They first located in Chicago, where they started to erect a home, but disposed of this and moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, this being before the Mormons settled there. In 1836 they came to Dubuque, then little more than a frontier settlement, and purchased a lot at the corner of what is now Main and First Streets, where for many years the father engaged in the mercantile business. As his business grew he added the buying and selling of grain, pork packing, etc., and during Dubuque’s early history was one of the leading business men. He passed away in 1846, a member of the First Board of Alderman under Mayor Booth, the first mayor, and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery, but when his wife died in 1877his remains were taken up and laid beside her in the family lot in Linwood Cemetery