Simmons, Sarah (1775-1872)

SIMMONS

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/15/2008 at 19:46:09

Jackson Sentinel
January 11, 1872

OBITUARY.
Death of a Great-Great Grandmother.

DIED. – At the residence of Mr. John Simmons, three miles southeast of Bellevue, on Thursday, December 14th 1871, Mrs. SARAH SIMMONS, in the 97th year of her age.

Deceased was born in New Hampshire, April 4th, 1775. Her father, whose name was McDonald, shortly after her birth, settled with his family in Washington County, New York, remaining there until SARAH, the subject of this sketch, was about 16 years of age, he again journeyed with her, taking with him his cattle, to what is now Livingston County. Here he provided a new home in what was then a wild country. There were but two families of white people within a distance of thirty miles of this home. With these Sarah was left, and he returned for the rest of the family. Finding them afflicted with small-pox it was nine months before he could remove them. Not long after their settlement in this new country, when on a trip into Canada, he was drowned. At the age of 20 Sarah married Asa Simmons, and remained a resident of Livingston County, until about the year 1813, when they, with their 11 children, removed to Butler county, Penn. Moving in those days could only be done at horse and cattle speed. They went with their wagons to Oleau, at which place they chartered a flat-boat and floated down the Alleghany to Lawrenceburg. The horses and stock were taken across the country and were at the destination in advance of the navigators. From Butler county the family went to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1825. Here in 1827, Mrs. Simmons lost her husband. She remained there until 1844. That year she and eight of her children, some with families, came to Jackson County, Iowa. She had been the mother of 12 children and all but one were living when she left Ohio, the youngest being 21 years at that time. The children all married except one, the excepted one being one of eight children who yet live. The oldest, Mrs. Nancy Gilchrist, aged 76 years, resides in Illinois. She visited her mother two weeks before the death of the latter. Four of the children are in this county, namely: Mr. John Simmons, with whom deceased lived, Mr. Charles Simmons – both of whom are well known pioneer farmers of this vicinity and among our most respected citizens, Miss Bersheba Simmons, and Mrs. Jane Diamond. Two daughters, Mrs. Sarah Adams and Mrs. Catharine Wilson reside in Ohio; and one son Randall Simmons, in Minnesota.

Thus passed the life of this quiet and amiable mother. At the time of her birth the white inhabitants of our country now grown to such greatness, were yet only British colonists. She was born almost in hearing of the first gun of the Revolution, and through its wintry wars lived very near where for years its armies were threatening to converge upon each other. After the National peace, at her Western New York home, and in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa, during most of her life, Indians more than whites were her neighbors. With the Indians of New York she could talk in their own tongue, and they were so fond of her that it was their delight and their habit to share with her their berries and their game. Through what an eventful period of the world’s history she has lived! And then her own growth – how remarkable! People think they are growing old when they see their children growing strong around them, and grandfathers and grandmothers tremble over their graves, but Sarah Simmons was:
The mother of twelve children.
The grandmother of sixty.
The great-grandmother of fifty, and
The great-great grandmother of six.
It should be added that when living in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Simmons became a member of the Baptist Church and remained a consistent member thereof until her death. Until within three years she enjoyed health and strength apparently sufficient to carry her to her hundreth year, and within a week prior to her death walked about the house and mostly helped herself. Friends who for so many years observing how slowly burned her life's taper, have from time to time made kindly inquiry after Grandmother Simmons have at last followed her body, with its old life worn away, to the grave.-Bellevue Leader