My Genealogy Hound

WALTER S. SIMPSON.
Among the successful and enterprising farmers and stock-raisers of Union county Walter S. Simpson finds a place. He is located on a fine farming property of one hundred and sixty acres, situated within one mile of Afton, this farm having been the old homestead property. Walter S. Simpson is a native son of Iowa, his birth having occurred near Fairfield, in Jefferson county, August 25, 1856, a son of Lafayette and Adeline L. (Hathaway) Simpson, both of whom were native of London, Madison county, Ohio. The father was reared to agricultural pursuits and following his marriage made his way from the Buckeye state to Iowa, the journey being made by team and wagon to Jefferson county in 1854. There he made his home for two years, during which time he was seeking a permanent location. In 1855 he came to Union county and entered land in Highland and Spaulding townships, after which he returned to his home in Jefferson county and in the year 1856-57 removed his family to his recently acquired claim in Union county. There he developed and improved his property, making it a valuable place, on which he made his home during the succeeding eight years. In 1865, however, he disposed of his farm and bought other land on section 30, Highland township, which he likewise improved and thereon made his home for nine years, or until 1874, when he disposed of that property to good advantage, and removed to a farm in Union township, which he opened up and which is the present home of our subject. In 1881 the father removed to Washington county, Kansas, and bought land near Morrow, on which he still makes his home, having now reached the very advanced age of eighty-three years. The wife and mother, however, is deceased, her death having occurred in 1882, when she was fifty-five years of age.

Walter S. Simpson is one of a family of three children, he being the only son. He was reared to the pursuits of farm life and until the time of his marriage was associated with his father in his farm labors, having always spent his time in Union county with the exception of one year, which he spent in Page county, Iowa, on a farm which his father owned.

Mr. Simpson established a home of his own in 1883, by his marriage on the 17th of May, to Miss Henrietta Susan Nauman, a native of Virginia, and a daughter of Jacob Nauman, who on removing from Virginia first settled near Muscatine, Iowa, but later came to Union township and established his home. Following his marriage Mr. Simpson began farming on his own account on his present farm, which at that time contained but one hundred and twenty acres. He has made many improvements here, has built a good two-story residence, which is supplied with all modern conveniences and accessories; has also erected a large barn, cattle sheds and outbuildings, and has added forty acres to his original purchase, so that he now has one hundred and sixty acres, constituting one of the valuable properties of this section of the state, not only from the fact that he has placed it under a high state of cultivation but also because of its proximity to the city of Afton. Mr. Simpson carries on general agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, making a specialty of hogs and cattle, which he ships to the market, shipping from three to five carloads of cattle and from one to three carloads of hogs each year, raising the Duroc breed of hogs. He is also engaged to some extent in raising draft horses, and in his business affairs is meeting with a very gratifying success, which classes him among the substantial citizens of Union county.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Simpson has been blessed with four children: Ethel, who after graduating from the Afton high school, engaged in teaching and is now the wife of C. O. Steers, a farmer of Lincoln township, by whom she has one child, D. K.; Catherine, who is a student in the high school at Afton; and Walter S., Jr., and Kenneth L., who are in school. Mr. Simpson has been a life-long republican and for six years, from 1893 until 1899, was county supervisor, acting as chairman of the board for one year. He also served as township trustee for several years and for the past five years has been treasurer for the township school board. He has likewise served as a delegate to county conventions on several occasions, and in the work of his party and in various progressive movements for the general good, he is ever found as an active worker. He is a wide-awake, progressive man, well known not only in his immediate neighborhood but in many portions of Union county as an enterprising citizen.