My Genealogy Hound

James A. Simpson, mayor of Mountain Grove, Wright County, Mo., and proprietor of Mountain Grove Marble Works, was born in Cannon County, Tenn., September 7, 1846, being the son of John A. and Margaret (Cherry) Simpson, and grandson of Valentine Simpson, who was a native of North Carolina, and was a farmer by occupation. He moved from his native State to Tennessee, and there resided until an old man, when he immigrated to Oregon County, Mo., and here received his final summons. He was born in 1790, and died in 1865. He was said to have been a soldier in the Black Hawk War. The paternal great-grandfather, Peter Simpson, was a native of North Carolina, and immigrated to Tennessee, where he died. The name Simpson is purely English. The maternal grandfather was born in North Carolina, and also immigrated to Tennessee, where he died. The maternal grandmother, Sarah Cherry, was a descendant of English ancestors. John A. Simpson, father of subject, was born in Tennessee February 27, 1821, and there grew to manhood and was married. He immigrated to Missouri in 1851, and located in Lawrence County, removing in 1861 to Randolph County, Ark., where he died in 1865. He was in the Confederate service during the late war, and participated in a number of battles. Margaret (Cherry) Simpson is still living, and resides in Lawrence County, Mo. She is the mother of eight children, of whom James A. Simpson is the eldest. He was reared to man’s estate in Lawrence County, Mo., received a common-school education, and came to Wright County, Mo., in 1873, where he was married to Miss Helen R. Ellis, a native of Wright County, Mo., born in 1852. Seven children were the fruits of this union: Loren E., Margaret E., Verona J., Annie V., John W., Francis Edward and James Arthur. Mr. Simpson followed farming until 1883, and then engaged in the marble business, which he has since continued, and does all his own work. He is also the owner of three houses and lots. He was elected justice of the peace of Mountain Grove Township in 1886, elected mayor in 1887, and filled the office of city treasurer for one year, previous to being elected to the position of mayor. He is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being a trustee of the same. Mr. Simpson comes of long-lived ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides, having seen all his grandparents except the grandmother on his father’s side, and in infancy was held in the arms of his great-grandparents on his father’s side.