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Below is a family biography included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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WILLIAM M. SIMCOX, physician, Thirty-sixth ward, Pittsburgh, a son of William and Margaret Simcox, was born in Washington county, Pa., in 1826. His grandfather, William Simcox, Sr., came to Washington county, Pa., in 1787, immediately after his discharge from the army in the revolutionary war, in which he had served from its commencement to its close. He remained in Washington county until his decease, in 1843. His son, William Simcox, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Washington county, April 2, 1801, and reared on the farm of 160 acres his father had purchased in 1787. He remained there until 1880, when he came to Allegheny county, and resided with his son, Dr. William M., until his death, which occurred Nov. 3, 1884. He had been educated for a lawyer, but never practiced. He married Margaret Moss, of Washington county, Pa., by whom he had three children who lived to manhood: William M., James R. (deceased) and John. Their mother died June 7, 1878, aged seventy-eight years.
Dr. William M. Simcox was reared on the old Washington county farm, but at the age of fifteen entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pa., and in 1847 and 1848 attended the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati. April 16, 1848, he came to Chartiers township, Allegheny county, commenced the practice of medicine, and has since followed his profession continually. He has been twice married; first in 1849, to Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Ephlin, of Montour county, Pa., by which union there were four children: William H. H., Mary E. (wife of Joseph Roberts), Kate L. (wife of John Rogers) and Robert I. Mrs. Simcox died in 1858, aged thirty years, and the doctor then married, in 1859, Martha E., daughter of John and Susanna Stephenson, of this county. By this marriage there were three children: Harry M., Margaret (wife of G. W. Dougherty) and Jessie B. F., who was killed, with twenty-one of her schoolmates, at the Twenty-eighth street railroad disaster, Pittsburgh, Oct. 9, 1880. Dr. Simcox is a member of the medical society of this county, and of the I. O. O. F.
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This family biography is one of 2,156 biographies included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.
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