JAMES H. SIMMONS

The following bio was taken from page 386 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited by Rusk County Historical Commission  

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria B. Mayfield

In 1846, James H. and Edith (Sparks) Simmons moved in ox carts with their family from Attala County, Mississippi to Rusk County, Texas. At that time, their children were: W. L., born before 1830; John, born in 1831; James, born in 1833; George W., born in 1835; Frances Eliza, born in 1837; Mary Ann, born in 1840; Sarah, born in 1842; Martha, born in 1844; and Elizabeth, born in 1846, all in Mississippi. In 1848 Susan Margaret was born in Rusk County, Texas Edith Sparks was born in 1810 in Clarke County, Georgia, the daughter of William and Mary (Fielder) Sparks. Her father had fought in the Revolution in Rowan County, North Carolina, and her grandfather, Matthew Sparks, had been killed by the Creek Indians in 1793 in Franklin County, Georgia. When she was one year old, Edith’s father, William Sparks, secured a passport to come across the Cherokee Nation to the Mississippi Territory, with his young family, where they settled in Marion County. Edith grew up there and in 1828 married James H. Simmons, who had been born in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1801. William Sparks went to Nacogdoches County in 1834 where his sons had preceded him. When the Simmons arrived there in 1846, William was there to welcome them. The Simmons children grew up in Rusk County in the New Salem Community. Some of the neighbors were the Lemuel Newsomes, the James R. McKnights, the Brooks family, the J. W. W. Cooks, and Thomas Hudson Williams, nephew of Lemuel Newsom. By 1850 W. L. Simmons had married and had a son, J. B., and a daughter, Sarah. They lived in Kaufman County, Texas in 1880. In 1855, James J. Simmons married Rebecca Ann E. Cook; in 1857, John married Eliza J. Newsom, daughter of Lemuel Newsom; Mary Ann married Thomas Hudson Williams in 1858; and W. L. also married. By 1860 the Civil War was brewing when James and Edith Simmons moved with their son, George, and their daughters, to Collin County, Texas. John and James remained in Rusk County. Here John and Eliza reared six children, who have a host of descendants, many still living in Rusk County. James later moved with Rebecca and their family to Navarro County, where they reared two sons and two daughters, some descendants of whom still live there. Many Ann and Thomas Hudson Williams moved to Collin County with her parents, her sisters, and her brother, George. There they reared thirteen children to adulthood. Many of their descendants are still living there. Frances Eliza married James A. Bowman in Collin County in 1863. Sarah married William Graham, also of Collin County, in 1865. Some of their descendants live in that county today. Martha married William Henry Crawford Brooks in Collin County in 1861. They reared thirteen children, who lived in Kaufman, Mills, and San Saba counties of Texas. Some of their descendants live in Kaufman County today. Elizabeth married R. A. Cook and lived in Hamilton County, Texas. Susan Margaret married William Dudley Kirby. They had two children, the second dying when she was two years of age. The other daughter has descendants in Dallas, Texas. George W. Simmons married his second wife, Lucy Jane Phelps, in Collin County, later moving to Clay County, Texas, where they reared their family. A grandson lives in Amarillo, Texas. James H. and Edith Simmons have descendants scattered all over Texas and in many other states. Submitted by Mrs. J. S. Hardaway