From Book: HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
CHAPTER XI. - SIMPSON TOWNSHIP
Contributed by Rhoda Fone
JAMES SIMPSON, Esq., from whom this
township derived its name, was a native of Virginia. He was one among the
number of a family of five boys and seven girls. He came here in 1832 with his
mother, Mrs. Sarah Simpson, a widow, her own children, and a large family of
negroes. James Simpson was for a long time the most prominent man of the vicinity.
He entered and improved a handsome farm of 680 acres, which was sold after his
death, to Mrs. Hannah Lynn, 600 acres, and John H. Davis, eighty acres. Mrs.
Hannah Lynn now owns and resides on the old farm. Mrs. Lynn paid $6,000 for
the 600 acres in 1866. James Simpson and his affectionate mother both departed
this life in the year 1861. Mrs. Simpson had long been a faithful member of
the Southern M. E. Church, and the circuit-rider made her home one of the
preaching points before churches were built.
James Simpson remained a bachelor till
the day of his death. In habits he was strictly temperate. In politics he
always affiliated with the Democrats and when the war of secession broke out in
1861 he was a warm southern sympathizer, and on account of his declining years
he never lived to see the Union restored. The only society to which he
belonged was the Good Templars. He was a man of considerable means and fair
education and always enjoyed his bachelorhood either in hunting or reading.
Although peculiar, yet dignified and self-possessed as old bachelors generally
are, he was kind and liberal towards his fellow creatures, and truly felt with
Pope:
“Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine.”
He took considerable interest in the
introduction of fine stock from Kentucky to his neighborhood, and was one of
the leading men in the agricultural and county fair interests. At an early
day before railroad facilities were available he went to Kentucky and brought
back a large lot of the best blooded cattle and horses. One of his fondest
enjoyments was the chase. Very different from the early hunters, in the
respect that he would not keep any noisy dogs about him, and instead of the
common yelping hounds he kept his pack of favorite gray hounds, which afforded
him great pleasure. Although his hunting had not the picturesqueness of a
Walter Scott Chase, yet the lowliness of the beautiful prairies, stretching
away unbounded over which in perfect freedom gamboled the wild deer, was to him
a "happy hunting ground." His fleet gray hounds took in a deer
almost at his desire, and his table was always spread with venison and the
delicacies of that day. Since we can not say he had a wife and family upon
whom to bestow affection, it may be truly said of ‘Squire Simpson that he loved
his gun and dog. For some time he was justice of the peace and hence the title
'Squire.
Several years ago there were but three
families of the dense settlement but what were intimately related to the
Simpsons. The following families belong to the Simpson extraction: Browns,
Ramseys, Youngs, Shepherds, Collins, Fosters, Herndons, Roberts, Roaches,
Hamleys, Cheathams, Offutts, Profitts, Mulkeys, and Colberns. Strange as it
seems, there is not one living to perpetuate the name Simpson. Wm. Simpson, a
brother, was a negro slave dealer and was murdered for his money by a man named
Hoe in Kentucky. The last one that lived was James B. Simpson, a nephew and a
captain in the rebel army during the war of 1861. He returned after the war,
kept hotel a short time in Warrensburg and afterwards died near Columbus in
this county. With his death the family name became extinct.
Simpson township is bounded on the
north by Lafayette county, on the east by Grover township, on the south by
Washington and Warrensburg townships and on the west by Hazel Hill township.