See notes page for Orien’s brother Alexander Hamilton Simpson Sr.
Family memories of the Orien Simpson
Murder
Email from Jimmie Swanson – 7/2/2004
I was looking on the Gwinnnett Historical Site when I clicked on your story. I remember my mother
telling me this story about Orion Simpson and his brother being murdered.
My mother was first cousin to Pearl Paden Simpson. My mother was Ruth Williams Young, the daughter
of Mattie Margaret Paden Williams and Enos Calvin Williams. Mattie was the sister of Daniel Paden and daughter of
Samuel Winship Paden and Jo Hannah Lockridge Paden.
My grandmother, Mattie, died when my mother was just an infant. Later my grandfather, Enos,
abandoned my mother and her two older sisters, Grace and Ava, and went to Texas to live. When my mother was eight
years old she and her two sisters came to live with their Paden grandparents in the Oakland Community.
I tell you all this to lay the groundwork for what my mother told me about the murder of the
Simpson men.
My mother said Pearl and Orion and their little girl were living on the Paden farm when shooting
took place. When word came to them, her grandmother Paden told her to go tell Pearl that Orion was dead. She said she
would never forget having to be the bearer of such news and did not know what to say.
The way she told the story was that this deputy sheriff and even the "high" sheriff
himself had something against the Simpson boys and were out to get them. The deputy stopped them and accused them of
hauling liquor. She said they were not. The deputy used that excuse to murder them. She also told of the deputy being
out in the field plowing and someone shot and killed him. The Simpsons were suspected, but nothing could or was ever
proved. The way she told the story, there were other people who had reason to be glad to see the deputy dead, and it
could have been any number of people. My parents never had anything good to say about the Dowis family. According to
her story, the "high" sheriff was not a paragon of virtue.
I thought you might like to hear the story of the murders as was related by someone else who was
alive at the time and had somewhat of a connection, being Pearl's cousin.
I grew up hearing the story of Orion Simpson and his brother and I appreciate actually reading the
story.
Jimmie Swanson
Death Certificate
Contributed by Wanda Snyder
Georgia Archives, Death Certificates
Vital Records, Public Health, RG 26-5-95