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Blog/Family History

A Grave Discovery

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In September of 2021, I spent 24 hours in Rock Island County, Illinois. I had never been there before as my immediate family no longer lived in the area after I was born. I missed my grandmother’s funeral, which was in Rock Island in 1996, and that was the only occasion I ever had for going there. I never knew about the annual Simmon reunions that were still going on until I was at least 18 — my family wasn’t involved in those. But I was in Illinois last September visiting some family and it was the first opportunity I had to visit the Simmon family homeland since my research into family history began in the spring of 2020. 

While in the county, I visited the Rock Island County Historical Society (it was Labor Day and they were closed but a volunteer genealogist by the name of Orin Rockhold graciously met me and guided me through the archives for a few hours). I met and had meals with a couple of distant cousins, and I toured three cemeteries that contain Simmon family graves. This little video essay is focused on one of those grave yards in particular — Beulah Rural Township Cemetery.

Blog/Family History/Family member profile

Nothing Runs Like a Deere

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This is a slightly modified version of a post from the Descendants of Henry Peter and Eva Catherine Simmon Facebook group, posted on November 11, 2020.

This week at my job, I’m editing a short recruitment video for a John Deere sales/parts/service outfit headquartered in northern Maine. You’re no doubt familiar with the iconic green and yellow farm equipment made by Deere & Co., which is headquartered in Moline, IL. But did you know a Simmon was a prominent early member of the Deere team?

Founded by blacksmith and inventor, John Deere (who was born in Rutland, Vermont), in the early/mid 19th century, Deere & Co. was a fast-growing presence in Moline by the time Peter Cana Simmon was born in February of 1855. (Wikipedia has the details of the early days of the company if you’re curious, but it was 1853 when John Deere bought out his early partners and struck out on his own in Moline with his son, Charles Deere.)

P. C. Simmon was the son of Phillip Simmon (the eldest of Peter and Eva Catherine’s nine children) and Phillip’s second wife, Cornelia Jane (Hitchcock) Simmon.

P. C. graduated from the Davenport (Iowa) Business College in 1873, and in 1876, at the age of 21, was hired by Deere & Co. as an invoicer and assistant bookkeeper. About a year later P. C. was promoted to be the cashier for the company and he held that job for almost 50 years.

P. C. was the company treasurer for a period (1891-1894) and was succeeded in that position by Mr. William Butterworth, who went on the be the president of Deere & Co. for many years.

There is evidence (in newspaper announcements and articles) that P. C. knew Charles Deere personally and he may have known John Deere himself, though Deere had left day-to-day business oversight to Charles in the mid 1850s.

In addition to being a long time member of the Deere team, P. C. was heavily involved in Boy Scouts leadership, Y.M.C.A. mentorship, and a local “militia” in which he held some leadership roles. He was also an “active official” at the First Methodist Church.

P. C. Simmon married Anna Dixon Richards (1861-1913) on September 10, 1883 and they had two daughters: Gertrude R. Simmon (1888-1973), and Anna May (Simmon) Eichstadt (1890-1964).

Peter Cana Simmon died suddenly from complications from a cold on May 1, 1928 at the age of 73.

Nothing runs like a Deere.

Blog/Family History

Nine Aged Survivors

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In July of 1896, all nine Simmon siblings sat together for a family portrait at a photo studio and gallery in Rock Island. The occasion was noteworthy enough to warrant an item in the newspaper. 

Peter and Catherine Simmon had nine children, seven of whom were born in Germany and made the transatlantic journey with their parents in 1833. The other two were born after the family had settled in the U.S. 

Of these nine Simmon children, seven had children of their own (Christian and Maria never married or had children).

The photo and accompanying news article are interesting for a few reasons:

  • It remains the only photo I have ever seen of all nine children together.
  • The article incorrectly states that all nine siblings lived in Rock Island County, but Louise (Simmon) Diefenbach remained in Ohio with her family when the rest of the Simmons relocated to western Illinois, and must have been visiting when the photo was taken.
  • Maria, the youngest sibling (aged 60 in the photo), would pass away just under a year after this photo was taken. Despite being the youngest child, she was the first to die.
  • The article inexplicably states that Henry Peter Simmon was a native of Hamburg, but he was almost certainly born in Meisenheim, some 600 km from Hamburg. I say “almost certainly” because I have not seen an original birth or baptism record for him, but many documents refer to his birthplace as being Meisenheim. 
  • The article is guilty of some bad math. It says Peter and Catherine had 11 children and that “three passed away in infancy.” But there are nine in the photo, so one of those numbers must be wrong. I have one other document that claims three children were lost in infancy, so there must have been 12 children in total, not 11. 

The Argus article says the photo was taken at “Hakelier’s gallery.” The Rock Island Public Library website says: “From 1888 until 1903 a Rock Island photographer named Oscar Hakelier worked from his studio in downtown Rock Island. He called it the “Vienna Photographic Studio,” and it was located at 1722 Second Avenue. As he worked he took many photographs of Rock Island, the Arsenal Island, riverboats on the Mississippi River, and other activities that show how life was lived in the 1890s.”