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mcc-jrr_653-016
Simpson - Jones Cemetery, 65-3 Summary Report, page 16
The 1860 census included Juriah R. Simpson in the household of John, about 3 years before Juriah's premature death. Henry, the last of John's children to pass away, is also shown in the household, as is Arthur M., the ancestor of Simpson family researcher Dennis Simpson. By the time of the 1870 census, there is no entry for John or Margaret A. Simpson. However, in Township 5, Range 1 (West), there are listings in the 1870 records for Alexander, Marion E., and William Simpson as heads of households. Marion Simpson was included in the 1850 household listing for John Simpson, but he was not shown in the 1860 record of the household. Dennis Simpson has written two books about Doctor William Simpson with extensive detail about the family through subsequent generations and about families that lived nearby or were related to the Simpsons in the pioneer days of Madison County. Selected portions of his books and other data from Dennis Simpson are included after the e-mailed message below for reference: {May 18, 2004, from Dennis Simpson to John Rankin} John, Thank you for your kind reviews of my books. It would be an honor to have you include the information in the CD for the Army. Yes, you have my permission to do so. As you mentioned in your first paragraph, so much was written about Huntsville that writers have failed to write anything of substance about Southern Madison County along the Tennessee River, i.e., Triana, Pond Beat, Green Grove, Mullins Flats, Liberty, Ditto's Landing or Whitesburg, Owens Cross Roads, Hobbs Island, Elon, or New Hope, etc. These are the areas that were first settled by the original pioneers when they traveled downstream on the Tennessee River looking for ideal places to make there homes. John Ditto who built his trading post has less said about him than John Hunt or the Cramer Brothers, yet he was the first white Settler in Madison County. At one time I contemplated about the possibility of writing a history of Southern Madison County, but so little was recorded about the area, it would be very difficult to write anything of substance, except for the families that lived there. In regards to land that the Army purchased for creation of Redstone Arsenal, many of the descendants who were living in the area were grandchildren and great-grandchildren of former slaves. Many of them carried the names of their former masters. The most famous slave was William Hooper Councill, who became world renown for his work on education. He was a former slave of Judge David Campbell Humphreys, whose wife, Margaret McLeod was a granddaughter of Dr. William Simpson. Judge Humphreys, as you know, tried in vain to save Alabama from succeeding from the Union during the Civil War. During the War he tried to bringing Alabama back into the Union, and ran an unsuccessful bid for the 16 - (2437)