A. J. Simmerman

A. J. Simmerman, son of Jacob and Malinda (Sheets) Simmerman, was born in West Jersey, October 11, 1846. His father was a native of Wythe county, Va.; born in 1815. Came with his parents to Hancock county, Ill., in 1833, overland, and in 1835 to Stark county. He worked on the father's eighty acre farm until 1838, when he married Miss Sheets, and took up their residence on a farm which he purchased near the David Simmerman farm in West Jersey. Eight years after his young wife died here, leaving three boys. Some few years later Jacob traded his farm for another in that township and resided on his new farm until 1860, when lie moved to his fathers homestead, remaining there until his migration to Linn county, Iowa, in the spring of 1884. In 1848 he married, for second wife, Mrs. Permelia Lane. To the first marriage were born: James H., deceased; George H., now in Fillmore county, Neb.; and A. J., the subject of this sketch. To the second marriage were born: Malinda,, Sarah A., Albert and Lydia, all of whom are married and residents of Linn county, Iowa. In politics he was a Democrat; in religion a Methodist, and in the social and business circle one of the county's first and most useful pioneers. A. J. Simmerman passed all his earlier years on his grandfather's (Peter Sheets) lands or attending school in the district. He was but six months old when his mother died. He resided with grandfather Sheets twenty-one years, and in 1868 moved to his farm of ninety acres on section 18, Valley, with his young wife—Miss Susan M., daughter of Jonathan and Loraney (Fowler) Luce, of Indiana, to whom he had been married only a short time. To them six children were born: Mary L., Isadora M., Ada J., Daisy B., Ernest M., and Roy, all residing here. His wife was born near Indianapolis in 1848. In 1852 moved with her parents to Fulton county, and in 1855 came to Essex, remaining with Jefferson Trickle's family until her marriage. Mr. Simmerman has now 270 acres of prime land, and since 1867 has taken all the parts credited to him in history.