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John W. Simmons was born on May 18th 1816 in Georgia in either Putnam or Oglethorpe counties. His family moved to Harris County,Georgia and were living there in 1832. He married Lorena Welden on November 30th 1837 in Harris County, Georgia and started a family. He and Lorena lived on a farm in the north western part of Harris County. They had several children before moving to Alabama. After the recording of the1840 census, John and Lorena have moved across the Chattahoochee River into Chambers County, Alabama. By 1856 he had moved his large family to an area in eastern Tallapoosa County known as Church Hill. When war came in 1861 his two eldest sons, Henry and Allen Simmons, enlisted with the 47th Alabama Infantry in Company B. Both sons were lost in the Gettysburg campaign in 1863. One was killed in action at Gettysburg and the other was captured and died in POW camp at Ft.Delaware. John's younger son, Tillman S. Simmons, enlisted in the 2nd Alabama Reserve Regiment later designated the 63rd Alabama Infantry and fought at Mobile,Spanish Fort, and Blakely. John at age 48 enlisted as a private in Company A of the 3rd Alabama Reserve Infantry Regiment at Camp Watts near Notasulga, Alabama on the 1st of April 1864. He served until the 4th of April 1865. He survived the war and remained in the area of Tallapoosa,Chambers, and Lee Counties of Alabama until his death April 18th 1902. He is buried at Roxana Methodist Church Cemetery in Lee County, Alabama.
His wife Lorena was born August 20th 1820 in Georgia and died January 12th 1886. She is also buried at Roxana Cemetery in Lee County, Alabama.
Children included the following:
1.Margarette M. Simmons born September 13th 1838. She died July 18th 1907
2. Henry D. Simmons born about 1839 and died July 3rd 1863, married W.A. Finch September 29th 1861
3. Jackson Simmons born about 1841. He died before 1855
4. Allen G. Simmons born about 1842 and died October 9th 1863
5. Martha J. Simmons born February 14th 1842. She married Henry C. Dillard Feb 26th 1866. She died August 6th 1928
6. Mary F. Simmons born February 14th 1842. She died March 16th 1928
7. Tillman S. Simmons born May 1845 and died December 7th 1904. He married Narcissa Brewer June 3rd 1866
8.Thomas J. Simmons born August 1846 and died about 1925,married Margaret Hays November 17th 1868
9. Zeph T. Simmons born November 20th 1847 and died December 25th 1857
10.Sara A. Simmons born January 25th 1849. She died Jan 5th 1895
11.Joseph W. Simmons born April 7th 1849 and died Sept 25th 1925. He married Malissa Davidson January 8th 1874
12. Elizabeth Antionett Simmons born July 3rd 1850 and died December 6th 1912. She married William Dawson Cosby December 17th 1874
13. Andrew Robert Simmons born December 1852 and died August 22nd 1934. He married Ella Laney November 14th 1882
14. James B. Simmons born August 26th 1854 and died April 1st 1931. He married Mary Loucilla Kimbrough August 11th 1878
Tillman S. Simmons Family
Tillman S. Simmons was born in Chambers County, Alabama in May of 1845. His father was John W. Simmons born 1816 and died 1902. His mother was Lorena Welden Simmons. She was born in 1820 and died in 1886. Tillman was raised on his father's farm. His father moved the family to Tallapoosa County in 1856 to an area known as Church Hill. When war came in 1861, he saw his two older brothers go off to war. He lost both of them in the Gettysburg campaign in 1863. Tillman enlisted as a private in Capt. John H. Echol's Company of Provost Guards on January 1st 1864 at age 17. He enlisted from Tallapoosa. This company later became Company A of the 2nd Alabama Reserves. His regiment later became the 63rd Alabama Infantry Regiment. The 63rd was sent to Mobile to defend that city. His regiment fought at Spanish Fort and later at the seige of Blakely. He was captured with the fall of Blakely and sent to POW camp and later paroled. Tillman attained the rank of Corporal. He survived the war and returned to Tallapoosa County where he was married to Narcissa Jane Brewer June 3rd 1866. He raised a family and was a farmer. He moved his family to East Tallassee and later to Phenix in Lee County, Alabama. He died on December 7th 1904 after suffering a stroke related to Bright's Disease and was buried at Philadelphia Church Cemetery near what is now Smith Station, Alabama in Lee County. His wife Narcissa was the daughter of Alford Brewer and Mary Coleman. She was born near Covington in Newton County, Georgia on July 14th 1839. She died in Phenix, Lee County, Alabama on July 22nd 1917. She is buried near her husband.
Tillman and Narcissa had the following children:
1. Mary Simmons born about 1867. She married William S. Blackmon in 1884
2. John Henry Simmons born April 2nd 1869. He married Emma Pearl Saxon about 1889 , He died May 25th 1931
3. Albert Simmons born about 1872
4, Charles Simmons born about 1875
5. Narcissa Carrie Simmons born about 1879 she married Ellis L. Newman
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