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March 31, 2005 |
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Aubrey Garage |
| A grandson of Edith Perle Simpson
has shared with me what he refers to as "rough draft and unedited
work" of his maternal grandfather, Clyde Simpson. The Simpsons were
active in the Aubrey area in the drug business for many years and were
most fondly remembered by many native Aubrey friends and neighbors.
Clyde was very intellectual and interested in not only helping ordinary people in their daily lives, but most especially local people with whom he was very closely associated. I was perhaps fourteen years old when I last saw and talked with Clyde Simpson, and even though I was only a child – his life has been an inspiration to me. The most outstanding thing I remember about the man was how he was so interested in plain folks and how he could help with good solid advice with their medical needs while he was working and greeting people in his family business which provided something for everyone in their daily living and family essentials. He was a very busy and attentive business man who was able to find time for keeping the records in the Aubrey Methodist Church where he was actively involved in the spiritual activities and concerns of the local natives and others that found comfort in seeking his advice. In addition to all of the community endeavors, there was still time for him to write a nearly compiled accounting of activities of what his father Thomas Lafayette Simpson had told him. These writings were typewritten. I am so grateful to the family of W.C. Simpson and his great grandson, Wayne, for sharing this information with me, so that I can in turn share it with everyone else. Clyde Simpson’s father was Thomas Lafayette Simpson and his mother was Mary Josephine (Josie) Deets Webb. She was born before the Civil War in 1855 in Tennessee. Thomas and Mary Simpson lived on the southeast corner of Bruce and North Main Street, where they constructed a Victorian house that is still in use today. Thomas Lafayette Simpson died in Aubrey and is buried at Belew Cemetery. On his headstone, a confederate marker, is inscribed "Co. K 6 Ark. Inf. C.S.A." Thomas Lafayette Simpson was born May 13, 1843, in Green County, Arkansas, in the geographic area that is known as Crowley’s Ridge to parents of moderate circumstance. He was the fourth of twelve children of Thomas Patton Simpson who was born in 1811 and died in 1889. His wife was Nancy Lindsey Simpson – she was born in 1814 and died in 1891. Clyde was born in 1893. He was the youngest of three children. He had three half-brothers and sisters from his father’s first marriage to Elizabeth Virginia Deets. Thomas Simpson – a Civil War veteran – married his first wife in 1870. The following was written by Clyde Simpson and was passed to me by Edith Perle (Simpson) Johnson: The War Years 1861 by Willie Clyde Simpson In Arkansas, as well as most of the South, there was and had been considerable excitement over the election of Abraham Lincoln, the secession issue, and the formation of a new government. After the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, many of Arkansas’ southern sister states took action. Not waiting for President Buchanan to leave office, South Carolina led the way by seceding in late December 1860. Seceding in January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, followed South Carolina. Arkansas, on the other hand, was slow to secede, being politically divided between mountain counties – having few slaves – and cotton producing counties a consensus between factions could not be reached. In March, the Arkansas legislature rejected secession, but called for a referendum in August to obtain a "sense of the people" whether to secede and join the other southern states or co-operate with them. On April 12, 1861, at 4:30 p.m. in the morning Confederate forces under the command of P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on the Union garrison inside Fort Sumter. Two days later the stars and bars flew o’er it’s ramparts. On May 6, 1861, Arkansas Seceded. The above is a part of what Clyde Simpson typed while he was in business in Aubrey at the Simpson Drug Store. It is an accounting of his father’s experiences during the Civil War, and we will continue this next week. The photo for this week was made about ten years before my time. The mechanic servicing the car is Garland Housden and Olen Burk was the owner of the Aubrey Garage. The building stood on a concrete driveway that is a part of the current House of God Baptist Church. This building was dismantled during the early 1930's after the new highway came through. It was two doors to the north of the Simpson drug Store. |
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