Marcellus Simmons

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 14 Jul 1870, Calcasieu Parish (Ward 6), Louisiana

Notes:

Census:
Simmons, David L. 28 1842 farmer 100 200 LA
Simmons, Elisa (Hall) 24 1846 LA
Simmons, Alice 3 1867 LA
Cole, Solomon S 35 LA
Birge Andrew 22 LA
Hall Sarah 18 LA

next door: (brother to David)
Simmons, William 32 1838 LA
Simmons, Josephine 28 1842
Simmons, Ernest 12 1858
Simmons, Marcellus 10 1860
Simmons, Amelia 6 1864
Simmons, John 3 1867
Pollard, Delphine 21 1849

William married Mrs. Josephine (..) Simmons about 1857 in Louisiana. Josephine was born in 1842 in Louisiana; died after 1870 in of, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The following accounts of some Simmons family records were found in a letter written by Pat Simmons to his cousin Irene Simmons at Robstown, Texas. I will quote this letter.
Dayton, Texas
July 10, 1941

Dear Cousin Irene,
At last I have a few idle moments and will begin on the family history of the Simmons, which I promised to send you when we met at the family reunion.
This history of the Simmons family was told to me by my father, my uncles and aunts, and the older people of Louisiana who were friends and neighbors. In giving names of children born to our uncles and aunts, I do not include those who died in infancy or early childhood.
On the next page I give a brief description of the place where our parents were born.
In Allen Parish, La. there is a strip of land about four miles wide and ten miles long that was named by the early settlers "Hickory Flat". It was so named because of the great number of hickory trees growing on ridges of land between the flats. Hickory Flat is between Calcasieu River and Bayou Blue.
The early settlers built log houses on the ridges and rail fences around small cleared spaces for farms. The houses were nearly all alike, having two large rooms with a hall between, a mud chimney at each end, and a wide porch in front; and one or two shed rooms on the porch on the back of the house.
It was here that David Simmons and Millie (Amelia) Forman, our grandparents grew to manhood and womanhood, and in about the year 1828 they were married.
In 1848, when my father was 12 years old and your father was 3, our grandfather moved from Hickory Flat to within six miles northwest of Sugartown on the Whisky-Chitto Creek. There Aunt Susan, Uncle Ab and Aunt Nannie were born.
The only sign remaining of the old Sugartown home is a depression where the well was dug. Some people believed that grandfather had buried some gold and several holes have been dug around the old home.
I have been told that grandfather was a big man and in his younger days wore a long red beard. He had a cousin named Dave, and people called grandpa "Big Dave" and his cousin "Black Dave". I think grandmother was a big portly woman, as were her daughters, Aunt Susan and Aunt Nannie.
In 1862 Grandmother died and is buried in a cemetery within a few hundred yards of the old home. Grandfather lived three years longer. He decided to marry again but his children opposed a second marriage. To show them he was still boss, he mounted his horse, took his girl (Lila Gill) behind the saddle and rode up and down the road where his children could see him. He finally married the woman and they had one child but it died soon after birth.
He died in 1865 and was buried by grandmother's side." End of quote.
They are buried in Smyrna Cemetery near Sugartown, Allen Parish, La. They were married Feb. 24, 1829 by Isham Nettles, a Baptist minister.[SDForman Family.FTW]

David married Amelia Forman on 24 Feb 1829 in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Amelia (daughter of William Forman and Susan Cole) was born in 1814 in Hickory Flats, Allen, Louisiana; died in 1862 in Sugartown, Louisiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Nancy Sullivan about 1790. Nancy was born about 1776; died in Aug 1829 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

from Carole Knight (cknight@huntnet.net)
From the Succession of Nancy Sullivan, August 1829, St. Landry Parish:
James Simmons, Sr., becomes the tutor to the minor children Abner and Mary Simmons and natural tutor to his son Stephen. Stephen is not mentioned in all the documents, however, as he is "over the age of puberty". David Simmons was the undertutor
In all the related documents (copies in my files), James Simmons actually signs. At the sale of the estate of Nancy Sullivan on September 15, 1929, the possessions, including the slaves, horned cattle, horses and so on were sold at a publiction at the home located on Bayou Darbone with the following folks buying at least one item:
-- James Simmons, signs
-- James Cole, makes a mark
-- John Simmons, signs
-- David Simmons, sign
-- Jacob Simmons, signs
-- Elizabeth Cole, makes a mark
-- William Simmons, makes a mark
The sale took two days and brought in $6,656.55.
Benjamin B. Jefferson was one of the witnesses attending to the sale account.

Notes:

Forman, William (George & Sarah Irwin) m 15 Dec 1812 Susanne Cole (Opel Ct. Hse: Mar #9)
William Forman was in War of 1812 with an infantry unit (Thompson's Regiment, 16th Louisiana).

St Landry Papers #1412749 William Forman 1838 Sale of Slave to Oscar Staton $135
(Linda Lyle)

William Forman was a veteran of the War of 1812. He was in Thompson's Regiment of La. 16th Militia. He lived in Opelousas and married Susan Cole on December 15, 1812. In 1850 and 1860 La. Census, William Forman and family are living in Calcaieu Parish La. We do not have much information about William or his wife Susan.
According to the 1860 La. Census, the Forman's, William and Susan Forman and Ebenezer and Apolonia Forman and family were living in Calcasieu Parish in area known as Nibletts Bluff. The census lists the Post Office as Ballous Ferry.
It should probably be Ballew's Ferry since the ferry was first run by a fellow named Ballew. Nobody on the 1860 census lived in "Ballew's Ferry"; it was a post office address for a number of folks who lived in the area of Starks and Vinton in southeastern Calcasieu Parish (these towns didn't exist in 1860).
Properly speaking, Ballew's Ferry was in Texas. That is, it's western terminus was on the west bank of the Sabine River in Texas, a few miles North of Orange, known as Madison in 1858, it's eastern terminus was in the vicinity of Niblettsf on the east bank of the Sabine in La.
According to a fellow who used the ferry in the 1830's, Ballew had set up operations in an old building on the west or Texas side of the river. This building had formerly been a temporary slave lodging for Jean Lafitte when he was smugglinves from his main camp on Galveston Island (then part of Mexico) up the Sabine to points farther North where they were sold to slave traders who moved the human contraband on to points deeper in La. and in other southern states. The exact site of both terminals of the ferry is no longer known, but from the writer's description, one can get an approximate idea and it was not a direct crossing from one bank of the river to the opposite bank. The ferry went down river, around the head of an island, then up the Old River, a trip of several miles total.
The 1860 census says Ballous Ferry, La., so the post office must have been on the La. side. This area is now known as the Nibletts Bluff community, and it may have been known by that name then and even before 1860, for a fellow named Nibls listed on one of the early La. censuses, apparently living in that area. It is more likely that the Formans were living in the area of the Big Woods/Edgerly/Vinton area a short distance to the east.
At this same time, 1858-1860, David D. Forman (known as D.D. Forman) and his wife Nancy Simmons, were living in Madison, Texas (now known as Orange)
where the Rev. D.D. Forman was one of the founders of the First Baptist Church.
Steve Forman (Dw4man@aol.com)

William married Susan Cole on 15 Dec 1812 in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Susan (daughter of Solomon Cole and Elizabeth Davis) was born in 1791 in Natchez District, Mississippi; died in 1865 in Louisiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]