The father of John, Andrew and Ann, after the death of their mother emigrated with his children from County Donegal, Ireland, to America, settling in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, where his children grew to mature years and where he afterwards died.

John Simison, one of the children mentioned above reached manhood during the troublous years of the French and Indian war, and enlisted as a soldier in the Colonial army and was with General Braddock's expedition against Fort du Quesne in May, 1755, when the brave general was mortally wounded.

The life of John Simison seems to have been chequered with adventure and narrow escapes. In his young years eastern Pennsylvania was a new and unsettled country infested with Indians and wild animals. On this account the settlers were compelled to live close together and surround their homes with stockades, and when outside of these primitive fortifications at work in the clearings, were compelled to go armed and keep a vigilant lookout for unfriendly Indians. On one occasion, while John and eleven of his neighbors were at work in the harvest field , they were suddenly attacked by Indians and all killed but five, of whom he was one of the survivors. On another occasion while John was guarding the women while engaged in milking the cows, outside of the stockade, they were surprised by the Indians and before the women could be gotten into the fort one of them was killed.

The wild animals were almost as great an enemy to the settlers as the Indians. The hogs and sheep and calves and poultry of the pioneers were frequently killed and carried off by wolves and panthers that found shelter in the mountains. John Simison had a few sheep that he was fastening at night in an old log house. This building, like all dwelling houses in those days, had a large fire place in one end and a chimney on the outside extending only a few inches above the roof. One night after having housed his little flock and secured the door, a hungry wolf made up his mind to have one of these sheep, but the door was barred against him and there was no other entrance except through the chimney. It was an easy matter for the wolf to jump on the roof and gain entrance through the chimney, but while it was easy enough for the wolf to descend the chimney, it was impossible for him to ascend it, and there was no other way for him to get out, after getting in the wolf found himself an involuntary and hopeless prisoner. In it's fright, however, the wolf did not molest the sheep. In the morning a glance through a crack between the logs revealed to John the situation, and with his rifle it was an easy matter to dispatch the intruder.

On account of the war and Indian depredations, John Simison was compelled to leave his farm in Cumberland county and remain away for a number of years at one time for five and another for two years. Some time during these absent years he married Catherine Elder, of Chester county, Pennsylvania. Here he lived while away from his farm in Cumberland county and became the father of ten children, four sons and six daughters. The names of these children were: Margaret, Mary, John, Isabel, Andrew, Jane, Rebecca, Katherine, Robert and Samuel. Margaret and Jane died young. Mary married John Foster, January 1, 1799 and moved with her husband to Alleghany county, now Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and settled on a farm near Conneautville, where she spent her life and died in old age. John Simison, Jr. married Elizabeth Fisher, and both afterward died in Ohio. Isabel married Wm. Enslow, and both lived and died in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. Rebecca married Samuel McNamara, of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, but soon left her husband and never again married.Her remains are buried in the old Meeting House Hill burying ground near Conneautville. Catherine married Thomas Foster, a nephew of John Foster, and both lived and died near Conneautville. Robert married a miss Carr, of Cumberland county, and afterwards died in Indiana. Andrew married and died in southern Ohio. Samuel married Eleanor Love, of Huntington county, Pennsylvania, and moved to portage county, Ohio where he died in 1828. His mother died in the same week, aged 97 years.

John Simison, the elder, at one time in his young days, in company with others, were engaged in the rescue of Stephen Stump and his hired man, who had been arrested and confined in the county jail at Carlisle for killing Indians. The Indians The Indians had murdered the wife and child of Mr. Stump, and in retaliation he and his hired man had killed them--six in number--the same ones that had murdered Mrs. Stump and her child; at least they were the same that had been seen leaving the Stump residence soon after the murder.

Another story, characteristic of the man, is told by Andrew Simison . Before the Revolutionary War, he and his brother, John, were engaged in trading with the Indians near Pittsburg, then called Fort Pitt. Their trade was mostly in furs. While in this business Andrew was taken with a severe attack of rheumatism. In order to get relief he consulted an Indian doctor. A steam bath was prescribed. In order to administer this treatment the doctor heated a number of stones and placed them in water under his patient. after giving him a thorough steaming the patient was thrown into the river. The cold water so chilled Andrew that he came near dying. He was so crippled and drawn up from this treatment that his brother John, and other friends, had to carry him in a stretcher several hundred miles to his home east of the mountains. But he finally recovered, and was afterwards drafted as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and died of rheumatism in the army in 1777.

From Crawford County Genealogy Volume X, Number 2 1987

pages 75-76

Published by The Crawford County Genealogical Society

Meadville, Pennsylvania

Mrs. Spencer also is a descendant of John Simison, and kindly sent us a copy of a clipping from the Harrisburg, Pa. .Sunday Patriot-News, of Aug. 29, 1982. Mrs. Spencer and a cousin, Dorothy (Simison) Mastrodonato, were instrumental in placing a marker on the grave of 2nd Lt John Simison, b. in Scotland in 1724, d. 1796, bur. Centre Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Loysville, Perry Co, Pa. He was a veteran of the French & Indian War, As well as of the Revolution.

From Crawford County Genealogy Volume XII, number 1, 1989

pages 56-57 additions and corrections

Ref.: Josephine A. (Mrs. H. H.) Spencer, Holly, Mich

Vol. X, No. 2. p. 71:

Submitted by Roy Wallace Simison