ROBERT TENNENT SIMPSON Photo by Sandra Hughes (Find-A-Grave) Robert Tennent Simpson, prominent Attorney-at-law, Florence, Ala., son of John and Margaret (Patton) Simpson, natives, respectively, of Tyrone and Belfast, Ireland. The senior Mr. Simpson came to America in 1818, settled at Florence, engaged at mercantile business, and at the end of seven years, returned to Ireland and married. Bringing his wife to America, they lived at Florence the rest of their days. They reared four sons and two daughters. Three of his sons were in the Confederate Army. John Simpson, Jr., First Lieutenant of Lauderdale Volunteers, was killed at Manassas. The subject of this sketch is a graduate of Princeton College, class of 1859 and of the law department of the Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., class of 1850. Immediately after leaving Lebanon, he began the practice of law at Des Arc. Ark., and was there at the outbreak of the war. In April, 1861, he enlisted as private in the Fourth Alabama Regiment, and took part with that regiment in the first battle of Manassas, and, shortly thereafter, was appointed second lieutenant in the First Alabama Battalion of Artillery. He was afterward promoted to first lieutenant in that command. He was cut off from his command when Fort Morgan was besieged, and assigned to duty as adjutant-general of General Liddell's Brigade. While serving in that capacity, he was elected captain of one of the companies in the Sixty-third Alabama Regiment, which position he accepted, and commanded the company through the sieges at Spanish fort and Blakely. At the surrender of his command, at the last named place, on April 9 1865, he was taken as a prisoner of war to Ship Island, where he remained till the command was brought to Jackson, Tenn., and there paroled in May, 1865. After the close of the war he settled at Camden, Ala., where he practiced law until 1870, at which time he returned to Florence. He was elected to the Legislature in 1882. and to the Senate from the district composed of Lauderdale and Limestone Counties in 1884. In both houses of the General Assembly, Captain Simpson proved himself an active and useful member. He was married at Florence. September, 1801, to Miss Mattie Collier, daughter of Mr. Wyat Collier, of Lauderdale County. To this union have been born one son and four daughters : the former is a student at law, in Kansas. Captain Simpson is a member of the Knights of Honor and Knights and Ladies of Honor; President of the Board of Trustees of the Female Synodical College of Florence, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Northern Alabama Historical & Biographical by T.A. DeLand and A. Davis Smith 1888 Birmingham AL Born 5 June 1837 - died 12 August 1912. Buried at Florence Cemetery