Michael Simmons (pioneer)

For other people with the same name, see Michael Simmons.

Michael Troutman Simmons (August 5, 1814 – November 15, 1867) was an American pioneer and one of the first white men to settle in the Puget Sound.^[2]

Michael Simmons
Simmons c. 1865
Born	(1814-08-05)August 5, 1814 Bullitt County, Kentucky, US
Died	November 15, 1867(1867-11-15) (aged 53) Tumwater, Washington Territory
Burial place	Masonic Memorial Park[1]
Occupation(s)	Pioneer, Miller, Trader
Known for	Founder of the first permanent American settlement north of the Columbia River
Spouse	Elizabeth Kindred (b.1820–d.1891) (m. 1835)
Children	13

Biography

Simmons was one of ten children, born in Kentucky in 1814. As a boy, he moved with his mother to Pike County, Illinois. When Michael was 21 years old, he moved to Iowa and married a 15-year-old girl named Elizabeth Kindred. Five years later, the couple moved to Missouri and Michael built a gristmill.^[3]

In late 1845, at the age of 30, he decided to abandon the Midwest and came to the Puget Sound on a wagon train with a group of settlers (including his friend George Bush). He assumed leadership of the new settlers, who gave him the title of "Colonel".^[2] After taking advice from the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Nisqually, the new American settlers founded New Market (later Tumwater).^[4][5] Despite its help, three years later Simmons led a campaign of complaints against the "monarchist" Hudson's Bay Company.^[6]

At New Market, Simmons exploited the power of Tumwater Falls to construct mills, organizing the Puget Sound Milling Co. with Edmund Sylvester, Antonio B. Rabbeson and others in August 1847.^[7][8]

In 1850, Simmons sold his interests at New Market to Clanrick Crosby^[9] and moved to Olympia.^[2][10] Simmons invested in shipping and, despite being illiterate, became Olympia's postmaster.

In 1850 he sold his rights along the Deschutes to Clanrick Crosby and moved to Olympia, where he operated a store. He sold the store in 1853 and moved to Mason County, where he took out a Donation Land Claim and built another saw mill in 1854.

After the appointment of Isaac Stevens as the first governor of newly established Washington Territory, Simmons was appointed Indian Agent in 1854, and in 1855 was charged with preparing the enforcement of Governor Steven's Indian treaties.^[11]

Simmons died on November 15, 1867^[12] from acute hepatitis.^[9]

Children

Simmons is known to have had 13 children (one lost in infancy):^[9][13]

1. Stephen Douglass Simmons (d. 1852)
2. David Kindred Simmons (1838–1882)
3. Francis Marion Simmons (1841–1924)
4. McDonald Simmons (1843–1906)
5. Christopher Columbus Simmons (1845–1931)
6. Benjamin Franklin Simmons (1848–1925)
7. Charlotte Elizabeth Simmons Koontz (1850–1929)
8. Catharine Simmons Bannon (1857–1941)
9. Charles Mason Simmons (1860–1944)
10. Michael Troutman Simmons Jr. (1862–1939)
11. George Washington Simmons (1837–1929)
12. Douglas Woodburg Simmons (1852–1852)
13. Mary Allen Simmons (1853–1919)