<p>John W. Simmons was born on May 18, 1816, in Georgia, in either Putnam or Oglethorpe counties. His family moved to Harris County, Georgia and were living there in 1832. He married Lorena Welden on November 30, 1837, in Harris County, Georgia, and started a family. He and Lorena lived on a farm in the north western part of Harris County. They had several children before moving to Alabama. After the recording of the 1840 census, John and Lorena have moved across the Chattahoochee River into Chambers County, Alabama. By 1856 he had moved his large family to an area in eastern Tallapoosa County known as Church Hill. When war came in 1861 his two eldest sons, Henry and Allen Simmons, enlisted with the 47th Alabama Infantry in Company B. Both sons were lost in the Gettysburg campaign in 1863. One was killed in action at Gettysburg and the other was captured and died in POW camp at Ft.Delaware. John's younger son, Tillman S. Simmons, enlisted in the 2nd Alabama Reserve Regiment later designated the 63rd Alabama Infantry and fought at Mobile,Spanish Fort, and Blakely. John at age 48 enlisted as a private in Company A of the 3rd Alabama Reserve Infantry Regiment at Camp Watts near Notasulga, Alabama on the 1st of April 1864. He served until the 4th of April 1865. He survived the war and remained in the area of Tallapoosa, Chambers, and Lee Counties of Alabama until his death April 18th 1902. He and his wife are buried at Roxana Methodist Church Cemetery in Lee County, Alabama.</p>
