Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/570

536 cure local self-government and the creation of a Union reform party in South Carolina.

'''SIMONSON. John Smith''', soldier, b. in Uniontown, Pa., 2 June. 1796; d. in New Albany, Ind., 5 Dec., 1881. His father, Adam Smith Simonson, was a well-known physician of western Pennsvlvinia. When but seventeen years old he enlisted in the New York volunteers and served as sergeant through the campaign on the Niagara frontier, receiving an honorable discharge in November. 1814. Three years later he settled in Charlestown. Ind. He was a member of the state senate in 182S-'30. and in 1841-'6 of the lower house, serving as speaker during the last year. In 1846 he was appointed captain of U. S. mounted rifles, and served through the Mexican war under Gen. Scott, engaging in the capture of Vera Cruz and the battles that followed. He was brevetted major in 1847 for gallant service at Chapultepec, where he commanded his regiment alter the fall of its colonel, and he also took a creditable part in the attack on the Belen gate. The succeeding years were spent on duty in Texas and New Mexico, commanding expeditions against the Indians and in making explorations. In May, 18(31, he was promoted colonel of the 3d cavalry, and he was retired in the following September. At the opening of the civil war he was made superintendent of the volunteer recruiting service at Indianapolis, Ind., and he continued on active military duty till 1869. In 1865, on tin- recommendation of Gen. Grant, he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. army, for long and faithful service.

SIMONTON, James William, journalist, b. in Columbia county. N. Y., 30 Jan., 1823; d. in Napa, Cal., 2 Nov., 1882. He went as a lad to New York city, and was educated at the public schools there. At twenty years of age he was engaged as local reporter on the " Courier and Enquirer." Within a year or two he was sent, with Henry J. Raymond, to Washington as congressional correspondent, and he continued as such until 1850, winning, by his ability and conscientiousness, the confidence and esteem of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton, and other statesmen. In the autumn of 1851, when the New York "Times" was founded, he was one of the original proprietors with George Jones, Henry J. Raymond, and others, and soon went to Washington again as its correspondent, as well as the correspondent of New Orleans, San Francisco, and Detroit journals. His letters, entitled " The History of Legislation," were really a record of the times, and drew wide attention. He became part owner in 1859 of the ' Evening Bulletin" in San Francisco, where he lived for years, and subsequently of the "Morning Call," of the same city, retaining his interest throughout life. Having returned to New York, he was chosen in 186? general agent of the associated press there, and discharged the duties of the office for fourteen years, when he resigned on account of delicate health. He then retired to his California vineyard, and died there suddenly of heart disease.

SIMPSON, Edmund, theatre-manager, b. in England in 1784; d. in New York city, 31 July, 1848. He made his theatrical début at the Towcester theatre in England in May, 1806, as Baron Steinfort in Kotzebue's &ldquo;Stranger.&rdquo; In this country Simpson first appeared at the New York Park theatre on 22 Oct., 1809, as Hurry Dornton in &ldquo;The Road to Ruin.&rdquo; In 1828, when playing the part of Faustus in the drama of that name. one of his legs was broken by an accident to the stage-machinery, and he was crippled for life. His last performance was Dazzle in &ldquo;London Assurance.&rdquo;

As a comedian, Simpson was studious and painstaking, and in his delineations intelligent and respectable, but there was ever attached to his representations a hardness of manner that interfered with his popularity. In 1810 he became stage-manager, and remained permanently connected with the one playhouse as actor, stage-manager, and manager for thirty-eight years. It was his privilege to introduce nearly all the noted British players of his day to American audiences. From 1821 until 1840 Simpson was working-manager to Stephen Price, the lessee of the theatre, but on the death of Price he assumed the sole management. During his career he went through several trials of adversity, and finally retired, 6 June, 1848, under discouragement and in reduced circumstances. Under Simpson's direction the old Park theatre, or &ldquo;The Theatre,&rdquo; as the show-bills named it, was noted for its well-drilled and efficient stock-company. The scenery of this noted resort was made up of flats and drops of the simplest construction, the properties were cheap, worn, and few in number, the costumes flimsy and tinselled, and the auditorium, before the rising of the curtain, usually filled with the stifling leakage of gas. The boxes were painted in white and gold, with the first and second tiers divided into a series of screened lock-boxes. A separate stairway led to the third tier and the gallery. This third tier was an assembling-place for the dissolute of both sexes; one half the gallery was patronized by boys, servants, and sailors, and the remainder was devoted to the accommodation of negroes. What is now known as the parterre was called the pit. It was fitted with hard wooden benches, and the admission to it was half-price. Here the bachelors, critics, and wits of the day found their places. Drinking-bars, united with apple-, pie-, and peanut-stands, were connected with the pit and the upper tier of boxes. As Mrs. Trollope has truly pictured, it was not an uncommon thing to see men rise on the front rows of the dress-circle in their shirt-sleeves, and between the acts turn their backs to the audience, while their better-halves sat munching apples and peeling oranges. Not seldom the entertainments of an evening comprised a five-act tragedy, a comedy, and an olio diversion, that terminated at twelve or one o'clock. The old Park theatre, represented in the illustration, was a wooden, barn-like structure, fronting about eighty feet on Park row, and rising to the height of sixty or seventy feet, painted in imitation of blocks of granite. '''SIMPSON. Edward,''' naval officer. 1.. in New York city. 3 March, 1824, d. in Washinghton, D.C., 2 Dec., 1888. He entered the navy as midshipman, 11 Feb., 1840, was in the First class at the naval academy in 1845-'6, and was graduated in the latter year. During the Mexican war he was attached to the steamer "Vixen," in which he participated in various engagements, including the bombardment