Andrew D. Simpson, an enterprising merchant of Rogersville, of the firm of A. D. Simpson & Co., was born at Rogersville, August 26, 1854, the son of William and Mary T. (Davidson) Simpson. The father was of Irish descent and was born at Rogersville in 1822, where he died January 23, 1886. The mother was born at Abingdon, Va., in 1833, and died at Rogersville in the fall of 1854. The parents were married at Rogersville about 1852. The father remarried about 1857 to Miss Lou Potter, of Manchester, Ky. The father was engaged in the mercantile business all of his life at Rogersville, and was very successful. He was a Democrat. Subject is the only child. He secured a good education in his youth at Rogersville, and began life (1870) by clerking in his father’s store, and he has been engaged in the mercantile business ever since. He is now, in connection with his step-mother and a half brother, R. E. Simpson, engaged in an extensive mercantile interest – one store at Rogersville and one at New Canton, eighteen miles northeast of Rogersville. Both houses do a business of between $75,000 and $100,000 a year. Subject is not a member of any church, but his in sympathy with the Presbyterian Church. He is a Democrat.

Transcribed by Betty Mize from Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1886.