Benjamin C. Simmons, a teacher residing at Double Bridges, Tenn., was born in
Hardeman County, Tenn., August 23, 1838, and is the fifth child of a family of
four sons and two daughters born to Willoughby D. and Maria (Brady) Simmons,
and is of French-Scotch descent. His father was born in Halifax County, N.
C., in 1802, and came to Tennessee in 1836, settling in Gibson County, near
Trenton. A year later he moved to Hardeman County and in 1849 to Fayette
County, where he died March 16, 1855. The mother was born in Edgecombe
County, N. C., and died in Hardeman County, Tenn., in 1843. Our subject was
raised on a farm, and after attending the schools in the county entered
Madison College, at Spring Creek, Madison Co., Tenn.; then took a course at
Leddin’s Commercial College, at Memphis, Tenn., and from the time he left
college until 1868, he followed book-keeping; then commenced teaching, which
he still continues. He enlisted in the Confederate Army, Ninth Tennessee
Infantry, and served four years; was in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro,
Perryville and Chickamauga; was captured several time, but only held a
prisoner a short time. He was wounded four times at Chickamauga and was
paroled at Atlanta at the close of the war. He was married in Fayette County
July 10, 1872, to Miss Emma Nevills, a daughter of Andrew Nevills, a farmer.
Two daughters were born to this union: Rhea, born November 12, 1876, and Oma
Iola, born July 12, 1878. Mrs. Simmons was born in Hardeman County, October
15, 1855. Mr. Simmons is a Democrat and cast his first presidential vote for
Jefferson Davis, of the Confederate States, and the next for Horace Greeley.
He is a member of the F. & A. M., the K. of H. and of the G. C., and of the
Baptist Church. He owns 165 acres of fine land, his residence being at Double
Bridges, fifteen miles north of Ripley, Tenn.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN