Birth: Feb. 2, 1741 in Maryland

Death: May 10, 1839 in Ohio 

As America prepares for its 250th anniversary, CV Weekly will be working with the Daughters of the American Revolution – Don José Verdugo Chapter to gather information on those recognized by DAR as American patriots. 

Michael Simmons was born in 1741 on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania. His parents were Lutheran Swiss-German immigrants.

In 1764 at the age of 23, he fought in the Narragansett-Indian War after a band of Indian marauders pillaged the countryside and burned the family home with all of their possessions. The family escaped to the woods but at the time of the attack, Michael and his younger brother, working in the fields, were captured by the Indians. Michael was shot with numerous arrows and although he was seriously wounded he escaped but his younger brother was captured. 

Tortured and scalped, his brother survived but Michael, because of his brother‘s experience, became so embittered by the experience that he became a staunch Indian fighter. Later, during the Revolutionary War, he served under Abner Howell in the Washington Co. Pennsylvania Militia and fought as a private at the battle of Cowpens and other lesser known battles. In 1781, he paid the supply tax.

After the war in 1800, he purchased land in the Ohio frontier and what is known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. He married three times and fathered 18 children. When he died in 1839 at the age of 98, his descendants numbered 485 –16 of them were in the fourth generation.

His proud descendent is Lucinda, Eleanor Frank.