Early Life
Born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, Simpson moved with his family to Oneida County, New York when he was six. Although he did poorly in school, he was very intelligent and a voracious reader. During the Civil War, he served in the Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but was discharged for medical reasons.
After the war, Simpson moved to Indiana, where he signed on as a deckhand on a steamship that traversed the Great Lakes. By the time he had risen to the position of captain, he had married and started a family. Deciding to live a more stationary life, he moved to Jackson County, Kansas and bought a farm.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Simpson
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)