Faulk County, SD Biographies.....Simmons, Anna R. 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm
************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 8, 2005, 11:34 pm

Author: Mrs. A. M. A. Pickler

[By Mrs. A. M. A. Pickler]



    MRS. ANNA R. SIMMONS was born in Nashville, Ohio, and came with her parents

to Muscatine, Iowa. Later her home was in Tipton, Iowa, where she resided a

number of years. She was educated at Cornell college, Iowa and ranked among the

foremost as a student.



    In 1873 she was united in marriage with Rev. Thomas Simmons, an honored

member of the South Dakota Annual Conference and Methodist Episcopal church. No

woman who ever lived or worked in South Dakota is more widely known or more

thoroughly respected than Mrs. Simmons, who for six years was president of the

South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association, and for nine years vice president of

the South Dakota Woman's Christian Temperance Union.



    For more than twenty-five years, she has labored in reform work, ever

seconding her husbands efforts in his ministerial labors, toiling unceasingly

for the betterment of humanity.



    She has rendered South Dakota most valuable service in legislative work. The

passage of the equal suffrage amendment by the state legislature in 1898 was

largely due to her efforts. As a speaker she is earnest and convincing, always

impressing her hearers with her honesty of purpose and nobility of soul.



    A few years ago Miss Susan B. Anthony invited Mrs. Simmons to address the

franchise committee of the United States senate. No address before the committee

was better received or called forth more enthusiastic applause. Mrs. Simmons'

lecture at Lake Madison Chautauqua was pronounced strong and logical. Her

services have been in demand not only in this, but in every state of the Union.



    While Mrs. Simmons has been wonderfully successful as a reformer, there are

few who would undergo the personal sacrifice and hardship which have come to

her. She has more than once tested the truthfulness of the words, "no lonliness

is more lonely, no separation more absolute, no tears more hot and bitter than

is experienced in the lot of those who would change the world's destiny, heal

its sores and quiet its pains," but believing she was doing the Master's

service, she has gone forward with steadfastness of purpose and unfaltering faith.



    Rev. and Mrs. Simmons came to Dakota in 1884, and their work in this state

has been a benediction to many lives.



    Long may this gentle comrade live to work and pray!



"For the cause that lacks assistance,

    For the wrongs that need resistence,

For the future in the distance,

    And the good that she can do.”



Additional Comments:
From:



HISTORY OF

FAULK COUNTY

SOUTH DAKOTA

CAPTAIN C. H. ELLIS



TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND PROMINENT CITIZENS



ILLUSTRATED

19O9

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/faulk/bios/gbs9simmons.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/

File size: 3.2 Kb