Simkins, Eldred J.

Biography

Eldred J. Simkins, 1 around whom the papers focus, was born Oct. 13, 1838, in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. In 1843, his parents, Eldred Simkins and Pattie (Bythewood) Simkins, moved their family (which included children William Stewart and Pattie) to Monticello, Florida. Soon after the move, both parents died and the children returned to the Beaufort District of South Carolina where they were raised by their maternal grandparents, Sarah (Fickling) Bythewood and Benjamin Russell Bythewood. Among the other residents of the Bythewood's Beaufort plantation household were Anne Maria (Bythewood) Trescot, a married daughter, and her two children, Eliza Josephine Trescot and E. Bocquet Trescot. Anne Maria Trescot's physician husband, Edward Henry Trescot (probably the brother of William Henry Trescot, diplomat and historian) went to California in 1849 to search for gold and never returned to South Carolina.

Having graduated in 1859 from South Carolina College in Columbia, Eldred J. Simkins was studying law with his uncle, Frank Fickling (who married Sarah Bythewood of Beaufort) when the Civil War broke out. Simkins enlisted July 28, 1861, at Grahamsville, S.C., as a private in Company C, Cavalry Battalion, Hampton Legion, and he served in West Virginia and Virginia before ending up in the hospital at Howard's Grove near Richmond in September, 1862. In December, 1862, Simkins was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the 1st Regiment of South Carolina Artillery; during 1863, he was again promoted to first lieutenant. Simkins served in various companies at fortifications in and around the Charleston harbor until the Confederate troops abandoned Charleston in early 1865. Until the war's end, the regiment marched and fought in South and North Carolina with Rhett's brigade, which was part of the Talliaferro division of Johnston's army.

Eliza Josephine Trescot and other members of the Trescot and Bythewood families remained at the Beaufort plantation until the region was taken by U.S. forces in November, 1861. Apparently, the plantation was confiscated. With the exception of Eliza Trescot and her brother, Bocquet, the family evacuated to Madison County, Florida, where Joseph Bythewood, a son of Sarah and Benjamin Bythewood, worked a plantation called "Blythewood." Eliza obtained a teaching position with Mrs. Catherine G. White in Monck's Corner, S.C., where she remained for almost two years before leaving in mid-1863 to take another post with the Elias Earle family in Anderson, S.C. Bocquet Trescot eventually joined the Confederate navy.

In 1860, Eliza Trescot and Eldred Simkins began a correspondence which lasted through their wartime separation. They were engaged to marry, broke the engagement, and became engaged again in late 1863. After months of discussion, they were finally married in December, 1864, in Florida. Eliza remained in Florida until the end of the war, whereupon Eliza and Eldred settled on Eldred's inherited property in Monticello, Florida. Simkins practiced law with his brother, William Stewart, and in 1868, was elected Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee.

In 1871, Eldred and Eliza Simkins moved to Corsicana, Texas, where Eldred edited the local newspaper until he was elected District Attorney for the 25th Judicial District. More appointive and elective offices followed: 1882 - Regent, University of Texas; 1884 - Delegate, Democratic National Convention; 1886 & 1890 - State Senator, 15th Senatorial District; 1892 - Court of Criminal Appeals. Prior to his election to the Senate, Simkins also practiced law with his brother, William Stewart, who followed Eldred to Texas in 1873. Following Eldred's failure to win reelection to the Court in 1894, he again practiced law with his brother. This partnership was dissolved in 1899 when William Stewart Simkins accepted a teaching job at the law school of the University of Texas.

After the Civil War, Eliza's mother, Anne Maria (Bythewood) Trescot, joined her husband, Edward, who had been in Mariposa County, California, since 1849. Her son, Bocquet, who followed her to California, raised sheep in the vicinity. Neither family prospered and Bocquet, who married Matilda Givens in California in 1875, left California for Texas sometime after the late 1870's. When her husband died, Anne Maria Trescot also moved to Texas. Living alternately with both her children, Anne Trescot died in 1911 at the age of 91.

Eliza and Eldred Simkins had five children, Martha ("Mattie"), Benjamin B. ("Ben"), Joseph Stewart ("Joe"), Frances Earle ("Fannie"), and Emma. Martha, who never married, pursued a fairly successful career as a portrait artist after training in Paris and New York City. Hopeful of a career in music, Ben studied in New York City in the 1890's, but returned to Corsicana and the real estate business. Joe, born in 1877, attended the University of Texas and practiced law in Corsicana. Fannie, who also studied music, married Louis V. Rousseau in New York in 1910, had a daughter, Louise, the same year, and was divorced in 1911. She apparently supported herself by teaching. Nothing is known about the youngest child, Emma, who does not figure in the correspondence.

By 1901, Eldred Simkins was ill, and spent much time at hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and Austin, Tex. On June 25, 1903, he died. Eliza moved to Dallas after Eldred's death, but also spent time with her children in New York City, Provincetown, Mass., Woodstock, N.Y., Abilene, Tex., and Corsicana. She seems to have occupied herself by devising schemes to enlarge the family's fortune until her death in 1934.

1 Eldred J. Simkins' middle name appears variously James and Joseph in the genealogical papers and in printed sources.

From the guide to the Eldred J. Simkins Collection, 1842-1977, (The Huntington Library)