Mr. Simmons was a natural mechanic and had ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/livoniahistoricalsocietymi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Sim.png?resize=236%2C200&ssl=1\")
brought a few tools with him to the west and these served him a good turn in the support of his family.\u00a0A\u00a0day of mechanical labor would then command two days of unskilled labor on farm or in forest, and Mr. Simmons turned all his skills to the best account. He built the first frame barn in the town of Plymouth, this being on the farm of Erastus Starkweather, erected in 1827.\u00a0 In his own Township of Livonia, he also built the first barn of that description upon his own farm in 1829. He hewed the timber for the first mill of Plymouth, and also for the first one in the Township of Farmington, this being the mill of Edward Steel on the stream above Farmington Village.<\/p>\n
The first election Mr. Simmons participated in was held somewhere in the town of Dearborn and to reach the polls he, in company with a neighbor, started before daylight on foot following a line of \u2018blazed trees\u2019 many miles through the forest. His vote for supervisor was cast for Rev. Marcus Swift, who was competing for honors of that office with Mr. TenEyck, of hotel notoriety. Mr. Swift was elected by a majority of two. In politics Mr. Simmons had\u00a0always been a democrat of the Jacksonian school, and in religious faith a Universalist.<\/p>\n
By the most persistent and unremitting toil, Mr. Simmons cleared his land and gave it a thorough cultivation. In due time, the old log cabin was demolished and in its place in the year 1841 he erected a new residence, which at that time was universally acknowledged to be the finest farm house in the county.\u00a0Mr. S.P. Lyon of Farmington was architect and builder.
\nFrom his farm and his other enterprises he had\u00a0amassed an ample fortune, and about eight years after\u00a0retiring\u00a0from all active business, resolved to spend the remnant of his days in ease and quiet with the partner of his youth, and with the children who delight to do him honor.<\/p>\n
Joshua died on his eighty-first birthday, April 12, 1882. His wife Hannah went to live with her daughter, Mary Sprague, at whose home she died May 31, 1884. She was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, April 19, 1807, daughter of Joshua and Mary Macomber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"