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Note: Scotland Marriage Record:
Name: Robert Simpson
Spouse: Rose Lawson
Marriage Date: 16 Apr 1825
Location: Turriff, Aberdeen Shire, Scotland
The Robert Simpson family came to America from Scotland in about 1838 and took up government land near what is now known as Libertyville, Illinois, twenty years before the village of Lake Forest was in existence. The Simpson family was connected with the early history of Northern Illinois. They, with the Steele family, built the first saw mill at Port Clinton, between Highwood and Highland Park, Illinois. From this mill, oak plank was brought by lake to be used in planking the streets of Chicago, then a village of about 2,500 inhabitants.
Port Clinton, Illinois: The 1850's were clearly destined to be a decade of unprecedented growth throughout the western Great Lakes. A growing number of vessels were being built to carry lumber from forest to growing cities along the shores. A throng of immigrants were heading along the Erie Canal, through Buffalo to seek new lives on the frontier, and with the planned opening of the new lock at Sault Ste. Marie, shipments of copper, iron and grain would soon be heading down the river from Lake Superior bound for Chicago, Detroit and the growing industrial centers in the east. To take advantage of this burgeoning population and trade potential, speculators and investors were searching throughout the area for locations in which to establish new towns, each of them firmly convinced that their infant communities would become the "next Chicago".
It was such a dream that brought German immigrants John Hettinger and John Peterman to a high bluff approximately 23 miles north of Chicago in 1847 where they platted their community of St. John. Although over the following three years they established a brickyard and a 450-foot pier on the lakeshore, a lack of connecting roads to the north and south barred the town's growth, and they sold their interests in the town to John Clinton Bloom in 1850. Bloom immediately renamed the town as "Port Clinton" in his own honor, and seeking to capitalize on the seemingly endless forests to the west, Bloom and his partners set up large sawmill which by 1853 was supplying lumber to fuel the Chicago building boom.
Likely as a result of political pressure applied by Bloom and his associates to provide an air of permanence and importance to their harbor, US Representative Elihu B. Washburne introduced a bill before Congress calling for the establishment of a lighthouse at Port Clinton on December 6, 1853. After further pressure from fellow Illinois Congressman Stephen A. Douglas in pushing the matter over the ensuing year, Congress was finally convinced to pass an appropriation of $5,000 for the construction of a lighthouse at Port Clinton on August 3rd 1854.
A contract for construction was awarded in 1855, and the work completed the following year. The station took the form of a small but substantial 1 'bd-story brick dwelling with a cylindrical brick tower connected at the center of its lakeward gable end. Capped by an octagonal cast iron lantern housing a fixed white Sixth Order Fresnel lens, the center of the lantern stood 22 feet above the tower'b4s foundation. By virtue of its location atop a 52-foot bluff, the light featured a focal plane of 70 feet, and was visible for 6 nautical miles in clear weather.
While Bloom continued to develop the area, building a grain elevator and laying plank roads leading west into the wheat fields and south to Chicago, a devastating outbreak of cholera in the area in 1854 killed off many of the town'b4s occupants. After tracks were laid into the area by the Chicago and Northwestern railroad, a much faster and less expensive means for transporting area goods to the Windy City was provided. As such, Port Clinton never grew to reach its expected potential, and coming to the realization that the four year old lighthouse was in reality serving no maritime commerce, the Lighthouse Board closed the station in 1860.
The combination of the spreading growth of nearby Chicago and the existence of ready railroad transportation redefined the area over the ensuing decades. Renamed Highland Park, the area that was once Port Clinton developed into a residential bedroom community and resort area, with fine homes and hotels springing up to serve Chicago'b4s gentry. http://www.terrypepper.com/Lights/michigan/portclinton/portclinton.htm
From North East Illinois, US Land Office, District 9, that was centered in Chicago from 1834 to 1885, Robert Simpson was farming on 80 acres in Libertyville Township, Lake County, Illinois. The surveyors map or plat showed 16 sections of land that contained 640 acres each. Each section was divided into quadrants. Robert Simpson's acreage was described as the West half of the SE quadrant of Section 12.
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Robert Simpson, wife, Rose Ann Lawson, children Ellen, Barbara, James, George and Robert Simpson, Jr. arrived as a group in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1838. He filed his intention to become a citizen in the U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1838. Other arrival dates evidently expressed by individuals in their older years were guesses of folk that had lived a life devoid of genealogical concerns and were then trying to recall dim memories.
Source: "Index to Records of Aliens' Declarations of Intention and/or Oaths of Allegiance, 1789-1880, in U.S. Circuit Court...., Philadelphia" by U.S. Works Project Administration. Volume 10 ". Page 184. (Richard Simpson, 11 Jun 2013)
The first record of Robert Simpson, Sr. is for his marriage to Rose Ann Lawson in the Northeast Scotland town of Turriff. They spent their Scottish life in the North East Highlands and never were in Lowland Edinburgh. North East Scotland is a better birth location. (Richard Simpson, 13 Jun 2013)
Robert Simpson, Sr. on 11 June 1842 bought 80 acres of land at $1.25 per acre in Lake Township. It was located in the S. E. corner of the west half of section 12. The total cost was $100.00 cash. (Richard Simpson, 13 Jun 2013)
1850 US Census: Shield Township, Lake County, Illinois (Jun 1)
Robert Simpson, 42, Scotland, Farmer
Rose Ann, 42, Scotland
George, 18, Scotland
Roseann, 15, Scotland
Robert, 13, Scotland
Jannett, 7, Illinois
Andrew, 5, Illinois
The Simpson cemetery plot is number 6, block 4, Oakwood Cemetery in Waukegan, Illinois.
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