B. F. SIMMONS, owner of a valuable farm of 240 acres in Brown Township, Miami County, Ohio, comes of one of the very earliest families of the county. He was born in Spring Creek Township July 1848, and is a son of Peter Simmons. The family is of English origin and in America dates back to the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower. It became established in Virginia, where it flourished many years, then migrated westward to Ohio, first locating in Cincinnati. The Simmonses came to Miami, County when it was sparsely settled and almost wholly undeveloped, the great grandfather of the subject of this sketch entering all the land from Urbana Pike South one and a half miles and east one mile, including the square upon which Fletcher is situated; at that point he erected three houses. The great-grandmother of B. F. Simmons died near Staunton and was buried in a walnut log which bad been split open and hewn out.

Peter Simmons was born in Brown Township, Miami County, Ohio, and there grew to manhood. He engaged in farming there until 1853, then moved all his family to Indiana, where he became owner of a forty-acre farm. After his death, his widow and her two sons returned to a farm in Brown Township, Miami County, Ohio.

B.F. Simmons, after his return from Indiana, lived with his uncle, L. R. Simmons, until his marriage, at which time be purchased a part of his present farm. He erected a house on the place and lived in it with his family until 1903, when he moved to his present place, on which he had erected a fine modern eight-room frame house. He also built a substantial bank barn, and made many other desirable improvements. He carries on general farming and makes a specialty of raising livestock, at which be has been very successful.

Mr. Simmons was united in marriage with Rachel Jane Sanders, who was born and reared on the western part of what is now her husband's farm, and is a daughter of Elihue and Margaret Sanders of Spring Creek Township. The following children were born to them: Elmer E., who died at the age of fourteen years; Effie M., deceased wife of A. E. Wilson; J. W. Simmons who is in the elevator business in Shelby County and is the father of one child, Marjorie Ailene; Harry E., of Brown Township, who married Daisy Miller and has a daughter, Audrey Florence; F. W. Simmons, a resident of Dayton, has one son, Kenneth; and Charles L., who married Gertrude Motter. Religiously, the family belongs to the Christian Church. Mr. Simmons is a Democrat in politics, is a member of the School Board, and also of the County Agricultural Board. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Junior Order United American Mechanics. He belongs also to the National Horse Thief Association.