AN APPRECIATION 
by Carlee McClendon

As a representative of the Edgefield County Historical Society, I am
honored to share in this occasion that commemorates a son of Edgefield
who made a noteworthy contribution to his day and generation.

A cottage on Columbia Road near the village reminds us of the birth
and childhood of Dr. Simkins, and of his parents, Hon. Samuel McGowan
Simkins and Mrs. Sarah Lewis Simkins. The Edgefield Village Cemetery,
too, reminds us of those beloved parents who rest among the heroes of
Edgefield's yesteryear.

The life of Francis Butler Simkins did not begin, however, in 1897 in
Edgefield. It had its beginning generations before, perhaps, with the
coming of pioneers of the family from the Old World to the New. He was
in the making when Arthur Simkins and his family came to South
Carolina, built their home, "Cedar Fields," and surrounded it with
beautiful gardens; when Colonel Simkins fought for the Patriots in the
American Revolution and rebuilt "Cedar Fields" after its destruction
by Tories; when he met with commissioners to lay off Ninety-Six
District into counties and to found Edgefield as the courthouse town
near his own fields and woods; when he served as Judge of the early
Quorum Court; when he sat as Moderator at the founding of the first
Church in the village.

No doubt Francis Butler Simkins caught some of the spirit of his
immediate grandfather, Col. John C. Simkins who fell mortally wounded
at Battery Wagner during the War Between the States, leaving a bereft
wife and children; and leaving to his family a priceless heritage of
devotion to the South.

Even as the pen of Dr. Simkins captured the Spirit of the South, he,
himself, became a part of that history. Now he sleeps in the soil of
Virginia, the State where his forebears first settled in the New
World, and has left to those in Edgefield who knew and loved him a
cherished memory.

Likewise to the unborn he gives a challenge to uphold the Spirit of
the South and the Spirit of his village of Edgefield, South Carolina.