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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 883
MALACHI SIMONS, of the town of Fennimore, Grant county, represents one of the old pioneer families of the community. He was born in Cornwall, England, Feb. 9, 1833, a son of Nicholas and Christina SIMONS. In 1848 the father and his eldest son, Nicholas SIMONS, crossed the ocean, and came to Wisconsin, and went to work in the mines at Hazel Green. The next year he sent for the mother and the remaining four children, and about two years later they all settled on a farm in the town of Jamestown. In 1856 the father pre-empted land in the town of Mount Ida, and there made a homestead, residing there until his death, Dec. 30, 1879, at the age of eighty-three. In his early life he was a steward for a lord of a manor, and at a later period was overseer of mines. When he came to this country he naturally turned to the mines for an immediate living. His wife died July 30, 1873, at the age of seventy-years. Their children were: Nicholas, who died Jan. 10, 1871, at the age of forty-three, leaving a wife and six children; Malachi was the second; Frederick died Dec. 12, 1864, at the age of twenty-seven, leaving a wife and one child; William resides on the old homestead in the town of Mount Ida; Jane married Elijah ROGERS, and died in 1874, leaving a husband and five children. Malachi and William are the only members of the family living at the present writing.
Malachi SIMONS was about sixteen years old when he came to the United States, and has lived in Grant county since that time, having been a resident of Mount Ida for more than half a century. For many years he followed mining. Mr. SIMONS purchased a farm in the town of Mount Ida April 4, 1857, and here he lived for four years, when he moved to Fennimore, where his home has been to the present time.
On May 11, 1852, Mr. SIMONS wedded Mary Elizabeth SEMMENS, a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth SEMMENS. She was born in Cornwall, England, in 1827, where her parents lived and died. Mrs. SIMONS was married in England to William ROW, in 1848; soon after their marriage they came to this country and located in Maryland, remaining nearly three years, and then settled in Dubuque, Iowa, where Mr. ROW died in 1851, during the cholera epidemic. Mr. and Mrs. SIMONS have two children, a son and a daughter, Richard, on the home farm; and Katie, the wife of Adam HILL, of the town of Mount Ida. A daughter, Grace, died Sept. 14, 1863, when ten years old. Mrs. SIMONS had two children by her first husband, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann DEMPSY, of Fennimore, and Mrs. Mary Jane ROGERS, of South Dakota.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck