Simpson Columbus Hearne (1839-1918)

My Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather, married Christiana Francis Carlton

Simpson Columbus Hearne, the son of Cyrus Robert Hearne and Charlotte Alexander was born March 10, 1839, in Henry County, Tennessee.  He and his brother Orren worked on the family farm from a young age. When he was eighteen, he joined the Turkey Creek Baptist Church where he was ordained a year later in 1858. In 1861 when the civil war broke out, he joined the 5th Tennessee Regiment as a soldier. Two years later he was appointed chaplain and served in that capacity until the end of the war. He was said to be very eloquent and “in his zeal hundreds of rough soldiers were led to Christ; the revival meetings carried by him quite popular and wonderful to see.”

[Photo: Famous photograph by Matthew Brady taken at the Battle of Bull Run of a chaplain providing services to soldiers in 1861]

During the war, it was a chaplain’s duty to console, comfort and encourage those that waivered in the face of death. Chaplains prayed with the wounded and dying They helped to prepare soldiers for impending death. By recording last words and witnessing deaths, chaplains provided crumbs of consolation for grieving relatives, reassuring them that their son, husband, or brother had “died peacefully in the hope of Christ.”

In April of 1864, while he was on furlough from the bloody Battle of Chickamauga, Simpson visited Fannie Carlton, the fiancé of one of the men in his unit, to give her the terrible news of his passing. They fell in love and were married before he left to return to the battlefield. Nine months later on January 13, 1865, my great grandmother, Anna Letita Hearne was born. Anna was quite fond of telling people, “I was born in the year of the surrender!”

[Photo: Simpson Columbus Hearne]

Simpson and Fannie had another daughter, Rosa Carlton, in 1868 and the family moved to Opelkia Alabama. He listed his occupation in the 1870 census as “preacher of the gospel.” Simpson tired of the ministry and apparently of Alabama. He returned to Tennessee, bought and sold land, and studied law. He put his eloquence to work. As a lawyer and it was said that “his power before a jury was wonderful and his success phenomenal.” He also served for a term in the State Legislature and made an unsuccessful bid to run for US Congress. When he reached point when he felt financially secure, he re-entered the ministry and hoped “by God’s grace to continue in the harness to the end.”

No matter what profession he entered throughout his work life Simpson used his eloquence and force of character to hold the attention of his audience. John D C Atkins, a member of the US House of Representatives and Colonel in the Confederate army said of Simpson that he, “had more power over his audience than any other man he had ever heard.”

Between 1870 and 1880, Fannie gave birth to four more children. One died as a toddler, but the rest went on to lead successful lives. For the next twenty plus years he continued to work as a minister until ill health he forced him to retire. He and Fannie moved in with their daughter Rosa in Louisville, Kentucky. He was living there when he died at the age of 80 of kidney disease on November 1, 1918. His obituary announced, “Aged Minister Called Home” and described him as “a man of unusual intellect who had experienced a decidedly active life of long and useful stewardship here on earth.” His body was brought home to his beloved Paris, Tennessee where he was laid to rest.

[Photo: Simpson Columbus Headstone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee.]