After the Campfires: The Simpson Family in Oregon & Beyond, 1846-1945

About the Book

This volume, written by Kirke Wilson, documents the Simpson family's crossing of the Oregon Trail in 1846 under the leadership of Ben Simpson. Ben went on to build four sawmills in Oregon; he had a sidewheeler vessel built to ply the waters of the Willamette River, and two schooners constructed to transport lumber from Oregon to San Francisco. He also managed the construction of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, served as an Indian agent, and undertook a host of other ventures.

The book also chronicles several of his descendants, including his son, Samuel Simpson, who became Oregon's poet laureate after writing the poem "The Beautiful Willamette"; his grandson Ernest Simpson, who was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle at the turn of the century; and Ernest's brother, Kirke Simpson, who was among the first Associated Press writers to receive a byline. Kirke Simpson also wrote the text for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and was a close friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. Oh, and in 1909 Orville Wright took him flying.

About the Author :
About the Author: Kirke Wilson grew up hearing the stories his Simpson grandmother and her sisters had heard from their grandfather of restless ancestors crossing the plains in covered wagons and raising families on the frontier of settlement. The stories exaggerated some events, Grandfather Simpson, for example, was unlikely to have known General Washington, and neglected others, like the assumption that vacant Indian lands were available for settlement. There were accounts of ordinary people, dissatisfied with their prospects, moving westward over several generations to unclaimed lands and better opportunities. The adventures were exciting for young ears but they were incomplete. They were vague about why these folks kept moving and what, if any, guidance their stories offered their descendants. The exploration of family history consumed more than half a century of intermittent travel and research following the Simpson family from the shores of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, to North Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri where they converged in Platte County, Missouri with the Cooper family who had followed a similar path from Virginia to Kentucky and Missouri. The exploration included visits to places where the two families had lived and the libraries, historical societies, cemeteries and battlefields where their lives and those of people like them are remembered. The research was backwards, from west to east, from well-documented to more speculative. It was guided by the precision of local genealogists, contextualized by historians and enriched by contributions from remote relatives, some of whom were descendants of the family members who chose to remain in North Carolina, Tennessee or Missouri rather than complete the transcontinental journey to the Pacific Ocean. Kirke Wilson retired in 2005 after 31 years as director and president of the Rosenberg Foundation in San Francisco. He had previously been the West Coast Vice President of a public policy consulting company, a Staff Assistant in the office of the Governor of California and an organizer of migrant and seasonal farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley. He graduated from Yale where he majored in philosophy. In addition to several iterations of family history, Kirke Wilson has published articles, reviews and opinion pieces covering a wide range of subjects. His articles have appeared in Boonslick Heritage, Foundation News, The Nation, Overland Journal and other publications.