A landmark.
by Lisa Y. Henderson
The death of Green Simmons, an old and well known colored landmark, of Dudley, occurred last night.
Goldsboro Daily Argus, 7 January 1901.
In the 1850 census of South Side of the Neuse, Wayne County: cooper Green Simmons, 33, wife Betsy J., 26, and children Needham, 5, Cicero, 3, and Mary, 1.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 
After reading this, sounds like the genealogy of my grandfather , Richard E Simmons, son of George Washington Simmons. I went to the family cemetery in Dudley and saw the graves of Simmons, Winn (Wynn) Jacobs. I have info on Axey & her mother. Interesting.
Richard E. Simmons was the son of General Washington Simmons, who was the son of George W. Simmons. Many in this family are buried in the Congregational Church cemetery in Dudley. I’m not a Simmons, but many of my cousins are.
Hi. Just saw your reply. Thank you ! Have a lot of family here . Moved here recently and done a lot of digging into family history, which made me proud. Thanks. Perhaps one day there will be a reunion!
I would be interested in seeing any pictures or hearing of any information you may have on my grandfather (Bryant Simmons’) parents – (F)axey Jane & George Washington Simmons.
I am not a Simmons descendant and have not researched this family specifically in a very long time. There are, however, several posts on this blog that relate to them or their children or G.W.’s close kin. Best regards.
My fathers grandmother was a Thornton, her Thornton side was from Sampson County and trace back for generations there and some moved to Johnston County and surrounding counties. This side was known to be Native American and white, claimed Cherokee but my dads grandmother said her family had always lived in these areas (paper trail confirms this). I’m assuming location wise my Thornton line may be from this Thornton and Simmons line or the Thornton line of Betsy and have came across a tree called Thornton/Simmons Coharie tree. DNA wise my fathers kit does match a large amount of families of both enrolled and not enrolled families researching Lumbee and Coharie roots. My Thornton family used to have reunions in Pine Level which I attended a few and spoke with the older relatives, siblings of my great grandmother and confirmed what weve also been told. Anybody researching these lines please email me at rfranks0829@gmail.com
It is very likely that this family, like others who today identify as Native, were tri- rather than biracial. I am not a Simmons (or Thornton), but many of my cousins are as several lines intermarried with Hendersons, a biracial (mostly Euro descent, also African) family originally from Onslow County.
I totally agree with you on that, I have matches of all ethnicities. I’m in several dna project of ftdna and the project I have the most matches in is Indians of Robeson County NC (which I suggest for anybody that has strong ties to those counties and have oral native american family history to join). The families in Robeson are closely connected to families in Sampson, many bi/tri-racial families married into each other. Many participants are researching or enrolled Lumbee, southern Tuscarora, and Coharie and identify as tri-racial or bi-racial. I’ve also found family that identify as melungeons but I sorta just see that as a fancy term for tri-racial with family in specific areas, some who seem to not know what tribes and others who have documented and enrolled. A good bit of my matches from this family have small traces of african america that I don’t believe is just “noise”. My dads kit on ancestry doesn’t show that but on other sites it does. My conclusion is that especially with “colonial roots”, families that trace back for generations in a specific area typically have intermarried so much that (especially in rural areas of the south) everybody’s a cousin if you look hard enough, regardless of what race they currently identify as.