Extracted from THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL [SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA] 31 October 1885
Since the death of GENERAL GRANT, most of the newspapers have given sketches, in which they have been very anxious to inform the public that his father's family were Scotch; but concealed the fact that his mother, HANNAH SIMPSON, was Irish. MATTHEW SIMPSON, a respectable farmer of GOLAN, PARISH OF ARDSTRAW, COUNTY TYRONE, IRELAND, emigrated with his young family to America, and settled on a farm in Bucks County, Pa. His daughter Hannah was the mother of Gen. Grant, and one of the sons was the father of the late METHODIST BISHOP SIMPSON, of Philadelphia. It was from his Irish mother that Gen. Grant inherited his military talent, and he was remarkably like the Simpsons in the formation of his head, thick hair, and the form of his shoulders. No family could be prouder of their Irish origin than the Simpsons. Bishop Simpson frequently visited Ireland. Some years ago he and DR. JOHN McCLINTOCK, whose parents were from Tyrone, visited the homes of their forefathers, and spent a considerable time in the very ancient burial-ground of SCARVAHERN, where many of the Simpsons are buried. This part of Tyrone has given to the world people of rare talent: Gen. Robert Patterson, Gen. James Shields, Gen. Stewart, hero of the Soudan, Lord Chancellor O'Hagan, McClure, the Arctic Explorer, Farquharson, the celebrated dramatic writer, William Carleton, the novelist, the: parents of President Buchanan, Madam Bonaparte Patterson, President John McClintock, of Dickerson[sic - should be Dickinson] College, the mother of Gen. Grant, and the father of Bishop Simpson.