Ezekiel Ewing Simpson
Ezekiel E. Simpson (1803-1875) was a timber magnate who co-owned the Arcadia Manufacturing Company in Bagdad.
He was born in 1803 in the Pendleton, South Carolina area. His father, John Simpson, brought their family — which included brothers Andrew, James and John — to the Pensacola area around 1814 and built the Woodbine Mill along the Simpson River around 1820.
Ezekiel married Bostonian Sophia S. Allen on July 30, 1840. They lived near the Blackwater River and had three children, only one of whom, Ezekiel Ewing, survived to adulthood. Sophia died of illness on March 11, 1847.
In 1853, Simpson remarried to Susan Alexander Overman of Greensboro, North Carolina. They had seven children together, six of whom lived to adulthood.
Ezekiel became co-owner of the Arcadia Manufacturing Company with his brother Andrew and their partner Joseph Forsyth. He was also a stockholder of the Pensacola Wharf Company.
Although he was too old to fight in the Civil War, his efforts for the Confederacy were enough to earn a bounty on his head by the Federal government.
Simpson died on April 3, 1875. Much of his wealth was left to the First Presbyterian Church, of which he was an active member.