Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
SIMPLOT, Alexander
SIMPLOT, Alexander. (Dubuque, IA, Jan. 5, 1837--Dubuque, IA, 21, 1914). Artist. Simplot was born in a log cabin on Main street, between Fifth and Sixth STREETS. His parents, Henry and Susan Simplot, were among the earliest settlers of Dubuque County. His father was engaged in the general mercantile business and was one of the first Board of Alderman elected in Dubuque. He was one of the wealthiest men in Dubuque at the time of his death in 1847.
Alexander Simplot served as a special artist for Harper's Weekly during the CIVIL WAR. During his two years with the magazine, he produced fifty drawings and earned $1,250. Simplot's drawing of volunteers boarding the steamer Alhambra at the harbor of Dubuque in April 1861, was the first sketch published by the magazine. His most famous sketch showed Union gunboats blazing away at Confederate forces at Memphis, Tennessee. Simplot had special privileges among the Union forces because John Rawlins, a former classmate, was General Ulysses S. Grant's chief aide.
Simplot returned to Dubuque after the Civil War in poor health. Secretary of the OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION and the JULIEN DUBUQUE MONUMENT Association, Simplot has been credited with designing the Julien Dubuque Monument. He taught school for a few years and lost most of his inheritance in grain speculation. (Photo: Alexander Simplot and his wife Virginia Knapp)
