Private Simmons came to Skagway with company L of the 24th Army Infantry. This all Black unit arrived May 15, 1899 from Ft. Douglas, Utah.
Esau was born in 1879 in Dugan County North Carolina but his family had moved to Indiana by the 1880 census.
Simmons died on this day, March 10, 1901 in Skagway at the age of only 22. He was shipped on the S.S. Humboldt to Seattle. The Skagway Death Record does not say how he died.
Stories and Folklore from Skagway, Alaska