At the age of 23 James Simpson III left Calfoldie, Kieth, Banffshire, Scotland in the year 1880 and went to Canada with Alex Curry, also of Scotland. They lived in London, Ontario about one year then came to North Dakota. When they came through Fargo it was "no much more than a depot wi a light post wae in the sky." In 1882 they both filed on homesteads about five miles west of Sharon and built sod houses. About that time it was Griggs County.
James walked to St. Cloud, Minnesota to buy a team of oxen. He made ready a farm for his father and mother on Section 30 148-57. They came with their other nine children in 1882. The other children were:
John Maver, from a former marriage
Helen (Nellie), married Joe Miller of Lenora Township
Mary Ann
Jessie
Isabella
George, who homesteaded in Griggs County Section 24-148-58
Margaret
Maria
Robert
Charles.
James returned to Great Britain where he married Isobelle McKay in London, England on April 10, 1893. They came to America that same spring and resided on their farm on the NW quarter of Section 6 147-57 where they built a stone house comparable to the houses in Scotland. The climate is different in North Dakota and so were the stones. They nearly froze to death and had to abandon their stone home. "Bella" insisted on a wood ceiling in the new home because dirt fell into her soup from the old one. James went to Hope for the lumber.
One day when James was hunting by his big slough he came upon an Indian, also hunting. The Indian had a rabbit and James had nothing. They waved a friendly greeting and went on.
Bella and James became parents of two sons. James George, born June 30, 1895, married Alice Gudmonson. They farmed in Griggs County on the SE quarter of Section 36-14858. From that union 3 children were born. James IV, now of Indianapolis, Indiana
Mrs. Bruce (Marilyn) Hazard, farming in Cooperstown Township
and Roger of Youngstown, Ohio.
William McKay, born February 15, 1897, married Luella King. They had two sons:
Alford, president of Merchants Bank in Fargo
and William, of Ohio.
In 1909 Bella and James moved to Sharon where he was president of Citizen's State bank and they were very active in the Presbyterian Church and community activities.
When John Maver, James' half brother, came from Scotland, he planned to settle in a southwest state where the climate is warmer. James told him, "Dunno go there, they'll shoot ye for a sixpence." He stayed in North Dakota.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 347