FRANK SIMMONS, bookseller and stationer, 124 South Sixth street, was born in 1849, in Hamilton county, Ohio; is the son of Mosses Simmons and Ann Riggs. His father was a native of New York; mother, of Ohio. They moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, when Frank was four years old, and settled about three and one-half miles east of Springfield. During the late civil war, they removed to the city, where his father died soon after, leaving his widowed mother and younger brother in straightened circumstances. Frank began mercantile life at thirteen years of age, as a bundle boy in a book store in the city, being hired on trial for one week. He remained in that store seven years. Upon the death of his father he was obliged to assume the position of head of the family, and provide for the household. He commenced business on his own account in 1873, with about $50 capital, on the northeast corner of Monroe and Sixth streets. From there he moved to the Central Hotel block. In August, 1876, bought the stock of Patterson & Co., at assignee's sale, and in May, 1880, removed into his present fine, commodious store. He is the only exclusive book and stationery store in Springfield; he carries the largest stock in Central Illinois, and his annual sales, which are rapidly increasing, aggregate between $45,000 and $50,000. He does considerable jobbing in stationery and picture frames. Mr. Simmons married the daughter of Judge William P. Robinson, of Harrison county, Missouri, in the spring of 1875. Two sons and a daughter comprise their family.