Simpsonville

Simpsonville, also known as Thomas, at the junction of Farm roads 2088 and 556, twelve miles northwest of Gilmer in northwestern Upshur County, was first settled in the late 1850s. The community was originally known as Chelsea, and a post office under that name operated briefly in 1858. On April 22 of the same year the town's name was changed to Simpsonville, after an early settler. Over the course of the next half century the post office was discontinued and reestablished several times; it was closed in 1866, reopened in 1867, closed in 1879, and reopened again the same year. The first church in the community, the Missionary Baptist Church, was established in 1853, and the first school opened around the time of the Civil War