 Simpson along with another Metlakatla Tsimshian, Mark Hamilton, were the principal investors in the sawmill community of Port Gravina, near Ketchikan, Alaska, from its founding in 1892 until it burned in 1904.This was an offshoot of the Metlakatla community, one committed to Presbyterianism under Marsden.After the fire, Simpson moved to Juneau, and then to Sitka where he was the owner of a boat-building business.