The earliest record I have of a Sims family in America is that of the Rev. Zachariah Symmes of North Hamptonshire, England, who arrived in Boston, with his family on the Ship Griffin, Sept. 18, 1634. "Symmes Memorial," a history covering 10 generations of this family, from about 1550 to 1869, is in the Library of Congress, Washington, and I have a copy.

The first record I have of the family in Virginia is that of Andrew Sims who settled at Williamsburg in 1635. Matthew Sims of Somerset, England, settled in Hanover County, Va., in 1700. Benjamin Sims came from Scotland to Jamestown, Va., and had a son, John, born there Sept. 14, 1675. John moved to Lebanon, Conn., in 1699 and had a large family.

Thomas Sims of Middlesex County, Va., was indicted in 1703 for traveling on the road with a loaded beast on Sunday. John Sims died in Virginia in 1716. Two Sims brothers, one the ancestor of Flenner Blackburn Sims of Davidson, Okla., came from Ireland in the early 1700s, landing in New Orleans. Mr. Sims said in a letter to me in 1959:

"They worked their way up the coast into the Carolinas and one of them, my ancestor, rode with Marion (Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of Revolutionary War fame). The other brother is reputed to have been bos'n for John Paul Jones, naval commander during the Revolution. My Sims ancestor came into Tennessee and at one time operated a stage-coach line out of Chattanooga. He lived to the reported age of 114, his hair still being black at the time of his death in a stagecoach accident. He took the place of a driver who failed to show up, and was riding the wheel-horse, which shied, throwing him to the road, where the coach wheels passed over him, causing his death."

A George Washington Sims died in the early 1900s in Arkansas at the age of 108. Nancy Ann Sims, born Nov. 27, 1826, died February 26, 1928; almost 102 years old. In 1941, M. E. Sims of Nashville, Tenn., celebrated his 106th birthday which was reported in the Nashville papers. In an interview, he said he was a Belfast (Ulster) Irishman and proud of it. He was born in Wilson County, Tenn., in 1835, as recorded in the family Bible which also showed that his father, born in Belfast, lived to be 118 and his mother 115-the oldest Sims I have record of.

One of the family who had considerable wealth in 1860 was James Y. Sims of Richland County, S. C. At the time he had land valued at $58,000 and personal property amounting to $90,000. Another Sims family is reputed to have owned a large farm in what is now the heart of New York City, including Wall Street.

Walter Sims was a tax delinquent on 5,000 acres of land on Richland Creek in Giles County, Tenn., in 1826. The last taxes he had paid on the land amounted to $12.50. The Richland Creek section is today one of the most prosperous farming areas in the county.

Texas records of the Austin Colony of Pioneers list Bartlett and Ignatius Sims of Virginia among the first 300 settlers. Bartlett was a land surveyor and Indian fighter. Ignatius received a grant of one league of land (over 5,000 acres) in Washington County, Texas, in 1835.

Seasoned by their experience in North Ireland, Pariss Sims, his brothers and their descendants made good frontiersmen. They had a pioneer spirit and a love for freedom; the energy, ambition, resourcefulness and the courage it took to cross over the mountains into Tennessee and other states in search of new lands and new opportunities, on the heels of the Indians. Their movements and their settlements followed a similar pattern, indicating kinship-a clannish characteristic that no doubt traced back to the Sym Clan of Scotland.

Many of the men lived to the ripe ages of 80 to 90; some older. Large families, 10 to 12 children, were not unusual-one family had 14, another 16 children. Some of the men had two or three wives during their lifetime, the rigors of pioneer life being too great for the brides of their youth. On the other hand, some of the men died in middle-life, leaving widows with large broods of children which they managed to raise and develop into self-reliant, upright citizens.

Robert Sims, the oldest son of Pariss, was the founder of our family in Wayne County, Tenn., in 1833. "All I know about our family," my grandfather told me, "is what has been handed down by word-of-mouth."

"We are Scotch-Irish. Three brothers came from Ireland to America before the Revolution. They first settled in Pennsylvania and were soldiers in Washington's army. After the war, they moved into Virginia and North Carolina. My grandfather, Robert Sims, was born in North Carolina in 1783 and he and his father emigrated from there to Giles County, where his father and mother are buried. After that, my grandfather (Robert) moved to Wayne County with his family.

"As far as I know, all the Sims in Wayne County, Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama and Mississippi are kinfolks, going back to the brothers from Ireland. Some of them have visited us here in Wayne County, and one, John Sims, a member of the County Court was born in North Mississippi. He is a cousin of ours. All of the family, so far as I know, have good records-never heard of one that was in serious trouble with the law. Some have gone west to Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma, including two of my brothers, two aunts and several cousins. One uncle, Robert W. Sims, went to West Tennessee before the Civil War. He was a lawyer, merchant and large land owner with some slaves.

"My father (Matthew J. Sims) was born in North Carolina.. He came to Wayne County with his parents. He was the oldest son and was the first of the family to settle on the headwaters of Indian Creek. His home was on Dry Creek; now owned by my brother Clay (1912). He bought up several hundred acres of farm and timber land, was a merchant in Waynesboro for several years and was a county official for a few years. He also established the first tan-yard in the county, on Green River, near Waynesboro. My farm was once part of his land. He died in 1890."

Both my grandfather's place and the old home place on Dry Creek were still in the family in 1965, after 125 years.

Abraham Martin Sims, an uncle of my grandfather and a grandson of Pariss Sims, told me that his father, Robert Sims, was born in North Carolina, May 14, 1783. He married Frances Howard Merritt, February 14, 1813, and had three children born there before emigrating to Giles County in 1819, where he settled near his father, Pariss Sims, who had settled there in 1807. After the death of his parents he moved to Bear Creek in Wayne County in 1833. From there he moved to the Hutton Hollow off Hardin's Creek, where he died in 1842. His widow and family then moved to Indian Creek to be near her oldest son, Matthew J. Sims, who had married and settled there.
Abraham Martin Sims, her youngest son, owned and operated the home farm for a time. Then he sold and bought a larger farm at the forks of Indian and Dry Creeks, in the center of what was long known as Sims Post Office community. The post office was in his home and he served as postmaster for many years.

His farm, containing some of the largest and most fertile bottom fields in the upper Indian creek valley, now belongs to Marion Lindsey, father-in-law of Homer Sims, the only living first cousin I have by the Sims name. Homer owns and operates several hundred acres of farm and timber land, adjoining the Lindsey place, including my grandfather's farm. In the late 1800s most of the land in the general area belonged to the Sims family and their inlaws. My father taught his first school in the community and when I was born in 1892 he was operating a country store and saw-mill, both of which burned to the ground, a total loss, when I was two years old.

To most of the present generation, the old Sims Post Office community is regarded as the old home place of the family. Several reunions of the family have been held at Three Churches, the name by which the community is now known. Over 200 "members of the clan" from four states gathered there for a reunion in 1948. Judge Joe Sims and his brother Robert, Sons of Abraham Martin Sims, and Mark Sutherland, age 90, the only living great grandsons of Pariss Sims, were there; also, my father, then 80, and Willie Sims, 86, great, great grandsons of Pariss. Judge Joe, now nearing 90 years of age, is today (1965) the only living great grandson of Pariss Sims. He has been of great help to me in tracing the family, making trips with me to visit old home places and distant relatives, in search of information.

At the 1948 reunion I discussed and distributed a brief history of the family which I later found contained some errors that are being corrected in this history. At that time I gave Pariss Henry Sims as our ancestor-the name Henry was given me by a great aunt many years ago. Census records have since proven the "Henry" part of the name to be an error.

In Volume IV, the Compendium of American Genealogy, issued in 1930, 1 listed our ancestor as Henry Sims (Simms) and his brothers as Parish (Pariss) and Robert. Now we know different-- Pariss (Parish) was our ancestor and Abraham and Robert were brothers who came to America with him about 1765.

In the brief history of the family which I prepared for the reunion in 1948, I made another serious error, by confusing Pariss Sims, our ancestor of Giles County, Tenn., with Parish Sims who made Sims Settlement on Elk River, just south of Giles County, in Limestone County, Ala., in 1807, the same year our Pariss arrived in Tennessee from North Carolina. This error was caused by the two being confused in an early history of Giles County. Parish Sims of Limestone County, Ala., is now believed to have been a nephew of Pariss Sims of Giles County. See Chapter Eighteen for a sketch of the Parish Sims family.

I deeply regret the above errors as they have confused some members of Sims families and genealogists, working on family history.

The earliest written record of Pariss Sims I have been able to find is contained in two letters, written in 1903, by Robert W. Sims, a grandson, and E. C. Simms, a great grandson. They were written to Rev. Paris Marion Simrns, a great, great grandson, who at that time was working on a history of the family. T have the original copies, in hand writing, of each of these letters which read as follows:

Gadsden, Tennessee
October 21, 1903

Rev. P. M. Sims,
Lebanon, Tenn.

"Dear Relative:

"Your most esteemed letter of the 19th instant received. I will try to give you the history of our family as far back as I have any knowledge of them. You are one of the descendants of one of three brothers who settled in North Carolina whose name was Parish (Pariss) Sims, who was also my grandfather.

"He (Pariss) served eight years in the Revolutionary War and was one of General Washington's life guards. He had six sons and three daughters. He emigrated from Stokes County, North Carolina, about the year 1816-1817 (Giles County History says 1807) and settled on Linn (Lynn) Creek, in Giles County, Tennessee.

"His sons were named as follows, my father Robert being the oldest: Robert, Abraham, Martin, Matthew, John and William. His daughters were named Sally, Patsy and Judith. Sally married William Rutledge and went to Indiana in an early day. Patsy never married. Judith married Joseph Brownlow, brother of Ex-Governor Brownlow of Tennessee (now believed to have been a nephew or cousin rather than a brother of the Governor).

"John and William both emigrated to Mississippi and settled upon the Tombigbee River, in an early day, and raised large families of boys and girls.

"Abraham, who is your (Rev. Paris Marion Simms) great grandfather, settled in Kentucky (Macon County, Tenn., then a part of Sumner County, near the Kentucky border) and raised a large family of boys and girls, and, in 1831-2 (records say 1834) he was at work for the Government on the Muscle Shoals Canal on the Tennessee River in Alabama when he lost his life by caving in of dirt upon him.

"His family then moved to Giles County and settled on Big Creek. His oldest son was named Paris Lindsey Simms. Another was Frank. I think one was named Francis Marion (that was Frank) and one Edwin or Edmond (Edmond is correct). I use to visit them when I was a boy. Several years ago I heard my daughter Belle say she had visited some of our kin in Lawrence County and among them was Judge James Sims of Lawrenceburg, Tenn. (See Chapter Thirteen)

"My father, Robert, left North Carolina November 1, 1819. I was only four months old as I was born in Salem (now Winston-Salem) July 8, 1819. which makes me 84 years old (1903). The number of father's and mother's children were nine-four boys and five girls. Only three of us are now living (1903), myself, brother Abraham Martin, and sister Martha who live on Indian Creek in Wayne County, Tennessee. Their address is Sims Post Office, Wayne County, Tenn.
"My other brothers were Matthew (my great grandfather) and George W., the father of Thetus W. Sims, now (1903) a member of the U. S. Congress from the Eighth District of Tennessee. His home is at Linden, Perry County, Tenn.

"I have now given you all I know about our family. I have three children living out of nine, one son and two daughters. Belle is one of them. I have buried three wives and six children. I once was in good financial circumstances but now have outlived my money and have nothing on this earth. But feel I have well founded hope of a rich inheritance awaiting me in the other world. I have tried to live a Christian for over sixty years. I professed religion in 1842 and joined the Methodist Church and I have tried to live so not to disgrace the cause ever since ...." -Robert W. Sims.

See Chapter Ten for a record of his family.

Mosheim, Texas
July 27, 1903

Rev. P. M. Simms,
Lebanon, Tenn.

"Dear Sir:

"Yours of the 20th just received. I cannot give you as much family history as I would like. My information is that Simms' of America or the United States rather, emigrated from Ireland in the early settlement of the country. Three brothers (I have evidence that there were seven) came, one settling in Maryland, one in Virginia and one in North Carolina. I suppose we are of the North Carolina family as my grandfather Simms (Abraham, the second son of Pariss Sims) emigrated from there in the early settlement of Tennessee.

"Your grandfather Simms (Paris Lindsey Simms) was born in what was then Sumner but now Macon County, Tennessee (Macon County was formed out of part of Sumner County), on the 24th of January, 1817. Your great grandfather, (Abraham) was killed in an accident at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, about 1835 (records show 1834).

"I don't know that my father (Paris Lindsey Simms) had but three brothers and I never saw but one of them. One died in boyhood. One, Frances Marion Simms, emigrated to Texas before I was born; settled in Clarksville, in Red River Country in North-eastern part of the State. He practiced law and raised a family of girls, but do not think he had any male descendants. He (Francis M. Simms) served through the war in the Confederate Army and died at Clarksville, Texas, some years ago. This is the man for whom you (Rev. Paris Marion Simms) and your father (Andrew Francis Simms) were named.

"I do not know whether the name Marion dates back as a family name or not. It may have, or he may have been named for the noted South Carolina soldier of the Revolution (Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox), as his grandfather, Pariss Sinims (Sims) was a soldier in that war.

"Edmond Simms, for whom I am named, was the other brother of my father, Paris Lindsey Simms. He was the father of Newt Sims and two other sons who came to Texas in the seventies, but I think they are now (1903) both dead. This uncle (Edmond) was killed in Tennessee during the Civil War, on the Federal side.

"The fact that part of the family spell their name with one "M" and some with two "MMs" seems to be a matter of choice. There are more Simms' here in Texas than anywhere I have been but have never met any of them that we could make out relationship, though there is one family living 15 miles from me that I think are related. I have never met the old man of the family. His father came from Tennessee. I think they are of the Bedford County family from their names (they were of the Martin Sims, third son of Pariss Sims, family of Bedford County)..." E. C. Simms

I knew Neal Brown Simms, Sr., the youngest son of Paris Lindsey Simms and a brother of E. C. (Edmond Clayborne) Simms, and talked with him about our family history on several occasions. He was Trustee of Lawrence County, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., for several years. He had an older brother, James Simms, who was County Judge of Lawrence County for a number of years. Mentioned in the Robert W. Sims letter.

I graduated from high school with his son, Neal Brown Simms, Jr., now deceased. He practiced law and was at one time a member of the Tennessee Legislature.

In the 1930s 1 had considerable correspondence with Rev. Paris Marion Simms, then living in Nebraska, in regard to family history. He was kind enough to send the originals of the Robert and E. C. Simms letters, quoted above. See Chapter Thirteen for a record of this family.

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