I-Pariss Sims, 1750-1833
II-1. Robert Sims, 1783-1842

III-11. Matthew Joseph Sims, the second child of Robert and Frances Merritt Sims, was born at Salem (WinstonSalem) North Carolina, June 9, 1816; died in Wayne County, Jan. 16, 1890. He married Dorothy Turley Greeson, July 23, 1837; daughter of Henry and Betsy Cook Greeson, both of German descent. She was born July 15, 1817; died Aug. 9, 1896.

The Greeson family came from Bedford County, Tenn., to Bear Creek, Wayne County, and were early settlers in the Lutts Community, near where Robert Sims and his family settled in 1833. Henry, a son of Isaac (II) and Turley Ingle Greeson, married Betsy Cook about 1797. Turley was a daughter of George Ingle whose wife is believed to have been Margaret Turley. Henry's grandfather is believed to have been Jacob Greeson, son of Isaac Greeson (Greison) (I), who came from Germany and settled in Orange County; N. C., about 1755; made his will in Orange County in 1768. He had a Land Grant of 275 acres, on the Alamance River, from the Earl of Granville in the reign of King George 3rd.

Henry Greeson emigrated from North Carolina to Kentucky where he married Elizabeth (Betsy) Cook, daughter of John Cook. Later, he moved from Kentucky to Bedford County, Tenn., thence to Wayne.

The Greeson home place in Lutts Community was in the family for more than 100 years. The old home and farm were greatly improved and modernized by John Henry Greeson, a grandson, in the 1930s.

IV-19. Shields (Hartwell Ebenezer John Shields) Sims, born Dec. 18, 1838. See Chapter Six for a record of his family.
IV-20. Matthew Joseph Sims, Jr., born Sept. 7, 1840. See Chapter Nine.
IV-21. Elizabeth Sims, born Oct. 16, 1842; died May 15, 1920. See Sims-Youngblood Family, later in this chapter.
IV-22. Clay (Robert Henry Clay) Sims, born Nov. 15, 1844. See Chapter Nine.
IV-23. Zachariah Taylor Sims, born Feb. 10, 1847. See Chapter Nine.
IV-24. Sam Winfield Scott Sims, born in 1850. See Chapter Nine.
IV-25. Dorothy Ann (Sis) Sims, born April 6, 1854. See Sims Turman Family at end of this Chapter.
IV-26. Mahulda (Hulda) Sims, born Jan. 20, 1857. See Sims-Youngblood Family at end of Chapter Four.
IV-27. Melinda (Crickett) Sims, born in 1859. See Sims Helton Family at end of this Chapter.

A History of Tennessee, issued by the Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886, contains the following biographical sketch of Matthew J. Sims (11), in the Wayne County Section:

"Matthew J. Sims is a son of Robert and Frances (Merritt) Sims, and was born in North Carolina, June 9, 1816. After attaining his majority he began doing for himself. His early education. was such as could be obtained in the rude and primitive log school houses of his boyhood days. He followed farming and school teaching for ten or twelve years, and in 1840 purchased a large farm on Dry Creek (a prong of Indian Creek) where he farmed and raised livestock until 1865.

"After the close of the (Civil) war he established a general merchandise store at Waynesboro, and has continued with good success up to the present time (1886). In 1865 he was appointed clerk of the Wayne County Circuit Court, and held that office for ten years.

"In 1837 he united his fortune with that of Dorothy (Turley) Greeson, of Bedford County, Tenn., and their union has been blessed with ten children (one, a girl, died in infancy). Mr. Sims is a staunch Republican, a magistrate and one of the old and strictly honorable citizens of the County."

Matthew Sims was a tall, wiry man with reddish-brown hair and a beard, which he kept carefully cropped. He was a man of great energy and resourcefulness; he knew how to make, invest and hold on to money and it was said of him, "his word is as good as his bond." The inscription on his tombstone in the Sims burying ground, on the brow of a hill overlooking Dry Creek and Waterfall Branch valleys, reads:

"As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down into the grave shall come up no more." -Job 7-9.

It is believed that the tenth verse of Job was to have been included but was omitted by the engraver. It reads:

"He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more."

His house, his place, was a large, two-story home of hewed logs, on his farm in the Dry Creek valley, in sight of the place where he was laid to rest. Here his large family was born and reared. Here was the beginning of Sims Community which later centered around Sims, Tenn., Post Office, near the junction of Dry and Indian Creeks.

He built the big house in the 1840s. It has large limestone chimneys at each end, with huge fireplaces in each of the front rooms. In later years the log walls of the house were covered with weather-boarding and painted. Now, after 125 years, it is one of the better homes in the area, having electric lights, running water and other modern conveniences. See pictures.

His third son, Clay Sims (22) purchased the old home place from his father and it now belongs to a great granddaughter, Eva Parker Nowlin and her husband, Ralph Nowlin, a great grandson of Shields Sims (19). Although they live in Waynesboro, where Ralph is in business, they take great pride in maintaining both the home and the farm.

My grandfather, Shields Sims (19) told me that a chore he had when he was a boy, was that of moving the furniture out of the big living room and bringing in benches from a shed for "preaching services." There was no church in the community at the time and his father made a practice of inviting all preachers, regardless of church affiliation, that came that way to hold services in his home-he would ride through the community, notifying the neighbors of the service.

It was here that the Civil War incident, involving both my grandfathers as related by Cong. T. W. Sims in Chapter Eleven, occurred.

The homeplace of my grandfather, Shields Sims (19), on Waterfall Branch, consisting of 290 acres, still in the family, was originally a part of his father's lands. His father also owned considerable timber land on the head-waters of Dry Creek and Waterfall Branch which he sold to the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, a corporation with large land holdings in several counties in the area.

An interesting thing about this transaction is that he reserved the right for any descendant of his to go on the land and cut timber for a home and other buildings for personal use. John Sims, a grandson, took advantage of this right as late as 1930. These timber lands stretched East, almost to the old McGlamery Stand, the Trading Post and Inn, on the Natchez Trace, described in Chapter Four.

In the early days settlers in the general area floated flatboats, loaded with produce, down the Tennessee River, into the Ohio, thence to the Mississippi River and South to Natchez and New Orleans. After disposing of the produce they returned home, by foot, on the Natchez Trace, some 500 miles. Shields Sims (19), my grandfather, told me of one such trip he made with neighbors when he was a young man. While on the trip he visited with relatives, the John (7) and William (8) Sims families in Mississippi. During the Civil War both Federal and Confederate troops traveled the Trace, as well as guerilla bands and outlaws, engaged in raids and pillagings. The following letter written by Matthew J. Sims (11), June 18, 1884, to his sister, Abby Sims Sutherland (13), then living in Missouri, vividly describes conditions that existed in the County at the time:

"Yours of April 22nd is just at hand. These lines leave us in usual health ... Crops look well, wheat harvest is at hand and very good. The men are all in the service and the women trying to make the crops. Horses and mules that are fit have all been pressed into (war) service. Corn is $1.25 a bushel and none to be had. Wheat is $1.50 a bushel; bacon, 25 to 50 cents per pound; cows, $50.00 per head. I paid $5.00 in silver for a bushel of salt; dug up the dirt floor of the meat house and boiled and drained it down to get salt to save my meat last year. As to store goods, I haven't seen much in two years ... Coffee hasn't been seen in two years. Women wear homemade dresses, dyed with walnut bark .... Most of our livestock is gone (stolen or carried off by soldiers)

"Bushwacking, stealing, hanging men and searching women to the skin for money is the order of the day. All civil law has stopped. No courts held in two years. All do as they please or can. You speak of trouble. If you want to know what trouble is, visit Tennessee and see what it is like nowlands turned out, fences and buildings burned, towns deserted.

"Waynesboro has about three families in it. Clifton is burned up; large armies passing to and fro through the country, laying waste everything along their route. You can't imagine how things are here. No preaching here in three years, either. Well, we are alive and thank God for it.

"Shields (19) and Clay (22) are in the Federal army at Clifton (where a Fort had been built to guard the Tennessee River against Confederate boats). We have no Post Office or mail. We get some newspapers by the boats at Clifton (12 miles away). George (16) is in Hardin County and I have no record of Robert (12). Both of them lost their rights (they were younger brothers who sided with the Confederacy).

"Write to us, direct to Sgt. Shields Sims, 2nd, Tennessee Mounted Infantry, Clifton, Tenn. The Rebels are at Tuscumbia, Ala. (30 miles away) and guerilla bands are throughout the county."--M. J. (Matthew) Sims.

 

Elizabeth Sims (21), the oldest daughter and third child of Matthew and Dorothy Greeson Sims, married William G. Youngblood, a son of Josiah Youngblood and a brother of my grandmother, Edith Melinda Caroline Youngblood Sims. See the SimsYoungblood Family at the end of Chapter Four.

Elizabeth and William G. Youngblood were the parents of Tom, Jake, Wheeler, Poney and Lina Youngblood. Poney married Bud King and Lina married Huston Owens. I have no record of their families or those of their brothers. After the death of her husband, Elizabeth married Jim McWilliams and had one daughter, Dorothy, who married Pugh Lindsey.

Dorothy Ann (Sis) Sims (25), the second daughter and seventh child of Matthew and Dorothy Greeson Sims, born April 6, 1854; died May 30, 1934; married John Turman, Dec. 14, 1876. He was born in Bedford County, Tenn., Oct. 18, 1848; died June 29, 1928. He was a merchant and Postmaster at Waynesboro. They had nine children:

V- John, Mary Elizabeth, James, Annie, Ben, Hulda, Carolyn (Carrie), Frank, Ruth, and Thomas Rex Turman.

Mary Elizabeth married William B. Shacklett and they lived in Nashville where they had a family of nine children:

VI- William B. Jr., Mary, Horace, John, Dorothy, Ruth Carolyn, Thomas, Lawrence, and Rebecca Shacklett. Ruth Carolyn married Roger W. Fawn and had two children:

VII-Carolyn and Roger B. Fawn, Jr.

In 1944 she divorced Fawn and in 1952, married Raymond M. Rudy of Mt. Vernon, New York. She received membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution on the service record of Pariss Sims, her great, great, great grandfather, as stated in Chapter Three. Shacklett's Cafeteria, one of the first and largest in Nashville, was established by her family.

Melinda (Crickett) Sims (27), the youngest child of Matthew and Dorothy Greeson Sims, born in 1859, first married Frank Helton of the M Helton family that operated a drug store in Waynesboro for many years. I have no record of their children, if any.

After the death of Helton, she married a Pulley and lived on Hardin's Creek, just South of the Leatherwood Church and a few miles West of the present day Sims Motor Lodge. She had some children by her second marriage but I have been unable to get a record of them.

Footnote: Roman Numerals indicate generation: Figures are Sims identification numbers.

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