I-Pariss Sims, 1750-1833.
II-1. Robert Sims, 1783-1842.
III-11. Matthew J. Sims, 1816 1890.
IV-19. Shields Sims, 1838-1927.
V-31. Matthew Josiah (M. J.) Sims, 1868-1952.

VI-37. Almon James Sims, born Aug. 12, 1892; married Sammie Clark, April 11, 1917. She was born Nov. 20, 1898, daughter of Erasmus Lee Clark and Annie Fain of Sparta, White County, and Eagleville, Rutherford County, respectively-see the ClarkFain-Jackson Family at the end of this chapter.

From my earliest recollections I had a great curiosity about the world beyond the hills of Wayne County; a deep interest in history, in people and places I read about. I read everything I could get my hands on and soon developed an ambition to be a writer; editor of our county weekly, the Clifton Mirror. By the time I was 14 I was writing news of our Indian Creek community for the paper. I shall never forget the thrill of seeing my first items in print.

After we moved to Clifton in 1907 I visited the newspaper office every opportunity I had. I attended Frank Hughes College, an eighth grade school, during the winter months, worked on the farm and at hauling lumber and cross-ties on the turn-pike during the summer, and, stuck to my writing and reading, every spare moment I had-poetry, songs, short stories and a few items for the paper.

Our move in November 1909 from Clifton to Lawrence County was an exciting event. We were going to a fine farm with a good home, near Lawrenceburg which had two newspapers, a high school and a railroad, the principal mode of transportation in those days. The move was by wagons, over the rough, rutted roads of that time. It was an unforgetable 46 mile journey, starting before the break of day and lasting into the night; four wagons, loaded with our possessions, with my mother and my sister bringing up the rear in a buggy to which our milk cow was tied. To me it was like a trek of pioneers or pilgrims moving to a land of promise.

As we neared Lawrenceburg the mules, puffing the wagons, and the old buggy mare became a problem. An occasional automobile frightened them. A freight train on the tracks we had to cross almost caused a run-away. That Summer we had seen our first automobile, a truck-like car that had been put into use on the turn-pike, hauling mail between Waynesboro and Clifton. It was a great novelty; the first horseless vehicle ever seen in the county. It made a loud noise and raised a great cloud of dust. People along the pike dropped whatever they were doing and ran to the road to see it go by. It frightened horses and other animals. When it stopped in the towns and cross-road villages, crowds gathered around it, gaping in wonder, as though it was a space ship or flying saucer. Soon, however, farmers and haulers on the road were cursing it for scaring their teams. Some even threatened to go to court in an effort to stop its use; there were some lawsuits for damages resulting from run away teams.

Lawrenceburg had several automobiles and on July 4, 1910, I had my first ride in one. There was a July Fourth celebration on the town square and a free ride in a big automobile, owned by the livery stable, was a feature of the event. Early in the morning there was a large gathering of people in the public square at the Court House. Soon, the sheriff began lining them up for the ride. I was there and it seemed hours before my turn came, and then, I had to ride on the fender; older boys and men got the seats inside. It was great excitement, a great day.

Later in the day I entered a foot-race for boys and was winning until I turned my ankle on a stone on the unpaved public square; fell, tearing the shoulder of my shirt and breaking my dollar watch. I got to my feet just in time to see my closet competitor get the dollar prize I was after. Since that day I have had a weak ankle and for fifty years I have worn high shoes to protect it.

In connection with our move from Clifton to Lawrenceburg, one of my jobs was to drive, without assistance, some 30 head of cattle from our old farm on Indian Creek to the new farm in Lawrence County, about 40 miles, by trails through the woods, including a few miles along the old Natchez Trace. An old cow with a bell led the herd. By late afternoon I was in strange territory and several miles from home. Herding the cattle along a ridge trail, I saw a farm house with fenced field in a valley below. I headed the belled cow toward the farm, got permission to turn the cattle in a pasture field and rode on into the cold November night, to our new home.

The next morning my younger brother, Raymond, returned with me to get the cattle and by late afternoon we had the herd crossing the public square in Lawrenceburg. It was no small task, keeping the herd together. Once, we met a car and the herd scattered into the un-fenced yards. It took some time to round them up, but by sun down we had them safely in a pasture at our home, and, no Western cowboy' ever felt greater satisfaction at the end of the trail, than I did that night.
The high school had opened in September and there was so much to do, getting settled on the new farm, that I decided to wait until the next Fall, September 1910, to enter. I felt more like a man than a boy because I had been doing the work of a man for several years and had it not been my ambition to be a newspaper man I would have dropped the idea of going to school.

In the Summer of 1910 my first short story, one for children, was published in the Baptist and Reflector, a State church paper, printed in Nashville, Tenn. That fired my ambition like gasoline on a smoldering fire. Also, on my crude writing desk was a slogan, "Let Nothing Discourage You, Never Give Up," which had spurred me on. I had gotten the slogan from Will D. Upshaw, a Baptist evangelist, who had held a revival at the Church in Lawrenceburg earlier in the year. He was a man on crutches, known as the Georgia Cyclone; a man with a great mind and soul and a badly crippled body. The slogan or motto was his and both he and it made a lasting impression on my mind. Later, he was a member of the U. S. Congress from Georgia.

Up to now I had written scores of short stories, poems and articles which had been sent to publishers with great hopes, only to come back with rejection slips. Now one had been published. Although I received no pay for it, the fact that it had been good enough to print was worth more to me than $100 would be today.

I entered high school that Fall and was soon writing "School Notes" for one of the local papers. By mid-winter I had won first place in an essay contest, sponsored by the paper, on the importance of building the Memphis to Bristol highway, the Number I road in Tennessee.

By the end of the school year in 1911 I had sold a few short articles to newspapers and farm magazines and had decided to speed up my education. I had discovered that I could graduate from high school in three years by taking additional courses, finishing a few months before I would be 21 instead of 22. This I accomplished by the skin of my teeth and to the disgust of some of my teachers. Many times since I have wished that I had taken the four-year course, as my teachers advised. But, I was a young man in a hurry to get going in newspaper work.

In the Fall of 1911, I helped start the High School Herald of which I was business manager and publisher. I arranged with the local newspaper for type and a press. I helped hand-set the type and operated the press; solicited advertising and wrote much of the copy, in addition to my school work and working on the farm on Saturdays. In 1912-13, I was editor-in-chief of the Herald and was local correspondent for a Nashville paper, drawing 10 cents per inch for copy printed. In addition, I was engaged in several other school activities as well as up to my neck in school work, preparatory to graduation in May, 1913.

Starting with an orphan lamb, my father gave me when I was a kid on the farm on Indian Creek, I had parlayed it into a calf, a cow and then a colt, which developed into one of the finest saddle horses in the county. In this horse I saw enough money to get me to the University of Missouri and started in the School of Journalism as a special student--I had decided not to take the full four year course for a degree; just the journalism courses which were junior and senior work. There was some question about my three years of high school work but since I was now a grown man I was accepted.

After graduation from high school in 1913 I helped Papa with the farm and in the Fall took a course in typing and shorthand at the high school. I had figured the course would help me in earning my way at the University; also that I needed the training in typing for newspaper work. I finished the course in January, 1914 and immediately got a job as a stenographer with a lumber company in Nashville.

In August, 1914 I went back to Clifton for a visit and met up with T. S. Stribling, then a struggling writer; later a noted author and Pulitzer prize winner. We had talked on several occasions about my ambitions to be a writer. His sister had been my English teacher in high school. I found him planning a trip to Europe via cattle boat out of New Orleans. He was going over there to roam about, gathering ideas for stories and books. He wanted me to join him rather than going to the University to study journalism.

"If you want to be a writer you must learn about people and the world," he told me. The idea of going with him on this trip tantalized me. I had plans to be in the University in less than a month. The money from the sale of my horse would put me there or would provide spending money for such a trip. Stribling told me we could work our way on the boat as roustabouts, looking after the cattle. It was really a problem, making up my mind what to do. In the end, I stuck to my plans to enter the University. I still wonder about what would have happened to me if I had joined him on that trip.

It seemed that something was always coming to divert me from my plans. While in high school I had taken a course in Bible study. The pastor of our church had talked to me about becoming a minister, and, one day a banker had called me into his office and talked about underwriting my expenses in college if I was interested in becoming a preacher. I had been a close second in an oratorical contest at the closing exercises of high school, one year, and, several of my friends had decided I was quite a speaker. A lawyer friend even talked to me about studying law, and, a politicalminded relative advised me to get into politics. Yet, somehow I stayed on course for the harbor I had picked long before that.

At the University of Missouri I was soon covered up with stenographic work in addition to my junior course in journalism. I also solicited subscriptions to the Missourian, a daily paper issued by the School of Journalism for the town of Columbia, and, on several occasions did baby sitting for faculty members at 25 cents an hour-that interfered very little with my studying, which I did while the baby slept.

I came home to Tennessee in June 1915 with the expectation of returning to the University in the Fall. Instead, I went to work on the Lawrence Democrat, a weekly paper, and by Fall had bought a half interest in it. I was assistant editor, chief reporter, advertising manager and pressman. Before the end of the year I had talked my partner into moving the paper, from a small shop on a side street to the public square. In moving up town we decided to get a linotype machine, the first to be installed in a weekly newspaper office in that part of the State. The paper prospered and by the middle of 1916 my partner wanted to buy my interest.

I sold to him, at a nice profit one morning, and, before night had bought an interest in a picture show and had gotten a job in a printing shop where I had plans to start another weekly paper as soon as I could finance it. I was manager of the picture show, which I ran in the evenings after working all day as a pressman in the print shop. There was another picture show in town, giving us stiff competition-admission 5 cents. We each had single projectors-had to stop the show, at the end of each reel, to put on the next one. I decided the thing to do was to get another projector and run a continuous show. My competitor was operating on a shoestring and my partner was a doctor and a friend who owned the building in which our show was located. In a month our competitor wanted to sell out to us. With the backing of the doctor, I bought it and ran it while the old show was remodeled. Then we closed it down, reopened our old show at increased prices, for the first continuous movie in that section of the State. The business then prospered, and, on April 11, 1917 1 got married.

By now, in addition to my other work, I was the local reporter for the Nashville Tennessean. World War One was on, taking single men from the staff of the paper. On Sept. 17, 1917 I joined the staff as a reporter. I wanted the daily newspaper experience, even though the pay was little more than half what I had been making. I had a hard time making ends meet for a few months. Our first baby was on the way and I began to wonder if I had done the right thing after all.

In January 1918, I was promoted to State News Editor, handling news from reporters in all the towns in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. The man I succeeded as State News Editor had gone into the army. When the war was over he returned, and, by prior agreement, got his old job back. I was assigned to edit a weekly Country Life page and handle the daily market page. In a short time I talked the management into turning the Country Life page into an Agricultural section, aimed at farmers and their families. With the markets and want-ads, it made an eight page section in the Sunday paper.

This Agricultural and Market News section was the first of its kind to be established by a daily newspaper in the South. It attracted wide attention, including the Agricultural College of the University of Tennessee, then seeking an agricultural editor for its Extension Service.
In December 1919 I was offered that job, much to my surprise. Then it was I realized as never before the weakness of my educational background. I would be working with college people, editing and printing their writings; writing a farm and home news service for all the newspapers in the State. I could see that it was a great opportunity for the right person, one with adequate educational background, but, as for me, I could not see how I could undertake it.

As agricultural editor of the paper I had made many contacts and friends among the Agricultural College faculty, particularly the Extension Service which was in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. These friends began to put pressure on me to accept the position. Finally, the President of the University, Dr. H. A. Morgan, came to my desk at the newspaper to talk with me about the job. That did it. I decided, if the President of the University and other members of the staff thought I could do the job, I would try it.

I might also add that my good wife was a factor; she recognized it as a big opportunity for me from the start. If she had any objections I am sure I would have never made the move. When I left the Tennessean staff in March 1920 the paper ran the following editorial about my departure:

"The Case of A. J. Sims-A few years ago a chap from one of the small weekly papers secured a position on the Tennessean. After working for many months as a reporter, he was made farm and market editor of the paper--a berth that the average reporter shies from with intense haste. Not Sims. He went to work at his new job with all the enthusiasm which he had put into his former occupation as a chaser of elusive news items. Other men thought that Sims had gotten into a rut and would never be the editor of the paper, or anything else except the man who conducted the farm section of the Sunday paper.

"But Sims made that farm section distinctive. It became the best of its kind in the South. It began to be quoted widely, and the farmers knew that the man behind the typewriter on the job knew what he was talking about. Then came a day, a few weeks ago, when the University of Tennessee wished a man to head the publicity department of the Agricultural Extension Service. The University authorities reached down into The Tennessean office and picked Sims. Today the man whom others thought was in a rut is drawing average banker's salary and rendering a service to the state for which he is preeminently fitted. There should be a moral in this for some of the old growling chaps who always say: 'I'm buried, there's no chance for advancement'."

In connection with my work at the University I had opportunity to write articles for National farm magazines and by 1922 was writing for a half dozen, including the Breeder's Gazette of Chicago which offered me a staff position. Again I was faced with a tough decision. I liked my work at the University. T felt I was rendering a service, helping to build a better way of life on the farms and in the homes of our State. This feeling helped me to turn down the enticing offer of a better paying job.

The Summer before I had attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors at Amherst, Mass., and had been inspired as to the importance and opportunities of agricultural college information work in improving farm and home practices. From that time until I retired in 1962, 40 years, I held active membership in the Association of College Editors. On retirement I was given a life membership and a citation for distinguished journalistic service in the interest of farm people. I had the honor of serving as President of the association in 1925-26, as well as serving on many important committees, in the course of years.

In 1946 I was appointed head of the Information Department of the College of Agriculture, which gave me the rank of a full professor. Now, as I look back over the years I am thankful to God for the gift of a mind that enabled me to serve the people of my state for so many years in spite of an incomplete formal education.

In the 40 years at the University I edited and printed more than a 1,000 different publications, totaling millions of copies, on improved methods of farming and homemaking. A weekly news service along the same line, was used regularly by most of the papers of the State and in the later years some 75 radio and several TV stations used daily programs from our office, which had grown to a staff of a dozen or more people. At first I had been a lonewolf, so to speak, but as the years went by I had several assistant editors and other staff members. In addition, I was for some 30 years a contributing writer of monthly articles for the Progressive Farmer, the largest farm magazine in the South.

For my work at the University I hold distinguished service certificates from the Tennessee County Agricultural Agents' Association and the Omega Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi, honorary fraternity of the National Agricultural Extension Service. Upon retirement I was given a Book of Letters from associates, newspaper editors and friends. Excerpts from some of these follow:

Dr. C. F. Brehm, President of the University--"Many years have gone by since I helped to persuade you to join the staff of the Agricultural Extension Service. That was one of the best things I ever did for the Extension Service and the University . . . you have really done a great job . . . now I hope you enjoy your well earned retirement."

Hon. Jim McCord, former Governor of Tennessee --"My good friend of many years . . . you are now, after years of patriotic devotion and unselfish service to your State, to the press and to the University of Tennessee, going into other fields . . . the press has been the beneficiary of your service for the last half century . . . you leave a record that will live on ... as one of the press that dates back to 1910, I want to add my appreciation to others who, as I do, remember you for your contribution ..."

Dr. Webster Pendergrass, Dean of the College of Agriculture-"As you come to the end of your service with the College of Agriculture, I know you can look back with pleasant memories and many years of accomplishment of which you can be justly proud . . . it is through your efforts and those who served with you that the institution has grown and is now serving effectively the people of the State in a manner that enables them to move forward . . . I join your many friends in an expression of regret in seeing you leave our midst . . ."

Lester Schlup, chief of the Extension Information Department, U. S. Department of Agriculture--"The life of any movement stems from the productive dreams of pioneers, such as you, who, in reaching out to grasp new ideas, see far beyond the immediate realities. As a pioneer and consolidator of the role of agricultural editing, A. J., you have made one of the Nation's greatest contributions to rural life ..."

Needless to say, I prize very highly these and many other letters I received. The good things that have come to me far exceed the fondest dreams of my boyhood days on Indian Creek in Wayne County, plowing old Beck down the long corn rows and wondering what was beyond the hills that hemmed us in.

Within a month after retiring from the University I was on a jet plane for Iran (Old Persia) on a two year assignment with the U. S. Foreign Aid Service and Utah State University. As we shot through space, across the Atlantic, I remembered how interested I had been in studying about the Medes and Persians and Cyrus the Great, during my high school days, but it never occured to me that some day I would live and work there and visit the tomb of the great king, he who freed the Children of Israel from bondage in Babylon, four hundred years before Christ.

My job was that of information advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Extension Service and the College of Agriculture, in the development of methods of spreading information on better methods of farming and homemaking, to rural people (peasants) of that ancient country where farming and stock raising had been the chief way of life for thousands of years before America was discovered; a land where the ox and a crude plow were still the principal items of equipment for cultivating the soil.

I had had a taste of this kind of work in 1954-5 in the Philippines with the U. S. Foreign Aid Service and Cornell University, while on leave from the University of Tennessee. Both of these experiences are among the most interesting and rewarding of my life. In connection with these trips I went around the world, visited most of the countries and walked the street of all the great cities, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, on two occasions. I know that I never had any dreams of such world-wide travel and the opportunity to try to help the people of those faraway lands when I was a boy, yet I know that the dreams I had in those days led to these experiences.

Having a goal in life and striving to reach it, striving to be helpful to others, is one of the greatest things a person can have, next to belief in God, who will walk with us and guide us, if we put our trust in Him. I joined the Baptist Church when I was 12 years old and have tried to live in accordance with His Will to this day, my 73rd birthdayAug. 12, 1965.

VII-49. Almon James (Jay) Sims, 2nd, born in Nashville, Tenn., March 11, 1918; married Eunice Carter, April 30, 1939; studied civil engineering at the University of Tennessee; second lieutenant in Air Corps in World War Two; operated Sims Construction Company in Pensacola, Fla., until a heart attack in 1962 put a limit on his activities. After three children were born, he and his wife separated and a few years later he married Virginia Blair of Pensacola. They have no children. Children by his first wife are:

VIII-50. Almon James Sims, 3rd, born Feb. 21, 1940; married Brenda Parish of Pensacola, Fla., June 23, 1961; graduated from the University of Tennessee, majoring in Transportation, in 1963-his wife graduated in 1964. He is now a first lieutenant in the Air Corps.
VIII-51. Vivian Ann Sims, born Sept. 27, 1943; married Thomas Richard Puryear of Knoxville, March 19, 1965. She attended the University for two years, now a secretary for an insurance firm. He is a graduate student, on an AEC fellowship in Nuclear Engineering, at the University, and is a part time employee at Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory.
VIII-52. Richard Carter Sims, born Feb. 18, 1947. He finished high school in Dallas, Texas; now a student at Baylor University.

VII-53. Annie Fain Sims, born Feb. 1, 1920, in Nashville, Tenn., married Albert W. Hobt, Jr., of Knoxville, June 13, 1944. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Home Economics and is Home Demonstration Agent in Union County. Her husband is a salesman of electric appliances in Knoxville. His father was head of the Physical Education Department at the University for many years. Children:

VIII- Gaynelle Hobt, born Nov. 8, 1949.
VIII-Fritz Karl Hobt, born March 9, 1954.

VII-54. Joseph Wilbur Sims, born May 6, 1922. He was a technical sergeant in electrical work in the Air Corps in World War Two and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for outstanding service in Italy. After the war he operated Sims Esso Service Center for 12 years; is now connected with R. T. Clapp Company, automotive supplies, Asheville, N. C. He married Katherine Lilly Abdon of Knoxville, in July, 1959 and they have one son:

VIII-55. Joseph Paul Sims, born March 31, 1963.
He has two daughters, Sue Ellen and Charlotte, by an earlier marriage to Katherin Sitton of Knoxville. They were adopted by her second husband and bear his name. His wife has a daughter, Deborah Abdon, by a previous marriage.

VII-56. Frank Clark Sims, born Jan. 21, 1927; married Mary Lee White of Knoxville, Aug. 20, 1949. He was a petty officer postal clerk in the Navy in World War Two; attended University of Tennessee after the war and since 1948 has been employed as an electronics specialist at the Oak Ridge Atomic Energy plant. Children:

VIII-57. Sylvia Lee Sims, born April 9, 1953.
VIII-58. David Clark Sims born Oct. 3, 1955.

VII-59. Mary Alice Sims, born Jan. 25, 1931; married James Thomas Huffaker of Knoxville, June 3, 1951. She attended the University of Tennessee of which her husband is a graduate in Engineering, now an engineer with AEC at Oak Ridge. Children:

VIII- Donna Carol Huffaker, born March 1, 1954.
VIII-Lauren Ann Huffaker, born Dec. 20, 1958.
VIII-Carolyn Ruth Huffaker, born April 4, 1962.

VII-60. Jane Camilla Sims, born Sept. 21, 1939. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1961; joined the U. S. Navy as a lieutenant, junior grade, in communications. She was employed for two years at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington; transferred from there to Mare Island Naval Base in San Francisco; resigned in 1965 and is now with the Girl Scout organization at Sacramento, Calif. She married Phillip W. Rathbun of Yuba City, Calif., April 27, 1963, in Knoxville. He is a graduate of Washington State University and after 12 years in the Navy, rising to the rank of lieutenant, he retired. Since January 1965 he has been connected with the International Business Machine Company at Sacramento.

The Clark-Fain families were early settlers of White, Rutherford and Marshall counties. The Clarks were of Scotch-Irish descent and Clarktown, an early resort community on the Cumberland Plateau above Sparta, was established by Daniel Clark who had large land holdings in the area in the early 1800s. There has been only one son in the family for seven generations, as follows: I-Daniel Clark; II-Waman Clark; III-Mark Clark; IV-Erasmus Lee Clark ; V-Waman Clark, brother of my wife; VI-Waman Clark, Jr., an only child; VII-Mark Clark. He has one sister and the family lives in Tracy, Calif. There were daughters in each of the earlier generations.

In the 1830s Waman Clark (II) who married Elizabeth Lowery, acquired a large track of land West of Sparta and built a splendid two-story brick home which is still in the family and in excellent condition. A grist mill, known as Clark's mill, was operated by the family for many years. Mark Clark (III) inherited the place from his father. The home with a few acres is now in the edge of Sparta. Mark married Mary Gardenheir, daughter of Judge Gardenheir, who had a large farm and similar home East of Sparta, on the old highway at the foot of the Cumberland mountains.

Erasmus Lee Clark (IV), born in 1869, married Annie Fain, daughter of Rev. Samuel LaFayette Fain, Sept. 3, 1896: She was born Sept. 21, 1874; died Jan. 29, 1917. He died Sept. 27, 1898, two months before my wife was born.

Rev. Fain, a Methodist minister and a native of Marshall County, was of French descent. He was born in 1848; died in 1924. He married Annie Jackson of Eagleville, Rutherford County, Oct. 26, 1873. She was born April 1, 1853; died Oct. 24, 1874. She was a daughter of Nathan and Indiana Windrow Jackson.

Nathan Jackson, born Jan. 11, 1801, was a son of Francis Jackson, born in 1776, and a grandson of Thomas Jackson, born about 1720 in Prince Edward County, Va., of English ancestry. The Jacksons were among the first settlers in the fertile Eagleville valley. My wife, her mother and grandmother were all born in the old Jackson home and were delivered by the same country doctor. Much of the Jackson homestead is still in the family. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson of Virginia and Civil War fame was a distant relative; also believed to be distantly related to Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson, noted frontiersman and seventh President of the United States.

Footnote: Roman Numerals indicate generations; Figures are Sims identification numbers.

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