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

III-16. George Washington Sims, third son and seventh child of Robert and Frances Howard Merritt Sims, was born Feb. 22, 1831, in Giles County, Tenn. See Chapter Four. He was a farmer and one of the first photographers, making tintype pictures, in Wayne and Hardin counties. He was a Confederate sympathizer but was rejected by the Confederate Army because of his health. He married Sarah Jane Whitson of Hardin County, July 6, 1851, and their first child, Thetus W. Sims, was born April 25, 1852.

The house in which Thetus was born was still standing near the old home of my grandfather, Shields Sims (19), in 1965. It was used by my grandfather as a workshop and tool house for many years. Grandpa took pride in pointing it out as the house in which Thetus Sims, a U. S. Congressman for twenty years, was born--"In a log house just like Abe Lincoln," he would say. I have a letter, written to Rev. Paris Marion Simms, by Cong. Sims in 1932, in regard to family history which reads in part as follows:

"Dear Cousin: . . . I have very little knowledge of the Sims family. My father was George Washington Sims, but he always signed his name G. W. Sims. There were four brothers, Matthew (11), Robert (12), G. W. (16), and Abraham Martin (17). Uncle Matt (11) lived on the headwaters of Indian Creek in Wayne County all of his life. Uncle Robert (12) moved to Mason's Grove in West Tennessee. My father (16) lived in Wayne and Hardin counties until about 1877-78 when he moved to North Texas, near Bonham, where my mother died. Then a few years before he died he moved to Mineral Wells."--T. W. Sims.

Three brothers and a sister of Thetus went to Texas with their parents.

His uncle, Abraham Martin Sims (17), started Thetus on his law career by giving him some law books and telling him to make a lawyer out of himself; his uncle had started out in life to be a lawyer but had to give it up on account of his health. Thetus later studied law at Cumberland University and began practice at Linden, Perry County, in the early 1880's. He married Nannie Kittrell of Maury County, Dec. 26, 1877. In 1896 he ran for Congress, in the old Eighth Congressional District of Tennessee, as a Democrat. He was elected and served continuously without serious opposition from 1897 to 1921.

In 1920, election year, he was chairman of a special Congressional Committee, appointed by President Wilson to investigate World War One expenditures and profiteering. Because of the importance of the work of the Committee, and, a feeling that the voters of his district would be loyal to him, he did not return to the district to campaign for reelection. As a result, he was defeated by a young World War One veteran, Gordon Browning, who was later Governor of the State.

Congressman Sims was a devoted public servant, not only to his District and his State but to the Nation. His long record of service to his District and his work on many important committees in Congress serve as a fitting epitaph, to his long career, and, as a source of pride to all who bear the Sims name.

In 1921, I had the pleasure of visiting with him at Lexington, Tenn., where he then lived. While talking with him he related an experience of his boyhood and the Civil War that involved both of my grandfathers. He and his mother were visiting his grandmother Sims and his uncle, Matthew, my great grandfather, on Dry Creek in the Fall of 1861. Soldiers of the Confederate Army had been passing through the area and had been conscripting all the able-bodied men they could find, despite the fact that most of the people in the area were in sympathy with the North. A few weeks before that Clay Sims (22), a brother of my grandfather, a mere youth at the time, had been captured by the Rebels and taken into the Confederate Army (see Chapter Nine) and my grandfather, Shields Sims (19) and my maternal grandfather, Joseph Noah Davis, had had a narrow escape.

On this particular day there was a rumor out that another group of Rebel soldiers was headed for the Indian Creek valley. My grandfathers had decided to ride out of the county and join up with Grant's Army in Kentucky. They had their horses saddled in the barn and were sleeping in the house, waiting for night-fall to be on their way. Someone in the family suggested it would be a good idea to send Thetus, then nine years old, down the road to watch for the soldiers and spread the news, if he saw them approaching.

It was a quiet, sunny afternoon in October. His uncle Matthew (11) was busy making molasses, with the help of some of the girls, near the house. Thetus went down the road a quarter of a mile, climbed up on a rail fence and started his "watch". The afternoon drug on and he got borednot a sign of approaching Rebs. He got to thinking about the excitement that would take place if he did spy the Robs and run to the house with the news. The thought excited him and after a while, when no Rebs had appeared on the road, he decided to spread an alarm, just for the fun of it.

He jumped from the fence and ran up the road. As he neared the house he began to yell, "The Rebs are coming!" His Uncle Matthew dropped his molasses skimmer and darted into the woods. The girls dashed into the house, the would-be Union soldiers rushed from the house, mounted their horses and galloped off on a trail into the woods; dogs were barking, a turkey gobbler started gobbling.

"It was a sight; the greatest commotion I had ever seen," he told me.

But the fun didn't last for long. When no Rebs appeared and things quieted down around the place, his mother began to question him and pretty soon, "I was getting the worst licking of my life," he said. Not only had he sent two young men off on a gallop into the Union Army but his Uncle Matthew was missing. Hours passed and darkness settled over the valley with Uncle Matthew still missing. Although he was 56, he was taking no chances. The Rebs had taken an older man off with them a few weeks before that-the man had started a fight with them and it was rumored that they had later shot him. The girls found his Uncle Matthew the next morning, hiding in a cave, over the ridge.

In 1963 Judge Joe Sims and I had the pleasure of visiting with Erskine Kent Sims, the oldest son of Cong. Thetus W. Sims, at his farm home near lndianola, Miss. We found him hale and hearty at 83; busily engaged in operating a large cotton plantation to which he had retired from law practice in Indianola. He died Nov. 28, 1964. He studied law at Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. At one time he and a son, William Hayden Sims, operated a large dairy which was closed after William died suddenly in 1954.

Another distinguished member of the family is Louis Brownlow who married Elizabeth, the third daughter and fourth child of Cong. T. W. Sims. Louis' grandmother was Judith Sims (9), youngest child of Pariss Sims. She married Joseph Brownlow in Giles County about 1830. His parents were Robert Sims Brownlow and Ruth Amis who moved from Giles County to Buffalo, Mo., where Louis was born Aug. 29, 1879.

Louis Brownlow gained national and international recognition as an expert in public administration and died in the harness, so to speak, at the age of 84, Sept. 27, 1863. He was stricken while speaking at a luncheon meeting of local government executives at the Navy-Army Club in Washington, D. C.

He began his career as a reporter for the Nashville Banner in 1902. Later he became Washington correspondent for the Banner and several other daily papers. In 1915 President Wilson appointed him to the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia. He served on the Board until 1920, the last three years as president of the Board which is the governing body of the District.

From 1924 to 1926 he served as the first City Manager of Knoxville, Tenn., at which time I had opportunity to meet both he and his wife and discuss family relationships with them. Later, he went to Chicago as director of a Public Administration Clearing House. In this capacity, he advised states, cities and some foreign countries on improved government management practices. In 1936-37 he served as chairman of President Roosevelt's Committee on Public Administrative Management. After he "retired" he wrote a two volume autobiography, "A Passion for Politics" and "A Passion for Anonymity."

Paul Sims, another son of Cong. Sims, was an investment broker in New York City until his death in 1959. He had one son, the only one in the Cong. Sims line to carry on the family name.

III-16. George Washington Sims (16), born Feb. 22, 1831, married Sarah Jane Whitson of Hardin County, July 6, 1851 and had the following children:

IV-160. Thetus Willrette Sims, born April 25, 1852 in Wayne County; died in Washington, D. C., Dec. 17, 1939; buried in Rock Creek Park, Washington; U. S. Congressman of the Eighth Tennessee District, 1897-1921. See record of his family below.
IV-161. Wesley Sims, went to Texas with his parents about 1877 and lived in Bonham-no record of his family.
IV-162. Asilee Sims, went to Texas with his parents-no record of his family.
IV-163. Albert Sims, went to Texas with his parents-no record of his family.
IV-164. Viola Sims, went to Texas with the family and married a merchant in Bonham-no record of her family.

 

IV-160. Thetus W. Sims, born April 25, 1852; died Dec. 17, 1939; married Nannie Kitrell, Dec. 26, 1877. Children:

V-165. Edna Sims, born Dec. 25, 1878; married William L. Beale of West Virginia. He was a banker in Washington, D. C. Children:

VI-William, Nancy, Bettie and Barbara Beale.

V-166. Erskine Kent Sims, born Oct. 30, 1880; died Nov. 28, 1964. lawyer and plantation operator, Indianola, Miss. He married Rose Hayden Hess, Feb. 16, 1910 and they had one son:

VI-167. William Hayden Sims, born July 31, 1913; died July 5, 1954. He married in 1942 but had no children.

V-168. Tom Sims, born Oct, 10, 1882; married Harding Jackson of Nashville, Tenn. No children. He has been an invalid for many years.
V-169. Elizabeth Sims, born Dec. 1, 1884; married Louis Brownlow of Washington, D. C. where he died in 1963. No children.
V-170. Marie Sims, married Hunter Jones, a public accountant in Memphis, Tenn., where they live. No children.
V-171. Paul Sims, born in 1894; died in New York City in 1959. He was an investment broker, was married and had two children:

VI-172. Pauline Sims who married John Medlin. They live in Winston-Salem N. C. Children:

VII- Pauline and Winston Medlin.

VI- 173. John Winston Sims of New York; unmarried.

V-174. Enid Sims married Chester Snow, a patent lawyer of Washington. Children:

VI-Clara Snow.

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

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