As stated in Chapter One, Pariss Sims came from Ireland to America about 1765 with his two brothers, Abraham and Robert; also, that four other brothers, Thomas, William, John and James, had come to this country at an earlier date.

Thomas Sims was killed as a soldier in the American Revolution.

William Sims, believed to be the oldest of the seven brothers, settled in Culpepper County, Va. Abraham Martin Sims (17), Chapter Twelve, a grandson of Pariss Sims, spoke of him when I discussed family history with him in 1913. In 1914 I received the following information from an inquiry to the genealogy department of the Nashville Banner, one of the leading daily newspapers in Middle Tennessee:

"That the Sims family were among the early settlers of Culpepper County, Virginia, there seems to be no doubt, but there is little data about their early life in the colony. A William Sims was born in Culpepper County in 1760, married Amelia Russell when he was probably under twenty years of age and had 12 children. He served as a soldier in the Revolution, sometimes directly under the command of Washington. In 1786 he migrated from Virginia to Cocks County, Tennessee, where he manumitted his slaves. From Tennessee he removed with his family to Indiana, 1811. His son, Larkin, who was born in 1780, returned to Virginia where he married his maternal cousin, Sally Rice. William Sims, the father of Larkin, had a brother, John, who was a member of Congress from Kentucky, and an uncle, named Thomas was killed in the Revolution. It is said that the father of William Sims was named William. . . ."

Dr. Charles N. Sims, a descendant of William (II), said in the "Annals of the Family of John Sims," issued in 1893:

"The most distant of my direct ancestors I am able to trace is William Sims (I) and his wife, Martha, whose maiden name I cannot discover. (She was evidently Martha Rice, since a grandson Larkin, married Sally Rice, his maternal cousin). I find them in Culpepper County, Virginia, as early as 1740. They were the parents of my great grandfather, William Sims (II) who was born May 14, 1760. He (William II) married Amelia Russell about 1779. He enlisted in the Revolutionary Army from Culpepper County in 1777 . . . . died in Franklin County, Indiana, 1842-3, Pension No. S-17091."

William (II) and Amelia Russell Sims had 12 children, as recorded in the family Bible in the possession of John B. Sims, a descendant of Russiaville, Indiana: Larkin, born Jan. 30, 1780; Mary, Sept. 16, 1781; Joshua, June 15, 1783; James, March 3, 1785; William, March 3, 1787; Elizabeth, Dec. 18, 1788; Sarah, Nov. 23, 1790; Stephen, Nov. 24, 1792; Thomas, Feb. 23, 1795; Ann, Feb. 10, 1797; Martha, Feb. 4, 1799; Lewis, March 2, 1802.

Robert Sims, one of the brothers who came to this country with Pariss in 1765, finally settled in Indiana after living in Virginia and Maryland for a time. He had a son, Robert Sims (II), born in Maryland in 1795, who had a son, Robert A. Sims (III), born in Indiana in 1835. Robert (III) had a daughter, Elizabeth who married John Titus and had a son, Sterrett Sims Titus of Kansas City, Mo. I was in school with Sims Titus at the University of Missouri in 1914-15, at which time we traced our kinship. He also knew of a Thomas Sims, a relative who was killed as a soldier in the Revolution, and, William (I) of Culpepper County, and John Sims, one of the brothers who finally settled in South Carolina.

Sally Sims (2), (Chapter Three), the oldest daughter of Pariss Sims, married William Rutledge in Giles County, Tenn., Dec. 10, 1809 and they moved to Indiana to settle near her uncle, Robert Sims. Rutledge was one of the early settlers with the Pariss Sims family in Giles County in 1807.

John Sims, the fourth brother of Pariss, settled in Henry County, Virginia; moving from there to South Carolina after the American Revolution. He had a son Augustine who enlisted in the Revolutionary Army from Henry County, Va., in 1777. An Augustin (Austin) Sims, born in Virginia May 27, 1761 (believed by some to have been a son of Austin Lee Sims and Nancy Savage Sims-not proven) also enlisted in the army from Henry County. Based on evidence, as indicated later in this sketch of the family, I am of the opinion these two Augustins were one and the same-son of John Sims who was living in Henry County at the time; later moved to South Carolina.

John Sims is said to have had several other children, including a son, James Sims, who was a soldier in the Revolution. After the war he is reputed to have moved to Lee County, Va., where he had a large family, several of whom moved from there to Texas.

Augustin Sims married Nancy Farmer of North Carolina in 1783-4 and had 12 children, the oldest of which was Elizabeth, born Oct. 18, 1784, according to documented record. George Sims, their second child and a doctor in Illinois for many years, was born Nov. 24, 1787; died at Waverly, Ill., Nov. 27, 1885, age 98.

Austin Sims, the third child of Augustin and Nancy Farmer Sims, was born in South Carolina, Sept. 6, 1790. A documented record of his family says his parents moved from South Carolina to Kentucky (believed to be Monroe County) when he was 9 years old (1799). He married Jennie Nevins of Kentucky in 1810 and they had six children: Silas, Elizabeth, John, Robert, Joel and Mary Sims. In 1817 he moved to Madison County, Ill., thence to Morgan County in 1827; died in 1878. He was a minister for 56 years of his life. His father, Augustin, moved from Kentucky to Morgan County, Ill., where he died Feb. 10, 1851. His mother died Oct. 2, 1849. They and a number of their children are buried in the Rogers Cemetery at Waverly, Ill.

John L. Sims, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the fourth child of Augustin and Nancy Farmer Sims, was born in South Carolina July 4, 1794; married Elizabeth Scott in Overton County, Tenn., Feb. 14, 1817. They lived in Monroe County, Ky., and had eight children: Patterson, born March 5, 1818; Elisha, Dec. 3, 1819; Jesse Franklin, May 9, 1824; William B., Sept. 27, 1831; James H., Jan. 30, 1833; Elizabeth, July 26, 1837; Florantha, Feb. 27, 1840.

Patterson Sims married Matilda Martin and had eight children: John, Mary, Martha, Eliza, Julia, Parish, Wilson and Joseph. John had a son Alvin Parish Sims, born Feb. 1, 1875.

Elisha Sims, the second son of John L. and Elizabeth Scott Sims, was married twice. His second wife, Elizabeth Turner, was the mother of Elizabeth Florence Sims, born Dec. 24, 1858. She married Alexander C. Walker, May 22, 1879. They had a son, Dee Alexander Walker, who married Lela Blanch in Dallas, Tex., Oct. 9, 1907. They have a son, Dee Brown Walker, born Dec. 3, 1912, who is Judge of the 162nd District Court, Dallas Tex. He has a documented record of this branch of the family, back to Augustin and Nancy Farmer Sims.

Dr. Parish Sims, the fifth child of Augustin and Nancy Farmer Sims, born in 1798, was listed in the 1880 census of Clay County, Tenn., age 82, and, a member of the household of Rachel Sims, age 54; evidently a daughter-in-law and a widow, with four children, ages 11 to 25. Mary J. Sims, age 43, with a son, Parish Sims, age 15, was also listed in Clay County in the 1880 census.
Other children of Augustin and Nancy Farmer Sims were: James, Sally, Benjamin, William, Josiah, Margaret and Polly.

John L. Sims died in Monroe County, Ky., August 12, 1879. His wife, Elizabeth Scott Sims, died Nov. 29, 1890. Both are buried in the Sims cemetery, along with most of their children, near Vernon, Ky.

Use of the Parish name, the maiden name of the mother of John Sims, one of the seven brothers from Ireland, and the fact that several Sims families, sons of the brothers of John, settled in the same general area about the same time, strongly indicates kinship-see the Parrish name, Chapter Three.

Rev. Matthew Sims, son of Abraham, finally settled and died in Putnam County, near Overton and Clay counties, Tenn., and Monroe County, Ky. He had a son, Paris, who went to Missouri. Abraham Sims (4), second son of Pariss, settled in Macon County, just West of Clay and Overton. He had a son, Paris Lindsey Sims (212). Martin Sims (5), the third son of Pariss, settled in Bedford County, Southwest of the above counties. William Sims (II), son of William (I), had a brother, John Sims who was a U. S. Congressman from Kentucky in the early days. Pariss Sims (I), the youngest of the seven brothers, settled in Giles County, South of Bedford County, in 1807. His brother James of Hawkins County, Tenn., had a son, Parish, who made Sims Settlement on Elk River in Limestone County, Ala., just South of Giles County.

In addition to the above evidence, there is a tradition in our family that all of these families were related. Martin Sims (4-Chapter Three) of Bedford County who lived to the age of 90, visited relatives in Giles, Lawrence and Wayne counties and is reputed to have had contact with the Sims families in the other counties mentioned. He told the story of Paris Sims as a scout on the old Santa Fe Trail, as related in the sketch of Abraham Sims that follows. I heard it from Neal Brown Sims (230), a grandson of Abraham Sims (4) of Macon County, in l912-some 50 years before hearing it from Max D. Miller, one of Paris Sims' descendants, now living in Bartlesville, Okla.

Abraham Sims, the other brother who came to America with Pariss in 1765, settled in Culpepper County, Va., where he died about 1820. He is believed to have married Mary Briggs and had a large family, including John, Matthew and Robert.

Matthew Sims, the second son and a Baptist minister, born in Virginia about 1760, settled in Claiborne County, Tenn., around 1800, after having lived in Hawkins County, Tenn., and Lee County, Va., for a time. According to marriage records of Henry County, Va., Matthew married Jane Moore, June 15, 1782. Another Matthew Sims, believed to be a cousin, married Ann Moore in Hawkins County, Tenn., in 1787the two have been confused in some records.

In 1801, Rev. Matthew Sims was a member of the first county court of Claiborne County which was formed out of part of Hawkins Countyboth join Lee County, Va. In 1803 he was commissioned to layout the town of Tazewell, the present county seat. In 1812, he moved to Putnam County, then a part of Jackson County which joins Overton and Clay counties, where he died in 1825. Martin Sims, a -son of Rev. Matthew, was born in Claiborne County in 1800.

Dr. Philander Davis Sims, a son of Martin and a prominent physician in Chattanooga, Tenn., from 1856 until his death there, sometime after 1903, said in a letter to Rev. Paris Marion Sims (264--Chapter Thirteen), Nov. 16, 1903:

"I have an idea, but not founded on any reliable information, that my family is of Irish origin but how many generations back I have no knowledge. I know nothing beyond my grandfather, Matthew Sims, who came, in the latter part of the eighteenth century from VirginiaI think Culpepper County-and settled in Claiborne County, East Tennessee, where my father, Martin Sims, was born in the year 1800. In 1812, my grandfather moved to Overton County, near the line of Jackson-that part of the county is now Putnam County. There he lived until he died in 1825. My father lived there until a few years before his death at the home of a granddaughter in White County, in 1896 . . . . My grandfather, Matthew, was a Baptist preacher . . . . Brothers of my father were John, James, Absolom, Paris and Elisha. As to Dr. James Marion Sims (the famous doctor of South Carolina, Alabama and New York City-see Chapter Nineteen). I was once at his house in New York City and we tried to name out our lines to common origin. The nearest we could come was that two or three generations back his family moved from Virginia to South Carolina and mine from Virginia to Tennessee."

Rev. Paris Marion Sims to whom the above letter was written, the original of which I have, was a great grandson of Abraham Sims (4) of Macon County, Chapter Thirteen.

John Sims, believed to have been the oldest son of Rev. Matthew Sims, settled in Lee County, Va., and had a son, Barrel Sims, born Feb. 7, 1816, who settled in Gallia County, Ohio, near Crown City, where he died Dec. 7, 1893. Burrel married Jane Harmon and had 12 children: Mary, Melvin, Burrel, Jr., Greenberry Dickerson (Dick), James, Canton, Dallas, Rhoda, Clara, William Sherman, Charles, and Johnny Sims.

William Sherman Sims, born May 15, 1865, was the father of Sylvia Marie Sims Spence, born July 7, 1894, now living in Salt Lake City, Utah.

She has a documented record of her family, back to Burrel Sims, Sr., and Jane Harmon Sims. She said in a letter to me in March 1965 that her father was notified in the early 1900s that he was one of the heirs to some land in Culpepper County, Va. He inspected the land and found it so poor and rocky that he decided not to press the claim--evidently a court case to clear title to land that once belonged to Abraham Sims. He leased land for an oil company in West Virginia at one time, and, was in the real estate business at Lancester, Ohio, for 47 years.

Paris Sims, one of the sons of Rev. Matthew Sims, born in Claiborne County in 1802, died in St. Clam County, Mo., according to Max D. Miller of Bartlessville, Okla., who wrote me as follows in March 1964.

"My great, great grandfather, Paris or Parish Sims, born Aug. 20, 1802; died in St. Clam, County, Mo., Oct. 6, 1867; was reputed to have been born in Tennessee or Virginia and emigrated to Missouri where he settled in 1839 .... He is supposed to have been a guide for wagon trains to Mexico, probably the Santa Fe Trail; went over-land to California in 1849-50 and returned via ship."

I first heard this story from relatives in 1912. Later Mr. Miller wrote me that Paris Sims married Margaret Elizabeth Hoover of Ohio in 1838 and had the following children: Nancy Jane, born June 21, 1839; Mary A., born Dec. 17, 1842; James Madison, born Feb. 21, 1846; John Martin, born Jan. 13, 1849; and Alexander Matthew Sims, born Aug. 9, 1856.

Nancy Jane Sims married John Burnsides and they had a daughter, Molly Burnsides, who married John Wesley Miller in 1879. Their third child, Troy Franklin Miller, married Mamie Helm and they were the parents of Maxwell Durby (Max D.) Miller, born June 1, 1912. I am indebted to him, not only for a record of his line of the family but for considerable help on other lines.

James Sims, a brother of Paris, is believed to have settled in Kentucky. Absolum (Absolom) Sims, another brother, born in Claiborne County, Sept. 8, 1809, had a son, Matthew Burton Sims, who settled in Bedford County, Tenn., and in recent years one of his descendants was mayor of Shelbyville. Elisha Sims, another brother of Paris, born about 1812, lived and had a family in Claiborne County.

Robert Sims, third son of Abraham Sims of Culpepper County, Va., was born about 1770; married a Duke of South Carolina and lived for a time in North Carolina; moved to Bedford County, Tenn., in 1810, where he died about 1830. He had 14 children, several of whom married in Maury County, Tenn., and moved, with their widowed mother, to Greene County, Mo., in 1832. The children were: George Washington, Robert, Jr., Nancy, Sally, Matthew, John, Mary, Elvira, Briggs, Burwell (Burrel), Frances, Holly, Zachariah, and Delphina, all of whom had large families.

Robert Sims, Jr., married Mary Adams of Greene County in 1834. They had a daughter, Nancy Jane Sims, born March 26, 1836, who married Marcus Abernathy of Giles County, Tenn., in 1854. They had 10 children, one of whom was Ophelia Abernathy who married Rev. Walter T. McClure. They were the parents of Miss Mabel McClure, librarian, Carnegie Public Library, Enid, Okla., for many years. She and Mrs. Emmit Morris, Little Rock, Ark., a descendant of Frances Sims, daughter of Robert Sims, Sr., supplied me with information on their branch of the family in the 1930s.

Parish Sims, son of James (Bartlett) Sims, one of the six brothers of Pariss, was born in Patrick County, Va., Feb. 14, 1762. His mother was Elizabeth Parish. The family moved from Patrick County to Hawkins County, Tenn., where his father died in 1793. Both Parish and his father were large land owners, had slaves, and were active in the early development of Hawkins County which in the early days included Claiborne, Hancock and Grainger counties, all in North Carolina territory.

John Sims, believed to be an older brother of Parish, helped to organize Grainger County out of part of Hawkins and was a member of the first County Court. He is believed to have lived and died in Grainger, where he had a large family; descendants now live in several East Tennessee counties. Other old established Sims families in the area are believed to be descendants of James Sims, a distant relative and an early settler in Blount County, Tenn. See Chapter Nineteen.

In 1807, Parish Sims, with his wife Grizel (Kessiah) and their children, his widowed mother and most of his brothers and sisters, emigrated to what today is Limestone County, Ala. There they made what was known for years as Sims Settlement on Elk River, just South of the present town of Prospect in Giles County, Tenn. An early history of Giles County, by James McCullam, says:

"James Ford with a number of others, including James, William and Parish Sims, Thomas Dodd, Simon Foy and Thomas Kyle, with their families started from Hawkins County in East Tennessee in the Spring of 1807 with four boats. When the boats had ascended Elk River about opposite Sims Settlement, three of the boats with the Simses, Kyles and others concluded to stop there, and settled what was long known as Sims Settlement, in Limestone County, Ala . . . ."

A history of Limestone County says they came down the Tennessee River, up Elk River to Brush Island where the first cabins were erected by the Sims brothers on Oct. 3, 1807--"the first settlement in what is now known as Limestone County."

The "old ones" in our family knew about this settlement; said they were relatives. Parish Sims made his will, Nov. 26, 1807 and died within a few months. His will, recorded in 1812, in nearby Lincoln County (later destroyed by fire, along with other county records) read in part as follows:

"In the name of God, I, Parrish Simes (Sims) of the State of Georgia and West of the Indian lands . . . . give to my beloved wife, Grizel, all of my estate for the sole purpose of supporting and raising my children during her lifetime . . and in the case of her marriage or death, leave my estate to be equally divided among my children . . . . I appoint my beloved wife, Grizel Simes, William Sims (a brother) and Benjamin Murrell, my executors."

n a short time, the new settlers found themselves in trouble with the Indians and the U. S. Government which claimed they were on land West of the North-South Indian Territory line which had been established in 1805. They were ordered to move off the land and in 1810 they sent a petition, recorded in Vol. 4, "Mississippi Territory Papers," to President James Madison. It reads in part as follows:

"Mississippi Territory,
Elk River, Simms'es Settlement
September 5, 1810

"To his Excellency James Madison, President of the United States of America and the Honorable Congress assembled:

"We your petitioners humbly sheweth that a great many of your fellow citizens have unfortunately settled on what is now called Chickasaw land which has led us into difficulties that tongue cannot express if orders from the War Department are executed in removing us off of said land . . . . We understood all the land on the North side of the Tennessee River was purchased of the Indians and by paying two dollars per acre we could obtain title to our lands . . . . A great many of us solde our possessions and came here . . . we remained in a peaceful situation until in the Fall of 1807, when General Robertson came, running the Chickasaw boundary line and informed us that although the Cherokees had sold this land, the Chickasaws held claim to it. We think the Cherokees had the best right to the land. Therefore, your humble petitioners wish you to take our situation into consideration . . . . if we are moved off we cannot take our produce with us and a great many, not in circumstances to purchase more, will in consequence of this be brought into a deplorable situation . . . ."

The above petition was signed by 421 men and 20 widows. William Sims, a brother of Parish, was the first signer. James Sims, his brother, was the second signer, and, among the 20 widows signing were Grizell Sims, widow of Parish, and Elizabeth Sims, his mother.

We have no record of the outcome but we do know that Grizell Sims, referred to in some records as Kesiah Sims, later married Judge William Cocke, who came there from Hawkins County, and with most of her children, moved to Mississippi. It is thought that her maiden name was Kessiah, a family name in North Carolina and Virginia. Both she and Judge Cocks are buried in Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, Miss., where she died in 1820.

Children of Parish and Grizell Sims were: Elizabeth, Abraham, Lucinda, Bartlett, William, John, Martin, James, Matthew and Mary.

Bartlett Sims was commissioned as the first sheriff of Monroe County, Miss., in April 1821. He is the ancestor of Ruth Estella Haley Brown (Mrs. Gilbert Brown, Baton Rouge, La.), who supplied me with a record of her family, back to Parish Sims.

James Sims married Harriet Smith, a daughter of Rev. John Smith, a missionary to the Indians at Elliott Station in North Mississippi. They had a daughter, Sophia Antionetta Sims who married John Thomas Watkins. They were the grandparents of John Thomas Watkins who married Kathryne Goza. They live in Hammond, La. I am indebted to Mrs. Watkins for information on her husband's line of the family.

Martin Sims was a minister, a school teacher and an interpreter for the Government and the Mayhew Mission to the Choctaw Indians.

William and James Sims, brothers of Parish, helped to establish Sims Settlement in Alabama. Molly, a sister married Benjamin Murrell. Charlotte, another sister, married Simon Foy and another sister, name unknown, married John Maples. Murrell, Foy and Maples were members of the Settlement party.

I deeply regret that space and cost of printing prohibits inclusion of detailed records of the families of the six brothers of Pariss Sims, as supplied me by several of their descendants.

I am particularly indebted to Max P. Miller, Judge Dee Brown Walker, Mrs. Gilbert (Ruth Haley) Brown, Mrs. Kathryne G. Watkins, Mrs. Sylvia Sims Spence, and Miss Mabel McClure for their assistance in supplying detailed records of their branches of the family. I am also indebted to Mrs. Gertrude Soderberg, Washington, D. C., who, in tracing her line to a James Sims of Virginia, has accumulated a wealth of material on Sims families in America-so far we have been unable to prove a connection of James Sims, her ancestor, with that of Pariss Sims and his brothers.

While driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, near Blowing Rock, in 1964, I noted the following official Parkway markers: "Sims Creek", "Sims Pond" and "Sims Post Office." I later learned from Mrs. Home Sims Brown of Camden, S. C., that the markers are on the old homeplace of her father, Wagner Hamilton Sims, and that of her grandfather, Elishaway Sims. The place was in the family for several generations.

Pariss Sims and his family passed through Deep Gap, a few miles from Sims Creek, on the way to Tennessee in 1807, but I have no evidence that he was related to the above family.

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