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From: Doug & Joyce Severt <>
Subject: [ALBUTLER] Roll Call
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:46:31 -0500
Hello Fellow Listers!
I am Joyce Sims Severt, currently living in Midwest City, Oklahoma (I
cant help it---my husband has to have a job---well be home soon) and
am researching the Sims family (among others) as both my maternal and
paternal line is Sims. I feel that at some point they will meet and
perhaps be siblings or cousins at the worst.
My maternal line begins with Waller Sims who married Mary Bradley in the
mid 1810's and settled as a farmer in the Abbeville District, an area in
the hill country of northwestern South Carolina just south of
Greenville. Mary Bradley had been born in 1800 or 1801 in South
Carolina and Waller Sims was born about 1793 in Virginia. By 1812 he
was living in South Carolina. In the War of 1812 he enlisted in Captain
Cunningham's Company of South Carolina militia. In 1833, Waller Sims,
at about the age of forty, caught the Alabama Fever and decided to take
his family of wife and five or six children to a brighter future in
Alabama. As was the custom, the Sims family probably covered the
hundreds of miles requiring weeks of arduous travel in a group, probably
with some of Mary's kin, the Bradleys. They would likely have crossed
into Georgia at Augusta, taken the Federal Road across Georgia to
Columbus, crossed over the Chattahoochee River into Alabama and taken
the Road to Montgomery County. They stopped when they arrived at
Montgomery. I do not know exactly when they went to Pike County,
Alabama but that is where Mary died Bet. 1874 1880.
By 1820, Waller and Mary had two children, both boys. The names of
these sons were not revealed in the census. The next census in which
Waller Sims appeared, 1840 Lowndes County, showed the two sons to be in
their twenties and still living with their father. The next census,
1850, was the first one to list children's first names. By this time
the two oldest sons were no longer in Waller Sims' household.
Therefore, the names of the two oldest sons were never given in the
census and remain unknown. Waller and Mary Sims had ten children, eight
of whose names are known from the census.
The Census of 1850 showed Waller Sims at age sixty to be a respectable
farmer in Lowndes County with wife and eight children at home: "Martha,
Mary, Caroline, Francis, Waller, Wesley, Weston, and Olden," ranging in
age from twenty-three to seven.
Waller Sims died between 1866 and 1870. It is not known exactly when he
died or where he was buried. By 1870, the widow Mary Sims had moved
herself and her household of four unmarried daughters (Martha, Caroline,
Francis, and Weston), ages forty-three to twenty-eight, to Pike County
to rent property. She took up residence next to Henry M. Bradley,
either her younger brother or nephew, in southwestern Pike County near
Henderson.
To support herself and her daughters, Mary Sims sold 120 acres of her
property near Honoraville for the sum of $180 to P. W. Roper and A. L.
Sims on January 12, 1871. No doubt struggling to support her family,
Mary Sims sold the other eighty acres in 1874. After 1871 she did
receive a small pension as the widow of a War of 1812 veteran. Mary
Sims died, apparently between 1874 and 1880 while living in Pike
County. The exact date of her death and place of burial are unknown.
The four Sims spinsters went to live with their brother John W. Sims.
Waller Sims and Mary Bradley Sims had 10 children that I know of: 2
unknown sons (could possibly be Alexander and William B.), Martha D.
Sims, Mary A. T. Sims, Susan Caroline Sims, Francis T. Sims, Lewis
Waller Sims, John Wesley Sims, Luvina Weston Sims, and Stephen Olin
Sims.
The earliest known Sims on my fathers side of the family is William
Sims, Sr. who married Mary Souls/Soles. The Federal Census of 1790 and
1800 shows a William Sims living in Brunswick County, North Carolina,
Wilmington District. Columbus County was formed in early 1800 from a
part of six Brunswick and Bladen counties. Columbus County is located in
the Southeast section of North Carolina and is bounded by South Carolina
as well as the North Carolina counties of Roberson, Bladen, Peneler and
Brunswick. Whiteville is the county seat. Also, living in this district
in 1800 were Nathaniel Soles, Joseph Soles, McKinney Soles, Benjamin
Soles, Moses Williams and several Fowler families. These families
intermarried and apparently moved together to Lowndes and Pike counties
in Alabama in the early 1800's.
It is presumed that this family originated in Columbus County, North
Carolina, as there is a deed registered there signed by Susanna (mark),
Benjamin Sims, James Sims, Jesse Williams (mark), John Simmons (mark),
Moses Williams, and Elizabeth (mark). This deed sold the first Moses
land grant to his son John. It is witnessed by William Sims. Several
deeds have been found where William Sims witnessed or was part of a deed
to members of the family. On the original 1792 land grant it is signed
by Moses Williams (mark). From records located, it appears that some of
the Sims siblings made their way to Pike County, Alabama while others
seemed to have moved to Jasper County, Mississippi.
William and Mary Soles Sims had 5 children that I know of: McKinney
Sims, James Sims, William Sims, Jr., Benjamin Sims, and Jacob Sims.
For a complete list of these families please visit my web page located
at http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2746/Sims.htm
I would be most happy to hear from anyone researching any of these
families. I have quite a bit of information on extended families such
as Barrett, Bozeman, Carlisle, Daniel, Flowers, Folmar, Hartin, Jordan,
Jefcoat (Jeffcoat), Rodgers, Wilkinson, and Williams. I look forward to
communicating with any of the families researching any of the above
names.
--
Life is a grindstone; whether it grinds you down or polishes you up
depends
on what you're made of.
- Jacob M. Braude
Visit our home page at: http://www.ionet.net/~djsevert
Or
The Annex: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2746
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