The subject of this biographical sketch was born in Franklin County, Ind., on the 26th day of August, 1828. When five years of age, his parents, John Sims and Irene (Allen) Sims, moved to Tippecanoe County, whence, after a residence of one year, they removed to Union County, and permanently located near the village of Fairfield. In the month of September, 1849, Mr. Sims left the parental roof, and, locating in Delphi, Carroll County, where his brother, Lewis B. Sims, had preceded him, began the practice of law. In 1853, he was appointed Clerk of the House of Representatives at Indianapolis, serving one term. Excepting this interval, and his absence from Delphi, while serving on the field of battle in the war of the rebellion, he has continued uninterruptedly in the practice of his chosen profession, always ranking as one of the strongest members of the Delphi bar, and enjoying, for the most part, a lucrative and successful practice.
At the commencement of the late war, he recruited the Twenty-fourth Battery, Light Artillery, consisting of 156 men; was chosen its Captain, and mustered into service at Indianapolis on the 29th of November, 1862, remaining in camp in that city during the winter of 1862. On the 11th of March, 1863, the battery departed for Louisville, Ky., and, on the 11th of May, it engaged the enemy at Horse Shoe Bend, on the Cumberland River. In August, the battery marched with Gen. Burnside’s army into East Tennessee, and was the first battery with that army that crossed the Cumberland Mountains. On the 2d of September, it reached Loudon, and, marching from there, participated in the engagements at Philadelphia and Sweetwater, on the 14th of October. Capt. Sims also commanded the battery, while it actively engaged in the defense of the garrison and works during the siege of Knoxville, the 17th of November to the 14th of December. On the 5th of December, the battery left Knoxville in pursuit of Longstreet’s army, marching through a number of towns in East Tennessee. During December, 1863, and January, 1864, the battery marched and encamped in the mud and snow, entirely destitute of tents. Nearly all of the men were without overcoats, and very scantily supplied with other clothing, and were almost entirely dependent of rations upon the country, which had already been overrun and robbed by Longstreet’s army. As a result of these deprivations, Capt. Sims was attacked with typhoid-pneumonia at Strawberry Plains, Tenn., and was compelled, on the 24th of January, 1864, to resign command of the battery and return home.
Capt. Sims has been twice married, and has two children – Joseph A. and Lewis B., born of the first marriage.
He is a brother of Lewis B. Sims, a prominent lawyer, and one of the leading members of the Delphi bar; also, of Rev. Charles N. Sims, D. D., Chancellor of the Syracuse University, New York.
Capt. Sims is a man of strong convictions, and out spoken in his opinions. He possesses a genial disposition, an easy, approachable way, and a strong aptitude for humor. With a robust constitution, and the burdens of life resting lightly on his shoulders, he bids fair to live to a ripe old age.
County Coordinator: Suzy Sprague suzyq.wa@worldnet.att.net