My Genealogy Hound

James A. Sims is a native of Mississippi, and a son of John and Isabella (Johnson) Sims, natives of Virginia and North Carolina, respectively. John Sims was a blacksmith by trade, and was also engaged in farming. He died in 1831, preceded by his wife (who was a daughter of Gilbert Johnson, a native of South Carolina) some five years. They were the parents of nine children, eight sons and one daughter: Samuel A., John P., William B., James A. (the principal of this sketch), Gilbert G., Benjamin M., Ernest W., David D. and Mary A. (wife of John W. Walker, of Warren County, Miss.). The places of residence of the brothers are not known. James A. Sims was born in Warren County, Miss., near Vicksburg, on February 5, 1817. On account of the country being then but thinly settled, his early advantages for an education were very limited. He commenced farming for himself at the age of seventeen, and in 1849 came to Arkansas, purchasing a farm in Lee County, which was at that time a part of Monroe County. Two years later he sold his farm, and removed to Clark County, where he remained thirteen years, soon returning and purchasing his present farm, then within the lines of St. Francis County. Mr. Sims was married, in 1851, to Miss Augusta C. Davis, a native of Phillips County, and a daughter of Thomas J. and Elvira (Mullen) Davis, both of whom are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Sims are the parents of ten children, five sons and five daughters; seven of these are still living: John H., Louisa J., Florence I., William A., Robert E. Lee., Edward M. and Donnie D. Mr. Sims enlisted in the Confederate service in the summer of 1864, in the Arkansas Home Guards, in which he served until the close of the war. He and his wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, to which they have belonged for over thirty years. Mr. Sims is a strong, uncompromising Democrat.