Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 122

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 122

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MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

Q. C. Lamar made speeches at the fair grounds at Columbus, Miss., containing much of warning and gloomy forebodings of the Southern future. The country soon became aflame with excitement; volunteer companies for service in the anticipated war between the sections began to form. Among the first in this section of the state was the formation of a com- pany, intended for cavalry service, before the close of 1860, known as the Tombigbee rangers. Samuel Butler was its first captain, and W. H. Sims its first orderly sergeant. It was mustered into state service at Columbus, Miss., February 28, 1861. Captain Butler, having become restless to get into active service, had gone to an infantry regiment, called into service in Virginia, and J. H. Sharp, the first lieutenant of the rangers, became his successor as captain, while W. H. Sims was promoted to second lieutenant, to fill the vacancy created by the company officers moving up. After a tiresome waiting for weeks for a call as a cavalry company, the rangers finally abandoned that feature of their military purpose, and early in the spring of 1861 rendezvoused at Union City, Tenn., as infantry, as a part of a Confederate command which Gen. Frank Cheatham was there forming. Then began the active Confederate service which shifted the rangers, as company A, Blythe's battalion; afterward company A, Blythe's Mississippi regiment; afterward company A, Forty-fourth Mississippi regiment, from Union City to Columbus, Ky., during the winter of 1861-2; to the battle of Shiloh in April, 1862; to Saltillo, Miss. ; to Chattanooga; to Murfreesboro, Tenn., and the seven days' fight on Stone river; and thence back to Tullahoma, Tenn. ; and thence, under Bragg, to Kentucky, where as a part of Chalmer's high-pressure brigade, it joined in the daring attack upon the fortress at Munfordsville, Ky. It participated in the battle at Perrysville, Ky., and with Bragg, retreated through Cumberland Gap, and on back to near the place where it started its aggressive march. It shared the victory of Chickamauga, and the defeat at Missionary ridge; fell back and wintered at Dalton in 1863-4; stubbornly fought under Joseph E. Johnston against Sherman's outnumbering ranks from Resaca to Atlanta and Jonesboro, Ga., through four months of comparatively every day fighting, dur- ing the spring and summer of 1864. Johnston's Fabian policy having lost him nineteen thousand troops, in killed, wounded and missing, between Dalton and Atlanta, without his giv- ing battle or obtaining any coigne of vantage; but on the contrary, in the opinion of the Con- federate authorities, losing it, while in the possession of a splendid army and without daring to fight for it, he was supplanted by Hood, who had become famous in Virginia as the com- mander of a Texas brigade and a fighting division. W. H. Sims had shared the fortunes of his company all along through these events. At Shiloh he participated in both days' battles, commanding his company on the last day. Though not wounded there, he narrowly escaped it, having a grape shot to pass through his haversack and cut it loose from his person. The commander of his regiment, Col. A. K. Blythe, having been killed at Shiloh, Lieutenant Sims was detailed to bring his body to Columbus, Miss., for interment, and upon the reor- ganization of his company during his few days' absence, his captain, J. H. Sharp, was elected colonel of the regiment and W. H. Sims was elected by his comrades from the position of second lieutenant to that of captain of company A.

At Chickamauga, while in command of his company, Captain Sims received, early in the action, a severe wound in the arm, which carried him to the rear and caused his absence on leave for a month or more. He was again wounded slightly in the same arm at Jonesboro, when his horse was killed under him. During a year of the time mentioned, under (tel. Patton Anderson, Gen. Tucker, and Gen. Sharp, commanding the brigade successively, Captain Sims was on detail duty as inspector-general of the brigade, but on the flank move- ment of Hood's army from below Atlanta around Sherman's rear to the Tennessee river at

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Decatur, he was recalled to his regiment, promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and put in command of it, and with it fought in the battle of Franklin, Tenn., in December, 1864, where he received a severe wound in the knee, which resulted in the loss of the lower portion of his leg. Shot down at the locust thicket near the breastworks, on the left of the line, about ten o'clock at night, he was several hours crawling off the field to a place of safety. Carried to an improvised hospital at a farmhouse by some cavalry men who picked him up, he lay there for eighteen days, until Hood's army was beaten from in front of Nashville and were retiring pell-mell through Franklin to the Tennessee river. Colonel Sims, having partly recovered from his wound, was taken by a friend in a wagon and endeavored to escape with Hood's army. But a secondary inflammation setting up in his leg during the two days' travel in the rain, and in an open wagon without springs, over a road originally rough, and badly cut up by artillery and wagon trains, he was obliged to stop at Columbia, Tenn., where he was captured. Here he remained three months on his back in a hospital. When he got up on his crutches, after a hard battle for life, some time after Lee's surrender, he was sent on to the Federal military prison, at Nashville (which was the state penitentiary), where he remained three weeks. Thence he was carried to the United States military prison, at Louisville, Ky., where he was detained until August, 1865, being among the few unfortunates who came under the opera- tion of President Andrew Johnson's order, that conscious rebels should not be discharged from prison, but should be held for trial for treason. The line was drawn by President Johnson, at field officers, and those who had been at the United States military schools. Colonel Sims, when he entered the military prison, at Louisville, found himself in company with nine thousand Con- federate prisoners, and saw them all discharged except three, himself, a major in an Arkansas regiment, and a captain of the Confederate navy, who had enjoyed some benefits of a military training at Annapolis. These three were detained weeks after the other body of the prisoners were paroled, during which period amusing comments were made from time to time by the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, then George D. Prentiss, concerning the ridiculous detention of these officers. Finally paroled, however, in August, 1865, Colonel Sims returned South to the home of his boyhood, at Lexington, Ga., where his parents were still living. In the summer of 1866 he came back to Columbus, Miss., and resumed the practice of his pro- fession in partnership at law with Col. S. M. Meek. During the fall of that year, he was elected probate judge of the county of Lowndes, and held the position three years, from 1866 to 1869, when he was removed by the military governor to make room for an office- seeker in sympathy with the republican reconstruction policy in the South. Colonel Sims now gave his whole time and energy to the practice of law.

In August, 1870, he was married at Lexington, Ga., to Miss Louie Upson, daughter of Judge F. L. Upson, of that place, and granddaughter of Stephen Upson, one of Georgia's great lawyers. Their union has been blessed with one child, Harry Upson Sims, now about eighteen years of age. Colonel Sims, while often invited to counsel with his fellow-citizens on public matters affecting his county and state, was never an officeseeker, nor an active pol- itician. But in 1875 the times of reconstruction were upon the people of his state. For ten years after the war the situation of affairs in Mississippi, like that in nearly all the Southern states, was exceedingly depraved. The state and county offices were, in the main, from the high- est to the lowest, occupied by radical republican politicians. They were generally tramping carpetbaggers from the North or renegade Southerners of low origin or association, ignorant and unscrupulous. Many of the minor places and some of the higher ones, including legis- lative and congressional representatives, were filled by negroes, chosen not for their fitness, but for their pliant subservioncy to the ends of their carpetbag and scalawag associates in

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office. The burden of taxation upon the white people became enormous. Official corruption was common. Respectability was cowed, and from constrained silence and submission Mis- sissippians of the better classes nearly approached the condition of Rome to which Tacitus referred when he said: "We would have lost our memory together with our freedom of speech, had it been as easy to forget as to be silent." The iniquitous rule of carpetbagism had cul- minated in such enormities about the year 1875, that the white people of Mississippi came to realize that their civilization required a tremendous effort, and gathering around the banners of democracy, called upon all the good men of the state to unite and overthrow this jeopard- ous rule. At a meeting at West Point, in Clay county, Colonel Sims, without notice or con- sultation, was nominated as one of the state senators from the eighteenth district, composed of the counties of Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay. This nomination, with Hon. F. G. Barry, of Clay, as his colleague, was immediately endorsed by the democratic party iu Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties. Fully alive to the peril of the hour, and answering to duty's call, Colonel Sims accepted the nomination, and with Mr. Barry entered upon the active canvass of his district, speaking from day to day through its length and breadth wherever occasion collected the excited multitudes. The democratic appeal and rally of good citizenship pre- vailed at the election in November, 1875, and Messrs. Sims and Barry were triumphantly elected state senators. The new democratic legislature assembled at Jackson in January, 1876, and promptly began the cleansing of the government corrupted by years of maladmin- istration by the radical party. Gen. Adelbert Ames, the military governor, and his mulatto Lieutenant-Governor Davis, were successfully impeached and brought to trial for high crimes and misdemeanors. Adelbert Ames resigned to escape conviction; Davis was convicted and deposed. J. M. Stone, who had been elected president pro tempore of the senate, succeeded under the constitution, to the executive chair vacated by Ames; and W. H. Sims, who was unanimously chosen president of the senate in the place of Stone, succeeded to the lieuten- ant-governorship. In 1877 Governor Stone and Lieutenant-Governor Sims were nominated by the democratic party, and without opposition were elected by the people to the places they respectively held for the term of four years, from January, 1878. About this time the firm of Meek & Sims took into their law partnership Judge J. A. Orr, under the firm name of Orr, Meek & Sims. Colonel Meek withdrawing in a few years to unite with his son, the law firm of Orr & Sims was formed, and continued through the years since. The duties of member of the senate and president of that body were performed by the Hon. W. H. Sims, with great satisfaction to his constituents and friends. He soon made a reputation throughout the state as a debater of ability, fairness and force. As a presiding officer, he was recognized as one of the best who had ever presided in the senate of Mississippi. In 1882, having declined to become a candidate for re-election to the place he had then filled for six years, W. H. Sims returned to his law office and a lucrative practice at the bar, ranking among the foremost lawyers of Mississippi. At the democratic state convention at Jackson in 1885 for the nomi- ination of a governor and state officers, Hon. W. H. Sims was unanimously chosen its tempo- rary and permanent president. The convention was a very large one, composed of about six hundred delegates, and from disputes growing out of contesting representatives, was inclined to be turbulent. President Sims, by reason of his learning and readiness as a parliamenta- rian, his tact, patience, and decision of character, won golden opinions from the members of the convention and the people and press of the state. At the democratic state convention of Mississippi in May, 1888, .Governor Sims was elected, by the leading majority, a delegate from the state at large to the national democratic convention called to assemble at St. Louis in June following. At St. Louis the Mississippi delegation was organized by selecting Gen. WW

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

W. T. Martin as its chairman; Hon. S. S. Calhoun, member of the committee on permanent organization; Hon. A. F. Fox, on credentials, and Hon. W. H. Sims, on resolutions and plat- form. This committee on resolutions and platform, composed of one delegate from each of forty-seven states and territories, organized at the Southern hotel at St. Louis by the election of Hon. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, as its president, and W. H. Sims, of Mississippi, as its secretary. A sub-committee of nine to prepare a platform was selected by the general committee. W. H. Sims was also a member of this committee, in association with Hon. Alfred E. Burr, of Connecticut; Senator Turpie, of Indiana; Hon. Henry Watterson, of Ken- tucky; Gov. Leon Abbet, of New Jersey; Hon. Edward Cooper, of New York, and Senator A. P. Gorman, of Maryland. The deliberations of this committee, occupying about eighteen consecutive hours, were attended by much debate and contention concerning the expression of democratic principles to be embodied in the platform to be reported to the convention. A division arose over the tariff reform plank of the platform. Hon. Henry Watterson, of Ken- tucky, led the adherents of one view, and Senator Gorman, of Maryland, led those of another. The committee, nearly equally divided between these views, entered upon a debate in which a ten minutes' speech was permitted to each member, with little prospect of being reconciled. Governor Sims, who had supported Mr. Watterson for chairman of the commit- tee, spoke to the question on the side of Mr. Gorman with such effect as to be credited with being largely instrumental in effecting that reconciliation. Senator Gorman and Hon. Will- iam L. Scott, of Pennsylvania, were very openly complimentary in their remarks concerning Governor Sims' good offices, and Senator Gorman having gone before the Mississippi delega- tion and communicated the facts to them, in recognition of Governor Sims' services in that behalf, the delegation adopted the following resolutions:

HEADQUARTERS MISSISSIPPI DELEGATION, } ST. LOUIS, June 7, 1888.5

At a meeting of the Mississippi delegates to the national democratic convention held at these head- quarters this day, on motion it was unanimously resolved that the thanks of the delegation are due and are hereby tendered to the Hon. W. H. Sims for the very able and effective service rendered by him on the national committee on platform and resolutions. And they have heard, with great gratification, of the happy influence exerted by him in producing harmony in said committee and elaborating a satisfac- tory platform.

WILL T. MARTIN, Chairman.

Attest, C. M. WILLIAMSON, Secretary.

Full accounts of the whole proceedings and copies of the resolutions were published throughout the press of the state upon the return of the delegation to Mississippi, and Gov- ernor Sims' course was commended, and his able representation of the state emphasized.

Governor Sims, although often mentioned in connection with the highest offices of the state by the most influential portion of the press and people, has never been an office- seeker; indeed has declined, in several instances, to be put forward for public place when the way seemed open to success, because he did not wish to antagonize friends who, he stated, had more claims upon the position. It is well understood among his friends that positions, both upon the circuit and supreme court benches, have been within his reach, and he would have been appointed to them had he indicated an acceptance.

At present he resides at Columbus, busy with extensive personal interests, his books, and such attention as he chooses to give to the practice of law.

In 1888, upon the solicitations of the citizens of Columbus, he was appointed by Gov- ernor Lowry as a member of the board of trustees of the Mississippi Industrial institute and college for girls, to fill a vacancy. In 1890 he was reappointed by Governor Stone for six years. Governor Sims is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Columbus.

During his life W. McD. Sims (deceased) was one of the leading planters of the state of

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Mississippi, and was especially well known in Claiborne (his native) county, where he was known not only as an able financier but as a man whose love of justice and right was one of his prominent characteristics. He was born on the 19th day of May, 1810, to David Sims and wife, the former of whom came to Mississippi when a child with his parents from his native state of North Carolina and located in what was known as the Red Lick neighborhood, iu what is now Jefferson county, where he grew to manhood. He was one of a family of four sons and several daughters, all the members of the family coming to the state, with the exception. of the daughters. W. McD. Sims inherited quite a handsome fortune from his father, but being careless of the future he soon spent it all and was then compelled to look about him for something to do in order to support himself and family, and after his marriage turned his at- tention to planting. He was married on the 3d of December, 1856, to Mrs. Rebecca J. (Har- mon) Neal, who was born on the 9th of June, 1826, and by her became the father of two chil- dren: Louisiana E. and Carrie J., the former of whom died October 24, 1865, at the age of eight years. The latter became the wife of R. W. Magruder and died December 10, 1880, at the age of twenty years, five months and three days, leaving a son, John M. Mrs. Sims' par- ents, Joseph and Eliza (Sims) Harmon, were born in Mississippi, the birth of the former oc- curring on the 6th of March, 1795, in what is now Claiborne county, his death occurring on the 17th of July, 1834. Their marriage was consummated on November 2, 1820, Mrs. Har- mon at that time being seventeen years of age, a daughter of David and Abigail Sims, early settlers of this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Harmon three daughters were born: Elizabeth Ann, who was born October 8, 1823, and died July 28, 1838; Rebecca J. (Mrs. Sims), was born June 9, 1826, and Phoebe F., who was born September 6, 1828, and died June 2, 1852, the wife of John Venable. Mrs. Rebecca J. Sims was first married to Joseph Neal, a native of Pennsylvania, whose death occurred of yellow fever, September 14, 1853. By him she became the mother of three children: Frances E., Martha and Ida (twins); Martha being the wife of Isaac Magruder. Mrs. Sims traces her ancestry back to her great-grandfather, James Har- mon, who is supposed to have been born in North Carolina, October 3, 1731, inheriting English blood from his ancestors. He was one of the very earliest settlers of Claiborne county, Miss., having come here when the country was under Spanish rule and entering land on the Bayou Pierre river. He died on this plantation, September 18, 1819, over eighty- eight years of age. His son, Hezekiah Harmon, was born on the 22d of June, 1763, being the only son reared by his father, two of his brothers being killed by Indians. He attained inanhood in the territory of Mississippi, where he entered land with his father, and was here first married to Miss Mercy Leonard, by whom he became the father of two sons and three daughters, all of whom, with the exception of one, lived to be grown and married: Polly, Rebecca, Elizabeth, James and Joseph (twins). They all settled in Mississippi, where they became the heads of families, but James died on the 24th of February, 1825, at the age of twenty-nine years. The mother of these children departed this life April 14, 1795, aged twenty-eight years, two months and one day. Mr. Harmon then married Mrs. Catherine Murphy, the widow of John Murphy, their union taking place on the 28th of August, 1811, and resulting in the birth of two children, one of whom died in infancy. The other, Heze- kiah, lived to be grown and removed to Yazoo county, where he died soon after. Mr. Sims was one of the leading stockholders in the Port Gibson & Grand Gulf railroad, and when it was sold after the war he purchased it, putting it in good running order, after which he sold it. He was also a member of the Masonic fraternity and as a business man was shrewd and far-seeing, but strictly honorable in every transaction. He possessed a char- itable and kindly disposition and gave willingly of his wealth to all who needed his aid or

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assistance. He took a deep interest in educational matters and besides giving his own children excellent educational advantages, he educated some nieces and nephews and gave them a start in life. He lost $75,000 by the failure of a commission merchant just be- fore the war, but afterward retrieved much of his losses, leaving at his death, February 7, 1882, an estate comprising six thousand acres of land, of which about three thousand are under cultivation, of which R. W. Magruder has the charge. Mr. Sims at one time endeavored to settle his land with white people and sent to Germany for emigrants, but the plan was not a success. In 1872 he peopled his land with whites from the eastern portion of the state and gave them the land free of rent for a number of years as an inducement. He was a citizen of whom any community might feel proud, for he was not only industrious and honest, but he was also very enterprising in his views and had the interests of the county warmly at heart and supported her institutions with both purse and influence. His widow and children reside on the home place in a commodious, substantial and pleasant residence, fronting Russum station.

W. S. Sims, physician, surgeon and oculist of Meridian, Miss., was born in Lauderdale county, Miss., in 1854, a son of John I. Sims, a native of Georgia, who came some time in the thirties when a boy to Mississippi with his parents. His father is a planter of Lauder- dale county and is the owner of considerable property. The Doctor received his literary edu- cation in the Marion school under the direction and tutelage of Captain Day, who was regarded very highly as an educator. At the age of nineteen he began the study of medicine, to which he devoted himself assiduously, graduating at Mobile, Ala., in 1878. While taking a special course on the eye and throat, he practiced his profession for three summers. He look a three years' course in his specialties in New York and New Orleans, La., since which time he has devoted himself to them almost exclusively. He has built up a fine practice, and is highly regarded both as a general practitioner and as a specialist. He is a member of both state and county medical associations, and is the vice president of the latter. He read an article before the state medical association, entitled "Operation for the extraction of hard cataract," with a report of twenty-six cases, and introduced another paper before the state board at Jackson, Miss., entitled "Penetrating wounds of the cornea in which the iris is involved and treatment for the same," accompanied by a report of five cases, which won for him a wide reputation. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows. In 1887 he married Miss Elizabeth Mahan in Marion, Miss., by whom he has two children: Ruth and W. S. Sims, Jr.

Elbert D. Sinclair, planter, Oxford, Miss. On the 30th of June, 1810, in Chatham county, S. C., there was born to the union of Hezekiah and Sarah (Morphis) Sinclair, a son, the third in order of birth of six children. This son, who was named Elbert D. Siuclair, had very limited scholastic advantages, and what he obtained was the result of his own exertions. His father was born about 1770, and was a son of Peter Sinclair, who served during the Revolutionary war, and who acquitted himself with credit and honor in every instance. He was slain by the tories in 1779. Mr. Sinclair's maternal grandfather, John Morphis, was also a native of the Old North state, and was one of the most popular men in the section where he was known. He was public-spirited, and every worthy enterprise found in him a strong advocate and supporter. His liberality amounted almost to prodigality, and he was reverenced by all who knew him. When the Revolutionary war broke out between America and the mother country he was the first to buckle on his armor in defense of his country, and among the last to sheathe his sword after the grand victory. Mr. Sinclair removed with his parents to Tennessee, and while on the road at Bedford the father breathed his last. The

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 122

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314