JOSEPH SIMS

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOSEPH SIMS

JOSEPH SIMS was born in London, England, in 1832. His father emigrated to Canada a few months before his birth, and the mother followed soon after that event. Both died in Toronto, aged about sixty-two. When about thirteen years of age Mr. Sims first came to the United States, but soon went back and spent one winter at school to supplement the scant education of his earlier years. Afterward through life by reading and private study he has still further supplied the negligence of his boyhood in that regard. In 1847 Mr. Sims went to New York and enlisted at Fort Hamilton in the regiment of Colonel Jonathan Stevenson, now a resident of San Francisco. The original regiment had left in 1846 for California to take part in the Mexican War in that quarter, and had arrived in 1847. The new recruits, about 200 in number, reached Monterey in 1848, and Company D, Henry M. Nagley, Captain, of which Mr. Sims was a member, was sent by the same vessel to Lower California. They were in active service six months. Company D was the last command to leave Mexican soil at the close of the war; left the field August 31; and were mustered out at Monterey in October, 1848. With his partner, Charles H. Ross, and several others, the subject of this sketch went to mining at Mokelumne Hill in Calaveras County. They crossed the San Joaquin at Stockton by the ferry, which was a mere whaleboat, requiring the taking to pieces of a common cart for shipment. Dissatisfied with results at Mokelumne Hill, they remained only a few weeks, and on Christmas-day, 1848, Mr. Sims and Mr. Ross were on the Sacramento on their way to Sutter’s Fort, with a light snow falling, the first they had seen in California; so the subject of this sketch antedates by a least a few days the earliest forty-niners, and he has never since been absent from Sacramento County for over three months at a time. In April, 1849, with his partner and about forty others, mostly ex-soldiers and Oregonians, Mr. Sims went up the American River. They had a brush with the Indians, who tried to raid their pack-stock, but the Oregonians, who had a special hatred of them, and the ex-soldiers constituted a very different party from what they had usually encountered and a few Indians were killed. When they reached the diggings all seemed to be doing very well, some making eighty dollars a day, each, but the demon of unrest seized most of the party and after two or three weeks they went off looking for richer deposits. Mr. Sims and his partner, who was only two or three years older, did not feel it safe to remain alone, and Mr. Ross returned to Sacramento. Mr. Sims went forward toward Shasta with some others, but hearing unfavorable reports at Cottonwood Creek he too returned to Sacramento. In the autumn of 1849 Mr. Sims and Mr. Ross located a few miles below Freeport, built a cabin, and cut some wood, but the flood of 1849-’50 swept all away. They concluded that it was not the proper section for their purpose, which was the raising of cattle, and they fell back to the interior, selling their claim on the river. In 1850 they took up a large body of land, east of what is now sometimes called Sims Lake, of which 1,100 acres were finally patented to them by the United States Government or the State of California. They were the first actual settlers for miles around, though some parties were temporarily occupying natural-grass lands in the neighborhood. The first year they too confined their labors to cutting the natural hay on their low lands; but soon varied their industries by raising cattle, sowing grain, and dairying. In 1860 Mr. Sims bought his partner’s interest, the whole having a frontage of about one mile on the lower Stockton road, about ten miles south of Sacramento, and running west to the lake already mentioned. Besides general farming-- grain, hay, cattle, and horses--Mr. Sims has thirty-four acres of vineyard, six of which were planted twenty years ago, thirteen in 1883, and fifteen in 1888. In 1877 he built a new residence of nine rooms, making a comfortable and well-appointed home in the midst of his vines and fig-trees. In 1860 Mr. Sims was married to Miss Mary L. Moor, April 13, 1835, a native of Bennington, New York, the daughter of Thomas and Mahala D. (Highley) Moor. The latter, a native of Connecticut, is still living in full possession of all her faculties at the age of eighty-three. Mr. Moor, who was a native of New York, died in 1864, aged about sixty-five. The Moor family crossed the plains in 1854, settling in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Sims are the parents of three living children: Hattie May, born November 8, 1862; William Moor, July 30, 1865; Paul Revere, November 23, 1869. William M., took a full business course of two years at the Napa Collegiate Institute, where he will graduate in May. Miss Hattie M., received a grammar-school course and also learned music. The family lived in Sacramento three or four years some ten years ago for the better education of the children. Mr. And Mrs. Sims and the two oldest children are members of Sacramento Grange, No. 12, Mr. Sims being master in 1889. He is a member of the Pioneer Society.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 601-603. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.