BIOGRAPHIES - SIMMS, William, Bourbon County, Kentucky From: Bob Francis http://www.shawhan.com Date: 07 Feb 2000 The biographies are taken primarily from William Perrin's "The History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky" and E. Polk Johnson's "The History of Kentucky and Kentuckians," Vol. III. Many Bourbon County, Kentucky, researchers have pointed out mistakes and they are notated. Name: William SIMMS _________________________________________ Occupation: Senator—Was In The Confederate Cabinet1 Father: Marmaduke SIMMS Mother: Julia SHROPSHIRE Spouses _________________________________________ 1: Lucy BLYTHE Birth: Madison County, Kentucky Father: James BLYTHE Marriage: September 27, 1866 Children: William; Lucy Blythe; Edward (-1938) HON. WILLIAM E. SIMMS,2 farmer and general business; P.O. Paris; lawyer, soldier, Congressman, and Kentucky Senator to the Confederate Congress during the Civil War; was born in Harrison County, Ky. His father, William M. Simms; was a native of Henry County, Va., came to Kentucky about the year 1809, first settled in Harrison County, removed to Bourbon County in 1828. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 ; served in Capt. Duvall’s Co., under Gen. Harrison, at Fort Meigs; was engaged in agricultural pursuits during his life, and died at his home in 1844. He was the son of Ignatius M. Simms, a Virginia farmer, who was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and who lived and died in the “Old Dominion.” The mother of the subject of this notice, Julia (Shropshire) Simms, was a native of Harrison County, Ky., and a daughter of James Shropshire, a pioneer farmer of that county, from Virginia. She died in the twenty-first year of her age, leaving two sons, Edward and William, who continued to reside with their father. They received a good education in the schools of the county, and at the age of eighten, were each well prepared to enter upon the higher professional studies. In 1840, Edward, the elder brother died, and William, the subject of this sketch, took his brother’s place in the management of their father’s business, who was then very feeble health. After his father’s death, in 1844, he commenced reading law with Judge Aaron K. Wooley of Lexington, Ky.; entered Transylvania University in 1845, in the law department, and graduated with distinguished honor in his class of 1846. He then commenced the Practice of law in Paris, Ky., where he now resides. In 1847, he raised a company for the Third Kentucky Reginient of Infantry, to serve for and during the war with Mexico; was elected Captain, and served with his command under Gen. Winfield Scott, in Mexico, until the war closed. Returning home, he brought with him, at his own expense, the remains of those of his company who had died while in the service of their country. In 1849, he was elected to represent Bourbon County in the State Legislature, and served one term. In 1850, he resumed the practice of his profession with success, and for some years devoted to his professional duties his best energies and abilities. In 1851, he was editor of the Kentucky State Flag, a Democratic newspaper, and advocated with ability the election of Hon. James B. Clay to Congress. In 1859, he was nominated by the Democratic Congressional Convention to succeed Hon. James B. Clay. In this race he was elected over his opponent, Hon. John Harlan. It was during this contest that the personal difficulty occurred between him and the Hon. Garrett Davis, which was, however, honorably adjusted. In 1861, at the expiration of his term in Congress, he was renominated by his party, but inthis race was defeated by Hon. John J. Crittenden, upon the Union issue. The civil war being now inaugurated, and believing the South to be in the right, he entered the Confederate army as a Colonel, and served under Gen. Humphrey Marshall, until February, 1861. In the latter part of the year 1861, he was chosen Senator to the Confederate Congress, by the Provisional Legislature in session at Bowling Green, with Hon. H. C, Burnett his colleague. In 1865, after the cause was lost and the armies disbanded, he, with other eminent Kentuckians, resided for some months near Charlottesville, Virginia. Subsequently, he removed to Canada but in January, 1866, returned to his home in Paris, and has since mainly given his attention to agricultural pursuits. Col. Simms has filled many positions of the highest public trust and honor in the gift of the people of his State. He served with distinction in both the Confederate and Federal Congress; was a gallant soldier, an able lawyer, a public speaker of rare ability and power, and possesses in an eminent degree those traits of character that would make him, at all times, prominent in any great social or political emergency. In manner and address, he is plain and unpretending with warm and earnest friendships. He now resides near Paris, in the midst of his family and friends, engaged in those duties and cultivating those virtues which add grace and dignity to a life eventful and historic. He was married Sept. 27, 1866, to Miss Lucy Blythe, daughter of James Blythe, of Madison County, Ky. The issue of this marriage are three children, a daughter and two sons. Col. Simms is a member of the Christian Church at Paris. Sources 1. “The Shropshire Family of Bourbon County” by Virginia Kenney Shropshire (Kentuckian Citizen, August 10, 1943) 2. Perrin, pp. 489-490 ------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. 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