The Simms Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jan 2007 Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ THE SIMMS FAMILY BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian One of the early families in the area which would later become Ponchatoula was the Simms family who settled in this general area by 1812 and was probably living in this area several years before that date. John Simms, who seems to have moved to this area from North Carolina, married 9 Aug. 1812 to Mary "Polly" Knight, daughter of another early Ponchatoula settler, John Knight. John and Polly had children during their marriage: Martha, Calvin, Sanford, Sylvester, and Marian Simms. John died 22 Oct. 1823 leaving a 640 are tract of land east of the Tangipahoa River, and another section of 640 acres on the Ponchatoula River where he seems to have resided. Polly petitioned the St. Helena Parish court, which then controlled this area, in May 1824 and asked for an inventory of her husband's property to be conducted and sought to be named the natural tutrix of her minor children. Richard Wade another settler on the Ponchatoula River, and namesake of Wadesboro was named the under-tutor of the minors. Tax records from 1824 indicate that Polly was farming her 640 acres on the Ponchatoula with the help of her family and three slaves. Her neighbors living on or near the Ponchatoula River in 1824 were: Henry Arnold, Isaiah Driggers, the heirs of John Knight, Samuel Richardson, James Rogers, Absalom Trailor {sometimes Traylor}, and Richard Wade. Mary "Polly" Simms married in June 1825 to Samuel Settoon, a Springfield merchant and a member of another pioneer Ponchatoula area family. The succession of John Simms sold the family farm on the Ponchatoula River to Samuel Settoon and Mary Simms Settoon in April 1838 in what had then become Livingston Parish. Of the five children of John Simms and Mary "Polly" Simms, one, Rev. Sylvester D. Simms was born about 1820. He married 29 July 1847 in Springfield to Malinda Cason, daughter of Darling B. Cason (1810-1891) and Lucinda Gaines (1814-1907). Sylvester was a merchant and also operated a schooner in the trade between the Northshore and New Orleans. During the War Between the States he served as the Recorder of Deeds for Livingston Parish. In 1859, Sylvester purchased land in the growing town of Independence, from James Clarke, the founder of Ponchatoula who also had large land holdings in Independence. In their later years of marriage Sylvester and Malinda lived mainly in Independence, where the Cason family had largely settled after the war. Sylvester and Malinda also had a farm that Sylvester tended northwest of Ponchatoula. Sylvester died in Independence about 1903 and Malinda died on her farm near Ponchatoula 8 Nov. 1913. They had five children, the names of two of whom are known to this writer: Sanford B. Simms; and Sylvester W. Simms, b. ca. 1859, living in Livingston Parish in 1880, and deceased by 1913. Sanford Breed Simms was born about 1848 and married around 1870 to Marion Matilda "Tillie" Brambring (14 Aug. 1849-16 Feb. 1889) daughter of Henry Peter Brambring and Catherine Schwartz. As a widow Catherine Schwartz Brambring married secondly to Richard Dietrick Abels and was the ancestor of the several Abels families in the Ponchatoula and Springfield areas. Sanford and Tillie had five children: Lillie A. Simms, b. ca. 1871, m. Richard Edmondston, living in Pike Co., MS, in 1900; Sanford Sylvester Simms, b. ca. 1872, m. Almeda R. Settoon in 1892, and later lived in Gulfport and Pascagoula, MS; Augusta Irene Simms, b. 4 Sept. 1874, d. 3 Aug. 1895, m. Elisha H. Welch; Charles Willie Simms, b. ca. 1876, d. 29 Jan. 1936, m. 1897 to Mary L. Duncan of Ponchatoula (d. 23 Dec. 1902); and Richard Alexander Simms, b. ca. 1879. Sanford B. Simms was working as a merchant and schooner operator in Springfield in 1876, in partnership with John Settoon. Soon after Tillie Brambring Simms' death in 1889 Sanford married to Rebecca R. ______ and moved to New Orleans, where he working as a carpenter in 1900. Sanford married thirdly 15 Nov. 1904 in New Orleans to Florida Clarke (Frelot) and thereafter moved back to this area. He was working as a carpenter and ship builder in Hammond in 1910. Florida died at age 60 and was buried in Ponchatoula Cemetery. Sanford married 19 Oct. 1912 in Tangipahoa Parish to Lizzie Girod and by 1920 was living in Ponchatoula just west of the current Gabriel's building supply store, and was working as a carpenter. His wife Lizzie died 12 Feb. 1922 following a paralytic stroke she had suffered the week before, and was buried in Ponchatoula Cemetery. Sanford married lastly 13 April 1922 in Tangipahoa Parish to Florence Brown the daughter of W. T. Brown and Mary Achord. Sanford Simms' death date is not known to this writer, but since he was about 74 years old at the time of his wife Lizzie's death, he probably died a few years thereafter. The Simms family of whom there are many more descendants then those mentioned above was among the pioneers who two centuries ago farmed the piney woods area of west Ponchatoula and Springfield and paved the way for future growth and development. Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.