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Here is an article I abstracted from The Guntersville Advertiser and Democrat, for Tuesday,December 18,1928. The article was written by John R. Kennemer of Woodville,Alabama: The historic Ashburn Cemetery is located in what is now Marshall County,Alabama. Decatur County existed from 1821-25 when it was divided and parts of it became Jackson, Madison and Marshall Counties. Woodville was the county seat of Decatur County.
OLD SETTLER DIES AT WOODVILLE
One of our most remarkable and most respected citizens of North Alabama died recently. Thomas Sims was laid to rest November 7th,in the sinks at the Ashburn Cemetery beside his last wife,who preceeded him but a few years. He was born August 3,92,93 or 94 years ago,one mile west of Bucksnort on Gunter's Mountain before Marshall County was created, and while the north side of Marshall County was part of Jackson County. At his birth,his mother,Rhoda (House)Sims was attended by a negro woman as mid-wife.
Mr. Sims did not know the year in which he was born, and there is some disagreement among the people as to the exact year. He was born the same night John Ricketts was born. (If any who sees this will kindly give me the exact date Mr Ricketts was born, I shall be glad.)
Mr. Sims was a bright-eyed boy when his father, William Sims,helped collect and carry the Cherokee Indians west of the Mississippi River in 1836-38.
He was not a success in a financial way as most people count success; though his word was equal to his bond in any business transaction.
In regard to his religion,he believed he was prepared to meet Jesus in the great judgment,though he was not a church member. He was the most universally respected man I ever knew. If he had an enemy I have never found him. He was a very intimate friend of my father and our family for three-quarters of a century. He never had a lawsuit or used a pair of glasses to read. There never lived in this part of the state a greater hunter or a better marksman;he has killed as many as three deer,or ten or eleven turkeys in one day. Of course game was plentiful then. Once he bought thirty cents worth of ammunition and with this shot 29 shots and killed 28 turkeys.
In those days when shooting matches were common, he was often ruled out. On one occasion,just south of Woodville,at one of these shooting matches in which such great marksmen as Bunt Peters and Frank Cotton engaged. Mr. Sims shot three times for James Whitaker and got the first three choices of the beef.
He like other young men of his day,kept a good horse and saddle, and was a good rider,as was shown by riding from Nashville,Tennessee to Paint Rock Valey in two days,but on account of an accident,he had not ridden a horse in many years.
He was the champion walker of this section of the country-walking sixteen miles one day in January of this year. I have known him often to walk ten miles and not sit down to rest at the end of the journey. He was an expert with the ax.When the old Memphis and Charleston railroad was built through Jackson County in 1853-54,he helped get the sills for the bridge across Paint Rock River. Irving Kerr and he sawed with a whipsaw thirty thousand feet of cedar lumber 7 feet long and 4 inches broad, to make the first tank-tubes used on this railroad.
In the Civil War he was drafted in the Condederate Cavalry in 1862 and served under Capt. Henry Smith, and while in this service rode a horse across the Tennessee River five times;twice in West Tennessee and three times in Alabama.
In July, 1864,he joined Captain John B Kennemer's Union Scouts and Guides and was for several years the sole surviving member of this company. His life was spent within the territory that was once Decatur County,except two years just after the Civil War spent in Indiana,where his first wife, Matilda Mays, died and was buried. He then returned with his three children to Alabama, and married Sarah A. Davis, with whom he lived 57 years till her death.
There are many other things I could tell of this remarkable man, but I reluntantly close by saying, his life should be an inspiration and benedition to his children and grandchildren and all who knew him to live a clean and temperate life.
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