Biography - Clisby Sims
Clisby SIMS, farmer and agricultural implement dealer, Harvel, was born in Madison County, Ill., February 10, 1824. His early life was spent in attending the common schools of his native county, and in assisting his father upon the homestead farm. At the age of nineteen he left home and began his career in life in a saw mill, in Missouri, where he remained eighteen months, at the end of which time he purchased a farm in Missouri, consisting of eighty acres of unbroken prairie and ten acres of timber land, upon which he made all improvements. He remained in Missouri eight years, and then removed to Macoupin County, Ill., and rented a farm and continued in that occupation there about three years. He then moved to Shaw's Point, same county, where he remained six years, and then removed to Montgomery County, where he has improved three farms, and in addition to attending to the duties of his farming interests, he has been engaged about four years in mercantile business, three years of the time at Harvel. At present he owns a farm of 100 acres of well-improved land in Missouri, and town property at Harvel. In January, 1882, he entered into partnership with George J. RAMSEY, in dealing in agricultural implements, at Havel, and where they have succeeded in building up a fair trade for the time they have been engaged in the business. Mr. SIMS is a thorough business man and a practical farmer, and socially enjoys the highest esteem of the entire community. His marriage occurred in 1848, in Morgan County, to Elizabeth J. MASTERS, who was born in Morgan March 9, 1824. She has borne him eight children, viz., Thomas Q., Nancy Ellen, Malissa Ann, James B., William, Benjamin, Jane and Emma Isabell, the tow latter of whom are deceased. Mrs. SIMS is a daughter of Irving MASTERS, born in Kentucky, and died at the age of forty-nine, and Mary Jones, born in Morgan County, and died in 1836. The father of our subject, James SIMS, was a native of Kentucky, born in 1810, a farmer by occupation, and one of the early settlers of Madison County, Ill, and still living in Macoupin County. His wife, Margaret ROBINSON, was a native of North Carolina, and died in 1865 at the age of sixty years. The result of their union was six children, of whom Clisby, our subject, was the oldest child. He served the people of the county as Justice of the Peace for four years. Politically, his sympathies are with the Democratic party. Religiously, himself and wife have been members of the Baptist Church for several years.
Extracted 20 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1882 History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 2 Biographical Department, page 252.
