|
|
George Washington Sims
1892 - 1931 |
|
|
|

George Washington Sims
(1892 - 1931) |
|
|
|
|
Born |
Birth Location |
Death |
Death Location |
Mar 31, 1892 |
Georgiana, Bulter County, AL |
Oct 6, 1931 |
Georgiana, Butler
County, AL,7
of heart attack resulting from morphine overdose; buried Bay Minette,
Baldwin County, AL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Father |
|
|
|
|
Robert Sims |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mother |
|
|
|
|
Martha Coleman |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See Marriages and Children of George Washington Sims
1892 - 1931 |
|
Chronology of George Washington
Sims by Michael Vaughn Sims
Download
this chronology as a Word document
|
1892 |
Born - March 31, 1892, Georgiana, Bulter
County, AL; son of Robert Sims and Martha Coleman |
1900 |
1900 U. S. Census, Starlington,
Butler County, Alabama |
Name |
|
Rel. |
Race |
Gen |
Birth
Mon |
Birth
Yr |
Age |
Marital Status |
# Child |
#Child
living |
Occup |
Birth Place |
Birth Place
Father |
Birth Place
Mother |
Sims |
Viola |
Head |
W |
F |
|
1877 |
23 |
S |
|
|
Farmer |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Wm H |
Bro |
W |
M |
Jun |
1879 |
20 |
S |
|
|
Farm Labour |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Susie |
Sis |
W |
F |
May |
1886 |
14 |
S |
|
|
Farm Labour |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Elizabeth |
Sis |
W |
F |
|
1889 |
11 |
S |
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Lee Andrew |
Bro |
W |
M |
|
18?? |
9 |
S |
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
George |
Bro |
W |
M |
|
1893 |
7 |
S |
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
1910 |
1910 U. S. Census, Stockton and
Deans, Baldwin County, Alabama |
Name |
|
Rel. |
Race |
Gen |
Age |
Yrs
Marr |
#
Child
Born |
#
Child
Living |
Occup. |
Lang.
Spoke |
Birth Place |
Birth Place Fath |
Birth Place Moth |
Philips |
George W |
Head |
W |
M |
39 |
M2 2 |
|
|
Farmer |
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Susie |
Wife |
W |
F |
24 |
M1 1 |
1 |
1 |
|
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Addie A |
Dau |
W |
F |
16 |
|
|
|
|
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Ella M |
Dau |
W |
F |
11 |
|
|
|
|
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Clara(?) |
Dau |
W |
F |
10 |
|
|
|
|
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Emma(?) |
Dau |
W |
F |
7 |
|
|
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Clarence |
Son |
W |
M |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
Martha |
Dau |
W |
F |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
George |
Bro-in-law |
W |
M |
18 |
|
|
|
Laborer /
Home Farm |
English |
AL |
AL |
AL |
|
|
Served in the U. S. Navy during World War I;
F2C US NAVY1
|
|
Suffered an injury to foot or leg while
aboard ship; fell into or through some hole or hatch in deck; injury, or
possible blood-poisoning from injury figured into the cause of his
eventual death2
|
1922 |
Bought first car - 19223 |
1924
|
Married
Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie Mae” Epperson
(b. Sept. 5, 1897, Comer, Barbour Co., AL; dau. of
John Lemuel Epperson and
Jane Lamar Vaughn) - December 18, 1924 |
|
George Sims worked as crane operator of
bridge-building crew for the L&N Railroad; including one period at
Corbin, Kentucky.4
The family lived in a company-owned camp car, which was hauled over a
territory from Bay St. Louis, MS to Louisville, KY. They were stationed
for a time near Louisville, KY, beside the Cumberland Rive, where
George’s job was to use a crane to remove rocks from the side of the
mountains and place them in the river bed to prevent water from washing
the railroad tracks away.5
|
|
Lizzie Mae said she only heard George
raise his voice once during the time they were married. One day when he
was chopping wood, Ezell picked up a snake by the tail. George swung the
axe around and knocked the snake out of Ezell’s hand and yelled at Ezell
for picking up the snake.6
|
1931
|
Died - October 6, 1931, Georgiana, Butler
County, AL,7
of heart attack resulting from morphine overdose; buried Bay Minette,
Baldwin County, AL |
|
One story
relates that George Sims was persistently troubled by an injury to his
foot which he incurred in WWI; morphine given to alleviate pain in foot.
Another story says that he suffered from severe indigestion on the
evening prior to his death, and for this he was given morphine. The
family was camped in L&N camp car at Georgiana, Butler County, AL, at
the time of his death.8
|
|
The day prior to
his death, George Sims and his children visited his half-brother Nap
Sims in Butler County, where they all went into a field and picked
sugarcane. That evening, George sat and peeled sugarcane for the
children. The next morning the children were awakened by their mother
who told them that their father was dead.9
|
|
|
From “L&N:” Its First 100 Years
(John E. Tilford; Newcomen Society of North America; New York;
1951) |
p. 15
The L& N’s southernmost terminal did not long remain at Montgomery.
. . . In that fiscal year [1880] the L & N secured control of the
Mobile & Montgomery Railway, 180 miles; leased the New Orleans,
Mobile & Texas Railroad, 141 miles; purchased the Pensacola
Railroad, 45 miles; and acquired a majority of the capital stock of
the 508-mile long Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. |
p. 16
The 141-mile line from Mobile to New Orleans follows the Gulf Coast,
much of the roadbed between the two cities is supported by piling
and there are nine miles of bridges and trestles alone - - which
carry it across bays, bayous, inlets, marshes, streams, and rivers.
A considerable portion of the original line had to be rebuilt within
a few years after completion because of the destructive activities
of the teredo navalis, a sort of seagoing cousin of the
termite which thrives on a diet of untreated timber. |
pp. 17-18
During the period 1879-1881, lines were acquired in Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. . . . In April 1886, a start was
made from Corbin, Kentucky, toward the coal field of Eastern
Kentucky. This became the Cumberland Valley Division, the southern
branch, eighty-seven miles, having been completed to Norton,
Virginia in May 1891. |
p. 21
A major contribution to this greater efficiency of operation in the
L&N was the extensive double-tracking that occurred after the First
World War. Outstanding was the fifty-five mile second track laid
down between Winchester and Sinks, Kentucky, whose completion, in
February 1928, gave the Road a low-grade, double-tracked line all
the way from the Harlan coal field to the Cincinnati Gateway, a
distance of 255 miles. . . . Another addition to the System in the
late ‘20s was the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Railway, with a
137-mile line between Louisville and Henderson, Kentucky,
paralleling the Ohio River. |
|
From The Louisville & Nashville
Railroad 1850-1963.
Kincaid Herr; Public Relation Department , L&N; Louisville, KY,
1964 |
p. 388
L& N acquired the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Railroad in 1905 |
p. 248
photograph of the C& O Bridge (Cincinnati at the Ohio River), completed
1929
photograph of the Henderson , Kentucky bridge, completed 1932
photograph of the Tennessee River Bridge (Danville, TN), completed Nov.
1932 |
p. 235
photograph of the Rigolets Bridge (30 mi. east of New Orleans), completed
June 1925
Chef Menteur Bridge (19 mi. east of New Orleans), completed Feb. 1926 |
|
Construction of the bridges just mentioned
occurred at a time when the L&N was rebuilding a number of bridges
between Nashville and Louisville in order to permit the use of heavier
motive power and trains, and while it was also engaged in the
re-construction of its Tennessee River Bridge at Knoxville, its Licking
River Bridge between Newport and Covington, and its Alabama Bridge north
of Montgomery |
|
1 |
Grave marker of
George W. Sims; Bay Minette Cemetery, Baldwin County, AL. |
2 |
John Earl Sims;
2005. |
3 |
Robert Elwood
Sims; 2005. |
4 |
Robert Elwood
Sims. |
5 |
John Earl Sims;
2005. |
6 |
John Earl Sims;
2005. |
7 |
Maida Grace
Epperson Hayslett. |
8 |
Robert Elwood
Sims. |
9 |
John Earl Sims;
2005. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 13,
2007 |
|
|