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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Sims, Leonard Henly

by E. Thomas Sims, 1994

6 Feb. 1807–28 Feb. 1886

Leonard Henly Sims, congressman and farmer, was born in Burke County, the son of Dr. Swepson and Jane Meriwether Lewis Sims. The younger Sims, who received a limited amount of schooling, moved to Rutherford County, Tenn., in 1830 and became a farmer. He was also a member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives for two terms.

In 1839 he moved to Springfield, Green County, Mo., and continued his agricultural pursuits. From 1842 to 1846 he was a member of the Missouri State House of Representatives. Elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri, Sims served in the Twenty-ninth Congress from 4 Mar. 1845 to 3 Mar. 1847. In the latter year he returned to Rutherford County, Tenn., to continue farming, and in 1848 he was a presidential elector for Tennessee on the Democratic ticket of Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler.

In 1859 Sims relocated to Independence County, Ark., where he settled on a farm near Batesville and engaged in cotton planting and farming. He also served in the Arkansas State Senate during 1866–70 and 1874–78.

On 8 Dec. 1824 Sims married Louisa Batey. They had eleven children. He died on his plantation near Batesville, Ark., and was buried in the family graveyard.

References:

Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1950).

Biog. Dir. Tenn. General Assembly (1975).

Who Was Who in America, 1607–1896.

Additional Resources:

Onofrio, Jan. Missouri Biographical Dictionary (Third Edition). third ed. Missouri: North American Book Dist LLC, 2001. http://books.google.com/books/about/Missouri_Biographical_Dictionary_Third_E.html?id=0oOueph_raYC (accessed July 23, 2014).

Sims, Leonard Henly. 1846. Speech of Mr. Leonard H. Sims, of Missouri, on the Oregon question delivered in the House of Representatives, U.S., January 5, 1846. [Washington?: s.n.]. https://archive.org/details/cihm_17203 (accessed July 24, 2014).

Sims, Leonard Henly. 1846. Speech on the bill of making appropriations fro the army; delivered in the House of Representatives, U.S., May 14, 1846. [Washington]: J. & G.S. Gideon, printers. https://www.worldcat.org/title/speech-on-the-bill-making-appropriations-for-the-army-delivered-in-the-house-of-representatives-us-may-14-1846/oclc/026936413 (accessed July 24, 2014).

Subjects: 
Biographies
Farmers
Political leaders
Political movements and parties
Politics and government
Authors: 
Sims, E. Thomas
Origin - location: 
Burke County
Morganton
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1994 | Sims, E. Thomas