Sims, Charles H. (ca. 1801–unknown)

Charles H. Sims, Indian agent for the Republic of Texas, was born in either 1801 or 1809 and came to Nacogdoches in 1829. He was a tavernkeeper in Nacogdoches in 1829, and he and Charles S. Taylor opened a mercantile establishment there in 1831. Sims sold his interest in the mercantile to Nicholas Adolphus Sterne. Sims was issued a land certificate for a league and a labor on February 8, 1834. On September 10, 1835, he received eleven leagues in Bowie County. He was a member of the Nacogdoches Committee of Public Safety during the Texas Revolution, and Sam Houston appointed him an agent to the Cherokee Indians to investigate conditions among them and to keep them pacified during the hostilities with the Mexican government. Houston appointed Sims assistant quartermaster in August 1836, and he served as Indian agent during Houston's first term as president. In 1837 he declared for tax purposes 2,214 acres with a value of $2,407. In 1840 he declared, in Nacogdoches County, one town lot and three slaves. Sims was living in Nacogdoches in 1842 and 1843 but was no longer on the census rolls of 1847. He was a charter member of Milam Lodge No. 2, formed on August 16, 1837. He was married to Elizabeth Ann Pollitt, daughter of George Pollitt, on August 5, 1835, and he was listed as a Catholic on the census. On January 6, 1862, a bill was passed for relief of Charles H. Sims in regard to private land claims used for military purposes. It is unknown if this was the same Sims.