Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 6 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 42

A gentleman who has been in positions of trust ever since he was a young man, and whose valuable experience in the world was derived in part during three years spent in South America and many years in Iowa, where for several years he was the manager of a bonanza farm, is Alexander Sime, the well-known capitalist, rancher and business man of Laton.

Mr. Sime was born in the parish of Tannadice, County of Forfar, twenty-three miles northeast of Dundee. Scotland, on June 10, 1844, the son of James and Mary (Robbie) Sime, both of whom were highly esteemed for their good, old-fashioned virtues. His father was a farmer, who owned about eighty acres, all of which he brought to a very high state of cultivation. The couple had two children who reached maturity; and of these two. Alexander was the oldest. A sister, Mary Ann, died in Australia and left a husband and four children. Mr. Sime's mother died when he was twenty years old. The father married again and had four children— two sons and two daughters: Alice Maud lives near London and is the wife of John Fry; Helen M. resides near Dundee; Colin Dedrick, who was a carpenter and builder, died at Dundee and left two children; and David Simpson is a military man, in the Government service, having been a captain in the Boer War, where he was popularly known as "young Kitchener."

Alexander attended the parochial schools in the Established or Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and in 1868, when he was nearly twenty-four years of age, he migrated to the Argentine Republic, where he helped to manage Ogilvy Brothers' sheep ranch. When he returned to Scotland in 1870 and sailed up the Mersey to Liverpool, he received the first news of the Franco-Prussian War. He stayed in Scotland a couple of winters and then entered the office of the Caledonian Railway Company, in Glasgow, as bookkeeper.

In 1872, Mr. Sime came out to the United States and settled about nine miles north of Lincoln, Nebr., where he bought a piece of railway land, at the same time renting other acreage, which he farmed to corn and small grain. He continued there from 1872 to 1878, when he returned to Scotland.

On February 28, 1878, Mr. Sime was married to Miss Helen Brown McPherson, the youngest daughter of John McPherson, a sheep-farmer of Glenprosen, who had married Annie Brown. They had nine children; but Mrs. Sime is the only one living. She was educated for a while in the public schools; but in her ninth year was sent to a private academy at Dundee, where she received a first-class classical and vocal training.

After his marriage, Mr. Sime remained in Scotland for three years, running traction engines and other portable and traction farm machinery. In 1881, however, Mr. and Mrs. Sime and their eight-months-old baby returned to America and settled in Palo Alto County, Iowa, on the Blairgowrie farm, near Emmetsburg. This farm was made up of several sections, in Palo Uto, Pocahontas, and Algona counties, and comprised some 30,000 acres owned by John Adamson of Careston Castle. Forfarshire, Scotland. It was originally railroad land bought by John Adamson in the late sixties, and owned by him until his death, when it was leased by his only child, William Shaw A. Adamson, who made Capt. William E. G. Saunders his general agent with full power of attorney. He became one of the leading spirits in the settling up of the Laguna de Tache Ranch of 48,000 acres in the southern part of Fresno County, which he bought in partnership with L. A. Nares of Fresno in 1899.

Mr. Sime continued to manage the Blairgowrie farm in Iowa from 1881 to 1886; and in the latter year he bought an interest in a carriage factory at Emmetsburg, Iowa — the Skinner Manufacturing Company, of which he was secretary and treasurer. Two years later he sold out his interest and went south to Hall County, Texas, in the Panhandle country, where he engaged in the real estate business in partnership with N. C. Blanchard, now of Laton. In 1891 this partnership was dissolved, and then he began farming on his own section of land in Texas, continuing to manage it until 1903. In that year he came to Laton, and he has been here ever since, growing prosperous, influential, and helpful to the community.

In partnership with C. A. Smith, cashier of the First National Bank of Laton, Mr. Sime owns a farm of 140 acres one-half mile east of Laton, and this is managed by the subject as a stock and dairy ranch. He also owns a quarter interest in the Laton Lumber Company.

Mr. and Mrs. Sime live in a very comfortable home, which they built in 1904 on Mt. Whitney Avenue. They have been the parents of two children, one of whom, James, was brought to the United States when he was eight months old and died in Iowa in his fourth year. The other son, Edwin Spencer, was a foreman at the Montezuma Copper Mine in Mexico. He has been in Mexico for the past ten years engaged in mining during which time he has been home on a visit to see his father and mother three times. He became largely interested in mining in Mexico, and was driven out three times on account of revolutionary troubles. For three years of this time he held a very responsible position with the Montezuma Copper Mines, but resigned that position in order to engage in the cattle business in the state of Sonora, about January 1, 1919. Mr. Sime is a member of the Laton Lodge, No. 148, I. O. O. F., and has been through the chair. Mrs. Sime is a member of the Red Cross and a willing teacher of fancy knitting, since she knows all the intricate meshes of Scotland; she has recently received a certificate from the United States Government and a beautiful golden service-pin from co-workers in recognition of 2,235 hours' work in behalf of the Laton Branch of the Red Cross; the family partake of the Presbyterian communion.