Charles H. Simms

CHARLES H. SIMMS. - An active, prosperous and progressive business man of Wyandotte county, Charles H. Simms is one of the leading merchants of Kansas City, Kansas, his large department store on Kansas avenue being finely equipped and well stocked with a variety of goods of the highest grades. A native of Ohio, he was born June 30, 1851, in Dayton, but was brought up in Illinois.

Andrew J. Simms, his father, was born and reared in Virginia. Learning the trade of a carriage manufacturer, he followed it in Dayton, Ohio, locating there in 1850. He subsequently engaged in the same business in Peoria, Illinois, and also in Iowa. His earthly career, however, was comparatively brief, his death occurring when he was but forty-one years of age. He married Miss A. M. Chamberlain, a native of Ohio, and of their four children, two are now living, as follows: Charles H., the special subject of this sketch; and Minnie, wife of Frank Perkins, of Winchester, Oklahoma. The father was a Democrat in politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Educated in the schools of Peoria, Illinois, Charles H. Simms began life for himself as a lad of fourteen summers, becoming news agent on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway in 1865. He afterward became a brakeman. In 1870, locating in Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Simms was for some time connected with the Missouri Pacific Railroad System, and was later in the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad Company for five years. Returning then to the employ of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, he remained with the road as passenger conductor until 1884. From that time until 1889 Mr. Simms was engaged in the clothing business with W. A. Coy. He then purchased his partner's interest in the concern, and has since been in business alone, as a general merchant meeting with success in his operations. Mr. Simms carries a complete stock of clothing, dry goods shoes and millinery, each department of his large establishment being well filled with a choice stock of goods. He is vice president of the Armourdale State Bank of Commerce, and in politics is a Republican.

Mr. Simms married, in 1885, Sarah D. Coy, who was born in Kansas, a daughter of William Coy, and they are parents of three children, namely; Julia, attending the University of Kansas, in Lawrence; Huldah who was graduated from the Kansas City, Kansas, High School, and from the Kansas City, Missouri, Normal School: and William, who is associated in business with his father.