Background
Sims was born on May 18, 1835, in Fairfield, Indiana, the son of John and Irene (Allen) Sims. He had no middle name, but for some reason used the initial N.
Sims was born on May 18, 1835, in Fairfield, Indiana, the son of John and Irene (Allen) Sims. He had no middle name, but for some reason used the initial N.
Brought up on a farm, Sims obtained his early education in neighboring district schools. Itinerant preachers of the Methodist Church stopping at his father's house acquainted him in his boyhood days with religious and ecclesiastical matters. One of these, the zealous John P. Durbin, took an interest in the lad and urged him to prepare for the ministry. At the age of seventeen he began to teach school and two years later he entered Indiana Asbury University (De Pauw University), from which he graduated in 1859. During the latter part of his course he served as principal of Thorntown Academy and was admitted on trial (1857) to the Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being ordained deacon the year of his graduation, and elder in 1861.
In 1860 Sims was made president of Valparaiso College, but the outbreak of the Civil War hampered its work and he remained but two years. Entering the active ministry, he was in charge of churches in Indiana and Illinois until he was called East in 1870, where he held important pastorates in Baltimore, Newark, and Brooklyn.
In 1881 he was elected chancellor of Syracuse University. This institution at that time was poorly equipped and in financial straits. "The indomitable perseverance of Chancellor Sims, his tireless industry, his undying faith in the college and its future saved the plant, and an upward progress was slowly begun. " He virtually "lived in a carpet bag, " and his pursuit of funds was notably successful. During the twelve years of his administration the indebtedness of the college was decreased, its endowment enlarged, and a building era inaugurated. He was instrumental in securing from John Crouse funds for the erection of Crouse Memorial College at a cost of approximately $250, 000; and a library, an observatory, and a gymnasium were erected.
Sims was also active in denominational affairs, being a member of the General Conferences of 1884 and 1888, and one of the speakers at the Centennial Conference held in Baltimore in 1884. The state of New York utilized his abilities by making him one of a commission of three, established by the legislature in 1882, to investigate the condition of the Onondaga Indians, and his name heads the report presented in 1883. A commission was appointed to negotiate a new treaty with the Indians, upon which, also, he served.
After resigning the chancellorship of the University in 1893, he was pastor of the Meridian Street Church, Indianapolis (1893-1898), and of the First Church, Syracuse (1898-1904). Two years later, having in the meantime been general secretary for the Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, he retired to Liberty, Indiana, where he died on March 27, 1908.
On August 12, 1858, Sims married Eliza A. Foster of Tippecanoe County, Indiana.