Robert Henry Hewitt Poole Sims
1874 - 1917
Robert Henry “Harry” Hewitt Poole Sims was the second child of Walter Sims and his wife Elizabeth (Knowles) Sims. He was born in Mount Hope, an area in the southwestern section of Hamilton, Ontario on April 20, 1874 and died March 19, 1917. Although Harry’s life was short it was quite colorful. The following biography was put together using more than 100 newspaper reports and book entries.
Harry grew up in Bay City, Michigan with four brothers. An active outdoorsman who loved swimming, and horseback riding, he was also an avid hunter like his brothers. He pursued a special course in literature [not specified in the article] at the University of Michigan and possibly attended Indiana University (since he was a member of their alumni club), but it is unknown if and when he graduated.
When discussing the man himself, he was described as genial, bright, active, and persuasive, having great executive ability, fine business tact, and a superior education. Given all these attributes, held by several of the Sims brothers, made a life of political determination, real-estate development, social standing and adventure inevitable for Harry.
Sometime around 1900, Harry moved to Chicago, where he lived with his younger brother Reg until 1904. In 1902 he was listed as secretary of the Full Power Developing Corporation headed by his brother Edwin (EW) as well as secretary of Sims, Wilson & Sims Company of which his brother Reg was president. This latter corporation was described as a large mail-order business which declared bankruptcy within two years. By 1904 Harry is listed as the Chicago sales manager as well as manager of the publication department for Bobbs-Merrill Co, a publishing company based in Indianapolis, IN. It appears as if the three older Sims brothers spent a great deal of time together, in fact all were members of the Woodlawn Park Club, a social club on the south side of Chicago.
By 1905, Harry and his younger brother Herb moved to New Mexico [one biography said he moved there in 1907, but Herb and Harry were mentioned in 1905 articles in the Albuquerque Citizen]. It is believed by the family that his move to the Southwest was prompted by a history of tuberculosis (which killed his father), but this is not mentioned in any of the articles.
Starting in 1906, Harry and his brother Herb were mentioned frequently in the “Society Pages” of the local newspapers. Reports of the two brothers enjoying horseback riding parties, card parties and hunting- especially turkey and duck hunting- filled their pages. At one point, with the loss of some stock on the ranch, Harry offered a $25 reward to the first hunter that season to kill a mountain lion. The two Sims boys were so well known in New Mexico that, when older brother Edwin won his landmark case against Standard Oil of Indiana in 1907, the Albuquerque Citizen had a front-page headline of “Trust Buster” Sims will go right after ’em,” while the next heading stated: “Man who made $29,240,000 fine possible has two brothers in New Mexico”, mentioning both Herb and Harry in the first paragraph.
Home was a large ranch called Valley Ranch located in San Miguel County on the upper Pecos River about 35 miles east of Santa Fe, the property was the only unsurveyed Spanish land grant in New Mexico. The 7000-foot elevation kept the summers cool and allowed for winter hunting with between four and six thousand acres and 250 acres under irrigation. By 1907, Valley Ranch was a year-round-resort, touted to be the principal health spa on the Pecos River. Advertisements from 1908 state that the ranch was under the management of Herbert Sims, Harry Sims, Frank Williams and Laz Noble. The intent was to make Valley Ranch the “In Destination” for the rich and famous from all over the country. However, by 1909, cracks appeared in the veneer of the ranch management and suit was brought against Herb Sims for breach of contract. Herb had a contract with the Valley Ranch company in which he would devote his entire time and attention to the business of the Valley Ranch company in return for a large block of stock in the company. But in March 1908, it was reported that Herb Sims, Frank Wilson and Laz Noble had decided to retire and that “R. H. Sims is the only member of the company retaining an interest”. No advertisements appeared in the press in 1910-1911 and by 1917, advertising of side trips to the Valley ranch was featured only in the brochures of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe RR for those traveling to California.] By 1913, ownership of the Valley Ranch had transitioned to Romanta T. Miller, Jr, the founder of American Business Institute, a large correspondence school, and publisher of encyclopedias and Technical World magazine, then based in Chicago. When the ranch was sold to the Broome Brothers in 1945, the newspaper reported that R.T. Miller, Jr. had owned Valley Ranch since 1909, so he may have been Harry’s partner early on.
Like his elder brother, Harry was very active in the Republican Party. He and Herb chaired a committee in 1906 to celebrate Herbert J Hagerman’s election as Governor of New Mexico. In March of that year, Harry was a delegate to the Republican Convention in Santa Fe representing Ward 4, San Miguel County. In January of 1908, Harry was part of a delegation that went to Washington, D.C. to assist in securing statehood for New Mexico. Then in October 1908, representing Pecos precinct, he attended a Republican campaign meeting in San Miguel County in support of local candidates. Being “one of the most active young Republicans in the territory” would soon pay off for Harry.
By 1907, he had fallen in love with Alida Fitzhugh Wright, the beautiful young daughter of a well-known jurist, Hamilton Mercer Wright, Jr., also from Bay City, Michigan. Even though it was reported that the families had known each other for years, it is unclear whether Harry fell in love with Alida in Bay City or rekindled a relationship during one of her many visits to see her sister Sibyl Katherine Van Rensselaer Wright who lived with her physician husband, George Stuart McLandress in Albuquerque.
January 1909 articles reported the wedding was scheduled for the following February 8. Planned as a small family affair at the McLandress home in Albuquerque because Alida’s older sister, Virginia Wright Kane had died the preceding December and the entire family was in mourning. The service was for immediate family only and was officiated by the groom’s father, Walter Sims. The only attendants were Herb Sims and Louise Crane, the daughter of the owner of a ship building firm in Bay City (and whose sister Arlene had recently married Harry’s youngest brother Bill).
Starting married life was a new page in Harry’s life, but 1909 brought even more changes. As a result of his tireless political activity, Harry was appointed receiver of the US Land Office in Las Cruces, New Mexico, just prior to the wedding. The US Land Office oversaw surveying, platting and sale of public lands in the Western US. Early in the 20th century, the land office function started shifting to issuing leases and collecting grazing fees for livestock raised on public lands. Harry would also have been in charge of collecting royalties from minerals taken off US lands. This was a powerful position in the nascent west. This job was made more important because the US Government had recently authorized construction of the Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, NM, as a part of the area under the auspices of the Las Cruces Land Office. The ability to control flooding and provide water for agriculture would dramatically increase land prices in this area of the country as well as encourage a booming population. Harry and Alida started their busy married life in Las Cruces, New Mexico just miles from El Paso, Texas and the Mexican city of Juárez.
The Las Cruces Sun-Times carried stories about Harry and Alida in the social pages almost weekly. In a one-month period, they were listed as attending a county club dance, a theater party, as well as a costume ball in which Alida dressed as a Dutch peasant girl. This costume party was also attended by local dignitaries and General John “Black Jack” Pershing, who was listed with those men who chose not to wear costumes. With these kinds of activities, some of which included frequently chaperoning young people motoring to a local lake for swimming or excursions to see the new dam, it’s easy to see why the couple was part of high in society Las Cruces.
Eventually resigning his position with the US Land office in May of 1914, Harry accepted a position with a trust company that had mining interests (predominantly gold) in the Monte Cristo, just south of the Sonoran city of Moctezuma, located about 60 miles from the nearest railroad station often incorrectly referred to as the Monte Cristo Mines in Chihuahua. On May 19, 1915, the El Paso Herald reported, incorrectly, that Harry and Alida were expected to return to Chihuahua and remain several weeks; little did they know that this would be the most exciting time of their lives.
Alida and Harry arrived at the mines around June 1, 1915.
The reports of what happened after their arrival at the mines vary from newspaper to newspaper. The easiest way to relate this is to contrast the interview with Harry and Alida, reported in the Chicago Examiner Jan 13, 1916, with slightly different reports in brackets.
On July 1, 1916 Harry and Alida were asleep on cots outside [on cots inside or while motoring near] their little house close to the mine in Sonora. They awoke to find a semicircle of 14 heavily armed bandits on horseback staring down at them, each with a gun pointed at the couple. Harry jumped up and threw all the bed clothes on Alida allowing her to escape into the house while he confronted the bandits. Elfredo Duarte, described as a blood-thirsty bandit, wanted Harry to accompany him to meet Alberto Garcia, another bandit in the hills, an invitation Harry refused. Duarte threatened to kill Harry if he did not comply. Finally, after much back and forth, Duarte demanded $2000 [$1000] for Harry’s freedom. Again, Harry refused. However, after talking to the mine manager James Lord, who said that refusing Duarte would put Alida at risk, Harry told Duarte that he had only $675 [$600, $400] despite having more than $3000 in cash on hand. When Duarte approached the bedroom where Alida had taken refuge, Harry stepped between the bandit and the door. “I told him the only way he could enter there was over my dead body. I again called to my wife to shoot at my command and the brave little girl without a quiver in her voice replied, ‘All right dearie’.” [Some reports say she had in hand a pistol; others maintained it was a repeating rifle or a shotgun.]
Duarte whirled, remounted his horse and made a proclamation to all the mine workers that he and Garcia were organizing a new political party and would liberate them all. He also threatened to kill all foreigners who did not leave by July 15. As the bandits were riding off, they stopped about 100 yards from Harry and Alida. All 14 bandits turned and fired at the storehouse. Luckily, no one was injured.
A report immediately after the ransom payment published June 29, 1915 in the Las Cruces Sun News said “An old friend of Mr. Sims says if Harry Sims couldn’t talk them out of $400, it wasn’t Harry Sims, and that he didn’t talk them out of the entire $1000, makes it doubtful that it was Sims at all.”
[The story from the Chicago American on Jan 13, 1916 reported “An American stood unarmed before the door of his wife’s bedroom and defied a booted Mexican desperado, Elfredo Duarte, armed to the teeth to enter. Behind the door the woman crouched, an automatic pistol in her hand, her finger on the trigger, ready to shoot at word from her husband. Fourteen ragged bandits stood at the door, guns poised and ready.” Duarte glowered at Harry as he protected Alida’s door and announced that he “had been a prisoner at Fort Bliss, kicked and cuffed by American soldiers. For every kick he vowed to kill an American”. After demanding all the money Harry had, Harry relented and paid $675. The bandit said that only because of the money, would he let them go.]
The following day, members of the Carranza Militia (Venustiano Carranzas was First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army, a far more conservative politician than Pancho Villa or Emiliano Zapata) showed up at their door, and the couple reported the attack by the bandits the day before. When hearing of the report to the government troops, the incensed Duarte sent word he was going to kill Harry for reporting the extortion.
In late September, word came that Garcia and Duarte had joined with Pancho Villa (Governor of Chihuahua. Mexico 1913-1914 who, working with Emiliano Zapata, the Governor of Morales, Mexico) was a major force in the Mexican Revolution, intent on invading Sonora. Harry worked rapidly to get Alida out of the country and on Oct 1, 1915. Alida managed to leave unmolested, returning to El Paso where she remained only a short time before going to stay with her sister in Albuquerque. After Alida left, Harry returned to the mine to straighten out a few affairs but, on Oct. 10, a bandit messenger appeared at the mine demanding Harry go with him to meet the bandits under penalty of death. Worried and frightened, Harry spent the next 66 days hiding in the mine coming out only when his employees gave him a special signal.
Despite three attempts to leave the protection of the mine and return to the US, Duarte’s men managed to prevent Harry from getting any further than Nacozari, Mexico. By December, Harry contacted Alida in Albuquerque by personal messenger revealing that he could not leave the mine without being ambushed by Duarte’s men and was facing starvation, requesting that she contact his brother EW Sims for help.
In November, Villa’s forces were defeated by Venustiano Carranza’s forces at Agua Prieta and his followers scattered. On Christmas day 1915, Garcia and Duarte broke camp and sent word they were on the way to the Monte Cristo Mines to kill Harry. Harry believed that the bandits were not working with Revolutionaries but were simply looking for revenge and money. A bandit courier reported to the desperados that Carranza’s troops were at Nacozari on their way south (toward the mine) and the bandits thought better of proceeding against the American mine owner. Harry hurriedly set out on horseback, riding over the mountains, avoiding all villages, arriving at Nacozari [about 80 miles north of Moctezuma] 5 days later and finally reaching El Paso on January 9, 1916.
Unaware of the Harry’s immediate situation, eldest brother EW Sims telegraphed Representative James R. Mann (Rep. IL) on December 30, 1915 who personally entered a complaint with the Department of State against the forcible detention of Harry in Mexico, and sought a Mexican military escort to rescue Harry. The vice counsul at Nogales appealed to Carranza’s de facto government which ordered troops to exterminate Garcia and his band and free Harry. These efforts in Washington were pursued until EW Sims received a telegram two weeks later, containing only one word “Safe”
The successful escape was even more impressive given the fact that, in the same issue of the newspaper reporting Harry’s successful escape, was a report of the massacre of 19 Americans on their way to the mines west of Chihuahua owned by the estate of Potter Palmer of Chicago (Palmer built the Palmer House and developed much of State St. in Chicago). It reported that “Villa Generals” had derailed two cars of a train carrying Carranza’s troops in a narrow canyon, trapping the train carrying the 19 Americans, which was traveling 10 miles behind. The bandits robbed the Americans and then executed all 19 with a bullet in the head. There is no way of knowing if this was Duarte’s way of taking his revenge for Harry’s escape.
Harry must have had enough of the rough and tumble life in the West as he and Alida soon returned to Michigan. They lived in a home on South Wenona in East Bay City [incorrectly reported in one obituary as Detroit] where it was reported that he was the Sales Manager for a machinery manufacturing house headquartered in Detroit. With his health failing, Harry went to Philadelphia where he could be treated by his brother-in-law, William Thomas Leiper Kane, MD, a noted surgeon and widower of Alida’s sister Virginia. Influenza was raging and Harry developed lobar pneumonia. He died at the Polyclinic Hospital of Philadelphia on March 19, 1917. The cause of death was noted simply as lobar pneumonia, and Dr. Kane did not add tuberculosis or influenza as a contributory factor on the death certificate. He also left Harry’s occupation blank. Maybe Harry had too many occupations for him to choose only one.
Buried in the family plot at Elm Wood Cemetery, in Bay City, Michigan, Harry’s short life held adventure enough for more than one lifetime.
His biography in the Representative New Mexicans: The National Newspaper Reference Book of the New State containing Photographs and Biographies of over Four Hundred Men residents of New Mexico. 1912 Compiled and Published by C. S. Peterson, Denver, Colorado reads thus:
