| Charlotte Smith Sims |
| 1877-1955 |
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Charlotte Smith was born in Chicago, the only daughter of a well-known attorney Frank Jones Smith (1845-1901) and his wife Almira Charlotte Gilbert (1846-1928).
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Charlotte Smith as a young woman circa 1896 |
| The family often spent their summer vacations in northern Michigan taking a steamer from Chicago to Harbor Springs and Mackinaw Island. She loved the outdoors and enjoyed sailing and horseback riding. |
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Chicago Tribune August 13, 1895 |
| Charlotte was a traditional Victorian wife and very supportive of her husband’s professional and political career. She was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a number of women’s clubs (in 1911, she gave a talk entitled “Violations of the Federal Laws” to the Woodlawn Women’s club), and charity balls while keeping the home fires burning while Ed was busy supporting his ever-growing brood of children. |
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Charlotte S. Sims with Edwin W. Sims, Mother-in-law Charlotte "Lottie” Knowles Sims, eldest daughter Betsy Sims, and Father-in-law Walter Sims 1899 |
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Charlotte S. Sims with Betsy (back left), Helen (front Left), Susan (baby), and Frank circa 1907 |
| She enjoyed her husband's interests and many photographs show them sailing together on Saginaw Bay or riding horseback along the miles of trails at “The Ranch”. Known as “grandmother” to her expanding group of grandchildren and those not, she rued the day when she would have to give up her beloved horseback riding. |
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"Lottie" Sims at the wheel of “The Lottie” circa 1916 |
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Charlotte S. Sims and her husband Edwin on "The Lottie" on Saginaw Bay |
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Charlotte S. Sims and her brother-in-law Herb Sims on "The Lottie" on Saginaw Bay |
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Edwin Sims and his wife Charlotte, aboard yet another vessel circa 1940 |
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Charlotte S. Sims on her horse Nancy, a retired police horse from Chicago |
Edwin Sims had found the perfect partner who shared his love of the outdoors and the water. Charlotte was very active outdoors and encouraged her husband to acquire additional property for the family to enjoy. Sailing, horseback riding, fishing, hunting, sleigh rides, etc. all added to the time the family spent in Michigan.
Once shore front property was bought on Saginaw Bay in 1910, Charlotte and the family spent most of the summer in Au Gres, MI. Originally called Bay Meadows Ranch, the property was retitled Sims Ranch around 1918, the year the township of Whitney was split into Sims and Whitney townships. As the family grew, and the Ranch House got noisier (early 1940's), Ed and Lottie converted the original fish house into living quarters called the "Camp". With a screened front porch, an office, two bedrooms, and two baths, it housed Ed, Lottie, and Ed’s long time secretary Mary Brand, known to all as Brandy. The Harpham’s purchased the Camp later in the 1970’s. It was here they stayed to avoid the hubbub in the Ranch House. One of her great granddaughters remembers winning a pile of nickels from the slot machine she and Ed had on the back porch at the Ranch House (that was the only time anyone remembers it paying out). Rumor had it that its proceeds were sufficient to keep the Ranch House bar fully stocked. |
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The Camp as it was originally built for EW Sims and Charlotte - just east of the Ranch House |
| The grandchildren knew “Grandmother” as a grey haired, dutiful wife. Since her husband Ed would not drive, she did the driving when they were in Michigan. And entertain… Entertain they did. Large house parties of friends from Chicago, Governor Green of Illinois (1941-1949), Governor Len Small of Illinois (1921-1929), cartoonists, artists, businessmen, and others, were frequent vistors. In fall there were hunts, on horseback, both in Au Gres and on the land in the Upper peninsula near Iron Mountain. Charlotte planned all the meals taking advantage of the fresh produce and meat provided by farms the family owned, both at the North End (crossroads of Bessinger and Delano) and on Point Au Gres. |
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More than 400 miles from Sims Ranch, Edwin Sims owned a large parcel of land in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It included the Premo Dam on the Hemlock river in Hematite Township, Iron County. No one knows how or why he acquired this property. |
| Later in life, Charlotte became hard of hearing. She wore an old-fashioned hearing aid which had a large mechanical box, worn chest height, that picked up the speakers’ voice and wires leading to the ears with an amplifier to increase the sound. She wore the box just inside the top of her blouse and answered the phone by holding the earpiece to her chest. She was well known for turning off her hearing aid at dinner. If Ed was “holding forth”, she would periodically nod and say “Yes dear”, despite not hearing a word her husband was saying. In turn, when Ed wanted her attention from the end of the long dining room table, he would yell “Moth, Moth” (pronounced as in mother) until she responded. |
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Charlotte S. Sims circa 1940 |
| After Ed’s death in 1948, Lottie moved out of their house at 112 Bellevue Place in Chicago and into a residential hotel on East Lake Shore Drive near the Drake Hotel. She spent her winters in New Port Richey (founded by Ed’s brother George “Reginald” Sims) and died there in Dec 19, 1955. |
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Charlotte S. Sims and E. W. Sims in New Port Richey, FL about 1947 |
