Martha's full name was Martha Ann Sims Ritchie Sims.

First husband: Andrew Washington "Wash" Ritchie.

Two children by first marriage:

(1) Mary Frances Ritchie, married Nathaniel Benjamin Dewey; lived in Hamilton Co, IN; buried Cicero Cemetery, Hamilton Co, IN.

(2) Morris Richie, grocer; resided in Lebanon, Boone Co, IN; buried Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, Boone Co, IN.

Second husband: William Wright Sims (no close relation), born abt 1823 in South Carolina; died in 1891 in Indiana.

One child by second marriage:

(3) Rosa/Rose Sims, school teacher, lived in Lebanon, Boone Co, IN, in 1920; burial unknown.

=====

A bio sketch of Martha's son, Morris Ritchie, in an old Boone County history, includes mention of Andrew W Ritchie and Martha Sims Ritchie: ". . . He is a son of Andrew Washington Ritchie and Martha Ann (Sims) Ritchie. The father was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, and the mother was a native of Rush county, Indiana. Andrew W. Ritchie was a young man when he removed with his parents from Kentucky to Boone county. Indiana. He left Boone county when still a young man and went to Boxley, Hamilton county, Indiana, and there married and followed merchandising until his death, which occurred in April, 1863. His widow survived a half century, dying February 15, 1913, aged eighty years, at the home of our subject in Lebanon. Besides our subject there was another son and a daughter in this family." [Nothing further is known of "another son," and the foregoing makes no mention of Martha's second marriage to William Wright Sims.]

=====

Place of burial: Martha's first husband, Andrew Washington "Wash" Ritchie, died in 1863 and is buried in Boxley Cemetery, Hamilton Co, IN. Her second husband, William Wright Sims, died in 1891 and is buried in Spencer Cemetery, Sheridan, Hamilton Co, IN. She herself died (see Boone County history above) in 1913 at the home of her son, Morris, in Boone Co, IN. Morris died in 1952 and is buried in Lebanon, Boone Co, IN. It is approximately 22 miles or less from Lebanon, Boone Co, IN, to either Boxley or Sheridan in Hamilton Co, IN. In other words, when Martha died, she could have been taken abt 22 miles back to Boxley to be buried with her first husband, or she could have been taken abt 20 miles back to Sheridan to be buried with her second husband, or she could have been buried in Lebanon, Boone Co, where she was living with her son.

Andrew Washington Ritchie's tombstone is in a line of Ritchie tombstones (see photo at his F.A.G. memorial linked to this one). On at least one side, possibly both, there is a smaller stone described as "unreadable." Given that he was her first husband and the father of two of her children, it seems she might have chosen to be buried next to him; also this was the marriage that produced son Morris, with whom Martha was living when she died, so he presumably would have favored burying her with his father. On the other hand, she outlived Andrew by 50 years, and it seems unlikely that her stone would have become unreadable while his has not.

William Wright Sims' tombstone is in Spencer Cemetery, Sheridan, and he and Martha were married 25+ years and had a daughter (Rosa/Rose) together. But his first wife (Rosannah/Rosa -- by whom he had several children) is also buried in Spencer Cemetery, so it seems somewhat more likely that Martha would have been buried with her first husband rather than with William & Rosannah/Rosa.

Given the closeness of the Ritchie stones in a line in the Boxley Cemetery and the 50 years between Andrew's death and Martha's, it might have been decided to bury her in Lebanon rather than taking her back to the old Ritchie Cemetery. Similarly, given William Wright Sims' burial back in the same cemetery with is wife (Spencer Cemetery), it may have been decided to bury Martha in Lebanon. Martha's sister, Mary Jane Sims Ritchie (the Sims sisters married Ritchie brothers) was herself buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, in 1894. Another sister, Amelia Sims Zion, was buried in the same cemetery in 1894.

While no tombstone for Martha has yet been found, the most logical conclusion seems to be that she would have been buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, as were her sisters Mary Jane and Amelia and her son, Morris. Evidence of a tombstone that would confirm or refute this inferred burial in Oak Hill would be welcome.

=====

Willis B. Sims. Prior to 25 Nov 2014, this memorial listed an "Unconfirmed second child by second marriage: Willis B Sims, b 1870 in Boone Co." Many thanks to fellow Find A Grave contributor Vicki (Starkey) Rush for her message of 24 Nov 2014 saying that, "Martha Ann has a cousin Willis Blanch Sims b. 11 Feb 1870 in Utica, Clark cty, IN (he's my 2nd great-grandfather). He was the son of William Montgomery & Martha Washington (Patterson) Sims. Perhaps this is the Willis B born in 1870 that some believe was a possible son of Martha Ann and William Wright Sims." That does indeed seem probable, so this presumably ends speculation about Martha Ann Sims Ritchie Sims' having an unconfirmed second child by her second marriage.