Dunlap, shown in the family photo with six of his siblings, is in the front row on the far left side. The photo was taken sometime before Dec. 20, 1900 when his brother, Irvin James, had died. His sister, Martha Ann, the only one of his siblings not present, had died in 1865.
L to R:
Front Row: Dunlap Edmund - Irvin James - John - William Gay
Back Row: Sallie Willard - Benjamin Oris - Mary "Belle"
*****
Dunlap was the son of William R. & Mary "Pollie" Martha (Gay) Sims. His siblings were Irvin James, John F., Mary Belle, Martha Ann, Benjamin Oris, William Gay, & Sallie Willard.
Dunlap & Mary "Ella" LeCompte were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880, in the M.E. Church South. They were 28 years old. Their first child, Orland LeCompte, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881.
In 1970 Dunlap's son, Orland, wrote a book titled "Cowpokes, Nesters, and So Forth." In it he tells an interesting & sometimes humorous story about how his parents settled in TX. His lengthy account has been edited and paraphrased.
Orland wrote that his parents were natives of the State of Missouri. Both had good educations according to the standards of their time and were truly the "salt of the earth." His father was a young man who wanted wider horizons than Missouri, who in the mid 1870's decided to try Texas along with three young men. (Dunlap was in his early 20's, and one of the young men was his nephew, Lee Pearson). They went by train to Birdville (Fort Worth)where they bought saddle horses, a wagon and supplies. Then they set off to hunt for the land of their dreams as they sauntered along to San Antonio while viewing the country. They stayed there for some time, but the three who accompanied him got homesick & returned to MO (Audrain County) where they eked out humdrum lives farming.
After they left his father had to go it alone. He heard of the Concho, bought two flocks of poor quality Mexican sheep because they were cheap, a couple of wagons, ox teams, a few saddle horsed, hired some hands, & set out for the "good land." He wound up on Brady Creek in McCulloch County, west of where the town of Brady now stands. He settle his outfit, tied some grub & a couple of blankets on his saddle, & rode toward the West.
When he reached the prairie south of Paint Rock, he found "The Promised Land," which was a sea of grass stirrup high, rippling in the breeze; wild flowers everywhere; every draw a clear running brook full of fish; wild game all about; a herd of mustangs, snorting and circling him; but never a man or cow-brute anywhere in sight. He continued on over the Concho River, deep and clear-running with great groves of pecan trees lining the banks. Orland wrote that he could picture him taking off his hat & reverently intoning "Amazing Grace" as was his wont when well-pleased. He had found home.
A drifting cow outfit had bought a few surveys of land on the north side of the river & had built a small, one-room picket house. He moved his stock there & bought out the cattlemen. This became the nucleus of his holdings whereon he lived out his life.
He had it tough at first. The neighboring cow outfits didn't relish the idea of having sheep in their area, but he out-talked them & minded his own business, & they didn't bother him. He knew practically nothing about handling sheep & learned the hard way. The nearest railroad point was Round Rock about 200 miles away, & it took 10 days or more to get his wool to the market & return with six months of supplies.
For the first two or three years these supplies were pretty skimpy - corn meal, a little flour, fat bacon, black molasses, salt, sugar, coffee and plenty of chewing tobacco. There were deer, antelope, wild turkeys, squirrels & as a last resort, rabbits. They used mutton taller for lard, which usually gave out before the half year trip to market. Their clothes were generally wore out, so they were sketchy & covered with multicolored patches when they finally got to town. Dunlap said they had to live like a coyote in the 12X16 dirt-floored picket house which served as parlor, dining room, bedroom, & kitchen.
After about three years, when he began to get the hang of things & to prosper, he was breeding up his sheep, picking up a few cows, & beginning to buy more land, which was always "on time" whenever he got a few dollars ahead.
He helped organize Concho County & locate the county seat on the section where the town of Paint Rock now stands. They got the name, Paint Rock, from the Indian rock paintings nearby. This site was selected because it was near a good ford on the Concho River. Settlers began to pour in, & Paint Rock developed into quite a town with a store, a saloon, a boardin' house, barbershop, and courthouse of sorts.
After a while Dunlap was well enough fixed to build a five room house and go back to Missouri for his sweetheart. Orland wrote that his mother was one of the handsomest and most attractive women he had ever known, & was quite a belle in Kentucky & Missouri. He could never figure out how she could give up her glamorous life and move to a raw frontier.
As mentioned above they were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880. Orland, their first child, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881. Orland wrote that his parents rode the train to Abilene where his father had left his buggy and team, loaded their furniture & household plunder on freight wagons, & started the long tedious drive to their home. They got as far as Old Runnels, a few miles north of where Ballinger now stand, sometime after dark.
Before they reached the hotel, his mother heard a lot of dogs barking & howling & was absolutely terrified when his father told her that they were "kioty wolves." During the night his mother was awakened by something dripping on the bed, but his father assured her that it was nothing. When they got up the next morning, there was a sizable pool of blood. A man who had been shot occupied the room immediately over them, & during the night, his wound leaked through the bandages, through the cracks in the floor, & onto their bed.
They arrived at their destination, about 2 1/2 miles west of Paint Rock, that evening & camped out in the newly built, unpainted house until their plunder finally arrived. They had a fireplace, a good wood cook stove, a couple of tin washtubs, & a John out in the backyard. The town waterworks consisted of a water wagon pulled by two burros. The water was poured into two barrels by the side of he yard fence.
Orland marveled through the years how a beautiful, cultured Southern lady every put up with such doings. No trees, no bluegrass, no fresh green vegetables or fruits, no bath facilities except the washtub, no church, no doctor, no companionship except for a few poor, worn out pioneer women and rough, gun-toting men. Orland wrote that they made it alright. His father became well-to-do by the standards of the times, and his mother gave birth to and reared five sons.
The ranch was fenced, a good courthouse was built, & waterworks of a sort were put into operation. The railroad built at Ballinger provided a way for his mother to take her children back to Missouri during the dry, hot summers.
The picture on the right shows the store Dunlap owned in Paint Rock in 1886. Dunlap was a farmer & ranch man. Over the years he kept buying up land until he was the owner of about 14,000 acres.
Mary Ella gave birth to five sons:
Orland LeCompte (September 20, 1881)
Walter Marion (1884)
William Irvin (August 18, 1886)
Dunlap Oris (August 25, 1889)
Benjamin Victor (June 01, 1896)
Sadly, Walter's life was ended on Saturday night, April 16, 1898. A few scanty details about his tragic accident were printed the San Antonio Daily Express the following morning.
"ACCIDENTALLY SHOT
A Small Boy Killed While Hunting Coons Near San Angelo
San Angelo. Tex.. Apr16 -(Special)-
While on a fishing trip the 14 year old son of D. E. Sims was accidentally shot by by William Eads, age 17. The boys had gone out In the dark to capture a coon carrying a target gun, which accidentally went off. Young Sims died before he could be carried home."
Dunlap & Mary Ella lived in Paint Rock the rest of their lives. However, when they became ill they were taken to Ballinger for treatment where they both died.
Mary Ella, age 85, died from heart related problems on April 12, 1938. Dunlap died on Aug. 3, 1943, at 9:00 p.m. from a Cerebral Hemorrhage. He had lived 90 years, 7 months, & 15 days. He was buried August 5.
Dunlap had attained a certain amount of fame during his life time. Word quickly spread throughout various communities when he died. Obituaries were published in The Morning Avalanche, The Abilene Reporter News, & in The San Antonia Express, which help provide a brief glimpse into his life.
"PIONEER TEXAS SHEEPMAN DIES
BALLINGER, Aug. 3.
D.E. Sims, 91, patriarch of Concho County and the first man to run sheep in this section of West Texas, died tonight in a hospital here. He never fully recovered from a stroke suffered four years ago and had been brought here from his home near Paint Rock nine months ago for treatment.
Funeral services are planned for Thursday here. Other arrangements were pending tonight.
Leaving his native state of Missouri at the age of 23 in 1873, he came to Texas in 1876 in a two horse wagon. He established holdings along the Concho River in 1888 after bringing a flock of sheep from near San Antonio. At one time his land empire stretched for 20 miles along the Concho.
AN OLD TRAIL DRIVER
He was popularly known throughout the southwest as 'the grand old man of Concho county.' He was a leader in the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Old Trail Drivers Association. He took cattle up the trail to eastern and northern markets on six occasions.
Survivors include two sons, O.L. Sims, former Concho County Judge, of Paint Rock and Will I. Sims, Dallas."
Source:
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Wed. Aug. 4, 1943
*****
Thanks to FindAGrave Member, ProgBase (#47278889), for the transfer of Dunlap's memorial.
Also a special thanks to Steve Voss, FindAGrave member #46775339, for the nice photos of the Sims grave plot & individual tombstones.
L to R:
Front Row: Dunlap Edmund - Irvin James - John - William Gay
Back Row: Sallie Willard - Benjamin Oris - Mary "Belle"
*****
Dunlap was the son of William R. & Mary "Pollie" Martha (Gay) Sims. His siblings were Irvin James, John F., Mary Belle, Martha Ann, Benjamin Oris, William Gay, & Sallie Willard.
Dunlap & Mary "Ella" LeCompte were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880, in the M.E. Church South. They were 28 years old. Their first child, Orland LeCompte, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881.
In 1970 Dunlap's son, Orland, wrote a book titled "Cowpokes, Nesters, and So Forth." In it he tells an interesting & sometimes humorous story about how his parents settled in TX. His lengthy account has been edited and paraphrased.
Orland wrote that his parents were natives of the State of Missouri. Both had good educations according to the standards of their time and were truly the "salt of the earth." His father was a young man who wanted wider horizons than Missouri, who in the mid 1870's decided to try Texas along with three young men. (Dunlap was in his early 20's, and one of the young men was his nephew, Lee Pearson). They went by train to Birdville (Fort Worth)where they bought saddle horses, a wagon and supplies. Then they set off to hunt for the land of their dreams as they sauntered along to San Antonio while viewing the country. They stayed there for some time, but the three who accompanied him got homesick & returned to MO (Audrain County) where they eked out humdrum lives farming.
After they left his father had to go it alone. He heard of the Concho, bought two flocks of poor quality Mexican sheep because they were cheap, a couple of wagons, ox teams, a few saddle horsed, hired some hands, & set out for the "good land." He wound up on Brady Creek in McCulloch County, west of where the town of Brady now stands. He settle his outfit, tied some grub & a couple of blankets on his saddle, & rode toward the West.
When he reached the prairie south of Paint Rock, he found "The Promised Land," which was a sea of grass stirrup high, rippling in the breeze; wild flowers everywhere; every draw a clear running brook full of fish; wild game all about; a herd of mustangs, snorting and circling him; but never a man or cow-brute anywhere in sight. He continued on over the Concho River, deep and clear-running with great groves of pecan trees lining the banks. Orland wrote that he could picture him taking off his hat & reverently intoning "Amazing Grace" as was his wont when well-pleased. He had found home.
A drifting cow outfit had bought a few surveys of land on the north side of the river & had built a small, one-room picket house. He moved his stock there & bought out the cattlemen. This became the nucleus of his holdings whereon he lived out his life.
He had it tough at first. The neighboring cow outfits didn't relish the idea of having sheep in their area, but he out-talked them & minded his own business, & they didn't bother him. He knew practically nothing about handling sheep & learned the hard way. The nearest railroad point was Round Rock about 200 miles away, & it took 10 days or more to get his wool to the market & return with six months of supplies.
For the first two or three years these supplies were pretty skimpy - corn meal, a little flour, fat bacon, black molasses, salt, sugar, coffee and plenty of chewing tobacco. There were deer, antelope, wild turkeys, squirrels & as a last resort, rabbits. They used mutton taller for lard, which usually gave out before the half year trip to market. Their clothes were generally wore out, so they were sketchy & covered with multicolored patches when they finally got to town. Dunlap said they had to live like a coyote in the 12X16 dirt-floored picket house which served as parlor, dining room, bedroom, & kitchen.
After about three years, when he began to get the hang of things & to prosper, he was breeding up his sheep, picking up a few cows, & beginning to buy more land, which was always "on time" whenever he got a few dollars ahead.
He helped organize Concho County & locate the county seat on the section where the town of Paint Rock now stands. They got the name, Paint Rock, from the Indian rock paintings nearby. This site was selected because it was near a good ford on the Concho River. Settlers began to pour in, & Paint Rock developed into quite a town with a store, a saloon, a boardin' house, barbershop, and courthouse of sorts.
After a while Dunlap was well enough fixed to build a five room house and go back to Missouri for his sweetheart. Orland wrote that his mother was one of the handsomest and most attractive women he had ever known, & was quite a belle in Kentucky & Missouri. He could never figure out how she could give up her glamorous life and move to a raw frontier.
As mentioned above they were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880. Orland, their first child, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881. Orland wrote that his parents rode the train to Abilene where his father had left his buggy and team, loaded their furniture & household plunder on freight wagons, & started the long tedious drive to their home. They got as far as Old Runnels, a few miles north of where Ballinger now stand, sometime after dark.
Before they reached the hotel, his mother heard a lot of dogs barking & howling & was absolutely terrified when his father told her that they were "kioty wolves." During the night his mother was awakened by something dripping on the bed, but his father assured her that it was nothing. When they got up the next morning, there was a sizable pool of blood. A man who had been shot occupied the room immediately over them, & during the night, his wound leaked through the bandages, through the cracks in the floor, & onto their bed.
They arrived at their destination, about 2 1/2 miles west of Paint Rock, that evening & camped out in the newly built, unpainted house until their plunder finally arrived. They had a fireplace, a good wood cook stove, a couple of tin washtubs, & a John out in the backyard. The town waterworks consisted of a water wagon pulled by two burros. The water was poured into two barrels by the side of he yard fence.
Orland marveled through the years how a beautiful, cultured Southern lady every put up with such doings. No trees, no bluegrass, no fresh green vegetables or fruits, no bath facilities except the washtub, no church, no doctor, no companionship except for a few poor, worn out pioneer women and rough, gun-toting men. Orland wrote that they made it alright. His father became well-to-do by the standards of the times, and his mother gave birth to and reared five sons.
The ranch was fenced, a good courthouse was built, & waterworks of a sort were put into operation. The railroad built at Ballinger provided a way for his mother to take her children back to Missouri during the dry, hot summers.
The picture on the right shows the store Dunlap owned in Paint Rock in 1886. Dunlap was a farmer & ranch man. Over the years he kept buying up land until he was the owner of about 14,000 acres.
Mary Ella gave birth to five sons:
Orland LeCompte (September 20, 1881)
Walter Marion (1884)
William Irvin (August 18, 1886)
Dunlap Oris (August 25, 1889)
Benjamin Victor (June 01, 1896)
Sadly, Walter's life was ended on Saturday night, April 16, 1898. A few scanty details about his tragic accident were printed the San Antonio Daily Express the following morning.
"ACCIDENTALLY SHOT
A Small Boy Killed While Hunting Coons Near San Angelo
San Angelo. Tex.. Apr16 -(Special)-
While on a fishing trip the 14 year old son of D. E. Sims was accidentally shot by by William Eads, age 17. The boys had gone out In the dark to capture a coon carrying a target gun, which accidentally went off. Young Sims died before he could be carried home."
Dunlap & Mary Ella lived in Paint Rock the rest of their lives. However, when they became ill they were taken to Ballinger for treatment where they both died.
Mary Ella, age 85, died from heart related problems on April 12, 1938. Dunlap died on Aug. 3, 1943, at 9:00 p.m. from a Cerebral Hemorrhage. He had lived 90 years, 7 months, & 15 days. He was buried August 5.
Dunlap had attained a certain amount of fame during his life time. Word quickly spread throughout various communities when he died. Obituaries were published in The Morning Avalanche, The Abilene Reporter News, & in The San Antonia Express, which help provide a brief glimpse into his life.
"PIONEER TEXAS SHEEPMAN DIES
BALLINGER, Aug. 3.
D.E. Sims, 91, patriarch of Concho County and the first man to run sheep in this section of West Texas, died tonight in a hospital here. He never fully recovered from a stroke suffered four years ago and had been brought here from his home near Paint Rock nine months ago for treatment.
Funeral services are planned for Thursday here. Other arrangements were pending tonight.
Leaving his native state of Missouri at the age of 23 in 1873, he came to Texas in 1876 in a two horse wagon. He established holdings along the Concho River in 1888 after bringing a flock of sheep from near San Antonio. At one time his land empire stretched for 20 miles along the Concho.
AN OLD TRAIL DRIVER
He was popularly known throughout the southwest as 'the grand old man of Concho county.' He was a leader in the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Old Trail Drivers Association. He took cattle up the trail to eastern and northern markets on six occasions.
Survivors include two sons, O.L. Sims, former Concho County Judge, of Paint Rock and Will I. Sims, Dallas."
Source:
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Wed. Aug. 4, 1943
*****
Thanks to FindAGrave Member, ProgBase (#47278889), for the transfer of Dunlap's memorial.
Also a special thanks to Steve Voss, FindAGrave member #46775339, for the nice photos of the Sims grave plot & individual tombstones.
Dunlap, shown in the family photo with six of his siblings, is in the front row on the far left side. The photo was taken sometime before Dec. 20, 1900 when his brother, Irvin James, had died. His sister, Martha Ann, the only one of his siblings not present, had died in 1865.
L to R:
Front Row: Dunlap Edmund - Irvin James - John - William Gay
Back Row: Sallie Willard - Benjamin Oris - Mary "Belle"
*****
Dunlap was the son of William R. & Mary "Pollie" Martha (Gay) Sims. His siblings were Irvin James, John F., Mary Belle, Martha Ann, Benjamin Oris, William Gay, & Sallie Willard.
Dunlap & Mary "Ella" LeCompte were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880, in the M.E. Church South. They were 28 years old. Their first child, Orland LeCompte, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881.
In 1970 Dunlap's son, Orland, wrote a book titled "Cowpokes, Nesters, and So Forth." In it he tells an interesting & sometimes humorous story about how his parents settled in TX. His lengthy account has been edited and paraphrased.
Orland wrote that his parents were natives of the State of Missouri. Both had good educations according to the standards of their time and were truly the "salt of the earth." His father was a young man who wanted wider horizons than Missouri, who in the mid 1870's decided to try Texas along with three young men. (Dunlap was in his early 20's, and one of the young men was his nephew, Lee Pearson). They went by train to Birdville (Fort Worth)where they bought saddle horses, a wagon and supplies. Then they set off to hunt for the land of their dreams as they sauntered along to San Antonio while viewing the country. They stayed there for some time, but the three who accompanied him got homesick & returned to MO (Audrain County) where they eked out humdrum lives farming.
After they left his father had to go it alone. He heard of the Concho, bought two flocks of poor quality Mexican sheep because they were cheap, a couple of wagons, ox teams, a few saddle horsed, hired some hands, & set out for the "good land." He wound up on Brady Creek in McCulloch County, west of where the town of Brady now stands. He settle his outfit, tied some grub & a couple of blankets on his saddle, & rode toward the West.
When he reached the prairie south of Paint Rock, he found "The Promised Land," which was a sea of grass stirrup high, rippling in the breeze; wild flowers everywhere; every draw a clear running brook full of fish; wild game all about; a herd of mustangs, snorting and circling him; but never a man or cow-brute anywhere in sight. He continued on over the Concho River, deep and clear-running with great groves of pecan trees lining the banks. Orland wrote that he could picture him taking off his hat & reverently intoning "Amazing Grace" as was his wont when well-pleased. He had found home.
A drifting cow outfit had bought a few surveys of land on the north side of the river & had built a small, one-room picket house. He moved his stock there & bought out the cattlemen. This became the nucleus of his holdings whereon he lived out his life.
He had it tough at first. The neighboring cow outfits didn't relish the idea of having sheep in their area, but he out-talked them & minded his own business, & they didn't bother him. He knew practically nothing about handling sheep & learned the hard way. The nearest railroad point was Round Rock about 200 miles away, & it took 10 days or more to get his wool to the market & return with six months of supplies.
For the first two or three years these supplies were pretty skimpy - corn meal, a little flour, fat bacon, black molasses, salt, sugar, coffee and plenty of chewing tobacco. There were deer, antelope, wild turkeys, squirrels & as a last resort, rabbits. They used mutton taller for lard, which usually gave out before the half year trip to market. Their clothes were generally wore out, so they were sketchy & covered with multicolored patches when they finally got to town. Dunlap said they had to live like a coyote in the 12X16 dirt-floored picket house which served as parlor, dining room, bedroom, & kitchen.
After about three years, when he began to get the hang of things & to prosper, he was breeding up his sheep, picking up a few cows, & beginning to buy more land, which was always "on time" whenever he got a few dollars ahead.
He helped organize Concho County & locate the county seat on the section where the town of Paint Rock now stands. They got the name, Paint Rock, from the Indian rock paintings nearby. This site was selected because it was near a good ford on the Concho River. Settlers began to pour in, & Paint Rock developed into quite a town with a store, a saloon, a boardin' house, barbershop, and courthouse of sorts.
After a while Dunlap was well enough fixed to build a five room house and go back to Missouri for his sweetheart. Orland wrote that his mother was one of the handsomest and most attractive women he had ever known, & was quite a belle in Kentucky & Missouri. He could never figure out how she could give up her glamorous life and move to a raw frontier.
As mentioned above they were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880. Orland, their first child, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881. Orland wrote that his parents rode the train to Abilene where his father had left his buggy and team, loaded their furniture & household plunder on freight wagons, & started the long tedious drive to their home. They got as far as Old Runnels, a few miles north of where Ballinger now stand, sometime after dark.
Before they reached the hotel, his mother heard a lot of dogs barking & howling & was absolutely terrified when his father told her that they were "kioty wolves." During the night his mother was awakened by something dripping on the bed, but his father assured her that it was nothing. When they got up the next morning, there was a sizable pool of blood. A man who had been shot occupied the room immediately over them, & during the night, his wound leaked through the bandages, through the cracks in the floor, & onto their bed.
They arrived at their destination, about 2 1/2 miles west of Paint Rock, that evening & camped out in the newly built, unpainted house until their plunder finally arrived. They had a fireplace, a good wood cook stove, a couple of tin washtubs, & a John out in the backyard. The town waterworks consisted of a water wagon pulled by two burros. The water was poured into two barrels by the side of he yard fence.
Orland marveled through the years how a beautiful, cultured Southern lady every put up with such doings. No trees, no bluegrass, no fresh green vegetables or fruits, no bath facilities except the washtub, no church, no doctor, no companionship except for a few poor, worn out pioneer women and rough, gun-toting men. Orland wrote that they made it alright. His father became well-to-do by the standards of the times, and his mother gave birth to and reared five sons.
The ranch was fenced, a good courthouse was built, & waterworks of a sort were put into operation. The railroad built at Ballinger provided a way for his mother to take her children back to Missouri during the dry, hot summers.
The picture on the right shows the store Dunlap owned in Paint Rock in 1886. Dunlap was a farmer & ranch man. Over the years he kept buying up land until he was the owner of about 14,000 acres.
Mary Ella gave birth to five sons:
Orland LeCompte (September 20, 1881)
Walter Marion (1884)
William Irvin (August 18, 1886)
Dunlap Oris (August 25, 1889)
Benjamin Victor (June 01, 1896)
Sadly, Walter's life was ended on Saturday night, April 16, 1898. A few scanty details about his tragic accident were printed the San Antonio Daily Express the following morning.
"ACCIDENTALLY SHOT
A Small Boy Killed While Hunting Coons Near San Angelo
San Angelo. Tex.. Apr16 -(Special)-
While on a fishing trip the 14 year old son of D. E. Sims was accidentally shot by by William Eads, age 17. The boys had gone out In the dark to capture a coon carrying a target gun, which accidentally went off. Young Sims died before he could be carried home."
Dunlap & Mary Ella lived in Paint Rock the rest of their lives. However, when they became ill they were taken to Ballinger for treatment where they both died.
Mary Ella, age 85, died from heart related problems on April 12, 1938. Dunlap died on Aug. 3, 1943, at 9:00 p.m. from a Cerebral Hemorrhage. He had lived 90 years, 7 months, & 15 days. He was buried August 5.
Dunlap had attained a certain amount of fame during his life time. Word quickly spread throughout various communities when he died. Obituaries were published in The Morning Avalanche, The Abilene Reporter News, & in The San Antonia Express, which help provide a brief glimpse into his life.
"PIONEER TEXAS SHEEPMAN DIES
BALLINGER, Aug. 3.
D.E. Sims, 91, patriarch of Concho County and the first man to run sheep in this section of West Texas, died tonight in a hospital here. He never fully recovered from a stroke suffered four years ago and had been brought here from his home near Paint Rock nine months ago for treatment.
Funeral services are planned for Thursday here. Other arrangements were pending tonight.
Leaving his native state of Missouri at the age of 23 in 1873, he came to Texas in 1876 in a two horse wagon. He established holdings along the Concho River in 1888 after bringing a flock of sheep from near San Antonio. At one time his land empire stretched for 20 miles along the Concho.
AN OLD TRAIL DRIVER
He was popularly known throughout the southwest as 'the grand old man of Concho county.' He was a leader in the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Old Trail Drivers Association. He took cattle up the trail to eastern and northern markets on six occasions.
Survivors include two sons, O.L. Sims, former Concho County Judge, of Paint Rock and Will I. Sims, Dallas."
Source:
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Wed. Aug. 4, 1943
*****
Thanks to FindAGrave Member, ProgBase (#47278889), for the transfer of Dunlap's memorial.
Also a special thanks to Steve Voss, FindAGrave member #46775339, for the nice photos of the Sims grave plot & individual tombstones.
L to R:
Front Row: Dunlap Edmund - Irvin James - John - William Gay
Back Row: Sallie Willard - Benjamin Oris - Mary "Belle"
*****
Dunlap was the son of William R. & Mary "Pollie" Martha (Gay) Sims. His siblings were Irvin James, John F., Mary Belle, Martha Ann, Benjamin Oris, William Gay, & Sallie Willard.
Dunlap & Mary "Ella" LeCompte were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880, in the M.E. Church South. They were 28 years old. Their first child, Orland LeCompte, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881.
In 1970 Dunlap's son, Orland, wrote a book titled "Cowpokes, Nesters, and So Forth." In it he tells an interesting & sometimes humorous story about how his parents settled in TX. His lengthy account has been edited and paraphrased.
Orland wrote that his parents were natives of the State of Missouri. Both had good educations according to the standards of their time and were truly the "salt of the earth." His father was a young man who wanted wider horizons than Missouri, who in the mid 1870's decided to try Texas along with three young men. (Dunlap was in his early 20's, and one of the young men was his nephew, Lee Pearson). They went by train to Birdville (Fort Worth)where they bought saddle horses, a wagon and supplies. Then they set off to hunt for the land of their dreams as they sauntered along to San Antonio while viewing the country. They stayed there for some time, but the three who accompanied him got homesick & returned to MO (Audrain County) where they eked out humdrum lives farming.
After they left his father had to go it alone. He heard of the Concho, bought two flocks of poor quality Mexican sheep because they were cheap, a couple of wagons, ox teams, a few saddle horsed, hired some hands, & set out for the "good land." He wound up on Brady Creek in McCulloch County, west of where the town of Brady now stands. He settle his outfit, tied some grub & a couple of blankets on his saddle, & rode toward the West.
When he reached the prairie south of Paint Rock, he found "The Promised Land," which was a sea of grass stirrup high, rippling in the breeze; wild flowers everywhere; every draw a clear running brook full of fish; wild game all about; a herd of mustangs, snorting and circling him; but never a man or cow-brute anywhere in sight. He continued on over the Concho River, deep and clear-running with great groves of pecan trees lining the banks. Orland wrote that he could picture him taking off his hat & reverently intoning "Amazing Grace" as was his wont when well-pleased. He had found home.
A drifting cow outfit had bought a few surveys of land on the north side of the river & had built a small, one-room picket house. He moved his stock there & bought out the cattlemen. This became the nucleus of his holdings whereon he lived out his life.
He had it tough at first. The neighboring cow outfits didn't relish the idea of having sheep in their area, but he out-talked them & minded his own business, & they didn't bother him. He knew practically nothing about handling sheep & learned the hard way. The nearest railroad point was Round Rock about 200 miles away, & it took 10 days or more to get his wool to the market & return with six months of supplies.
For the first two or three years these supplies were pretty skimpy - corn meal, a little flour, fat bacon, black molasses, salt, sugar, coffee and plenty of chewing tobacco. There were deer, antelope, wild turkeys, squirrels & as a last resort, rabbits. They used mutton taller for lard, which usually gave out before the half year trip to market. Their clothes were generally wore out, so they were sketchy & covered with multicolored patches when they finally got to town. Dunlap said they had to live like a coyote in the 12X16 dirt-floored picket house which served as parlor, dining room, bedroom, & kitchen.
After about three years, when he began to get the hang of things & to prosper, he was breeding up his sheep, picking up a few cows, & beginning to buy more land, which was always "on time" whenever he got a few dollars ahead.
He helped organize Concho County & locate the county seat on the section where the town of Paint Rock now stands. They got the name, Paint Rock, from the Indian rock paintings nearby. This site was selected because it was near a good ford on the Concho River. Settlers began to pour in, & Paint Rock developed into quite a town with a store, a saloon, a boardin' house, barbershop, and courthouse of sorts.
After a while Dunlap was well enough fixed to build a five room house and go back to Missouri for his sweetheart. Orland wrote that his mother was one of the handsomest and most attractive women he had ever known, & was quite a belle in Kentucky & Missouri. He could never figure out how she could give up her glamorous life and move to a raw frontier.
As mentioned above they were married in Pierce City, Lawrence Co, MO on November 11, 1880. Orland, their first child, was born in Pierce City on September 20, 1881. Orland wrote that his parents rode the train to Abilene where his father had left his buggy and team, loaded their furniture & household plunder on freight wagons, & started the long tedious drive to their home. They got as far as Old Runnels, a few miles north of where Ballinger now stand, sometime after dark.
Before they reached the hotel, his mother heard a lot of dogs barking & howling & was absolutely terrified when his father told her that they were "kioty wolves." During the night his mother was awakened by something dripping on the bed, but his father assured her that it was nothing. When they got up the next morning, there was a sizable pool of blood. A man who had been shot occupied the room immediately over them, & during the night, his wound leaked through the bandages, through the cracks in the floor, & onto their bed.
They arrived at their destination, about 2 1/2 miles west of Paint Rock, that evening & camped out in the newly built, unpainted house until their plunder finally arrived. They had a fireplace, a good wood cook stove, a couple of tin washtubs, & a John out in the backyard. The town waterworks consisted of a water wagon pulled by two burros. The water was poured into two barrels by the side of he yard fence.
Orland marveled through the years how a beautiful, cultured Southern lady every put up with such doings. No trees, no bluegrass, no fresh green vegetables or fruits, no bath facilities except the washtub, no church, no doctor, no companionship except for a few poor, worn out pioneer women and rough, gun-toting men. Orland wrote that they made it alright. His father became well-to-do by the standards of the times, and his mother gave birth to and reared five sons.
The ranch was fenced, a good courthouse was built, & waterworks of a sort were put into operation. The railroad built at Ballinger provided a way for his mother to take her children back to Missouri during the dry, hot summers.
The picture on the right shows the store Dunlap owned in Paint Rock in 1886. Dunlap was a farmer & ranch man. Over the years he kept buying up land until he was the owner of about 14,000 acres.
Mary Ella gave birth to five sons:
Orland LeCompte (September 20, 1881)
Walter Marion (1884)
William Irvin (August 18, 1886)
Dunlap Oris (August 25, 1889)
Benjamin Victor (June 01, 1896)
Sadly, Walter's life was ended on Saturday night, April 16, 1898. A few scanty details about his tragic accident were printed the San Antonio Daily Express the following morning.
"ACCIDENTALLY SHOT
A Small Boy Killed While Hunting Coons Near San Angelo
San Angelo. Tex.. Apr16 -(Special)-
While on a fishing trip the 14 year old son of D. E. Sims was accidentally shot by by William Eads, age 17. The boys had gone out In the dark to capture a coon carrying a target gun, which accidentally went off. Young Sims died before he could be carried home."
Dunlap & Mary Ella lived in Paint Rock the rest of their lives. However, when they became ill they were taken to Ballinger for treatment where they both died.
Mary Ella, age 85, died from heart related problems on April 12, 1938. Dunlap died on Aug. 3, 1943, at 9:00 p.m. from a Cerebral Hemorrhage. He had lived 90 years, 7 months, & 15 days. He was buried August 5.
Dunlap had attained a certain amount of fame during his life time. Word quickly spread throughout various communities when he died. Obituaries were published in The Morning Avalanche, The Abilene Reporter News, & in The San Antonia Express, which help provide a brief glimpse into his life.
"PIONEER TEXAS SHEEPMAN DIES
BALLINGER, Aug. 3.
D.E. Sims, 91, patriarch of Concho County and the first man to run sheep in this section of West Texas, died tonight in a hospital here. He never fully recovered from a stroke suffered four years ago and had been brought here from his home near Paint Rock nine months ago for treatment.
Funeral services are planned for Thursday here. Other arrangements were pending tonight.
Leaving his native state of Missouri at the age of 23 in 1873, he came to Texas in 1876 in a two horse wagon. He established holdings along the Concho River in 1888 after bringing a flock of sheep from near San Antonio. At one time his land empire stretched for 20 miles along the Concho.
AN OLD TRAIL DRIVER
He was popularly known throughout the southwest as 'the grand old man of Concho county.' He was a leader in the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Old Trail Drivers Association. He took cattle up the trail to eastern and northern markets on six occasions.
Survivors include two sons, O.L. Sims, former Concho County Judge, of Paint Rock and Will I. Sims, Dallas."
Source:
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Wed. Aug. 4, 1943
*****
Thanks to FindAGrave Member, ProgBase (#47278889), for the transfer of Dunlap's memorial.
Also a special thanks to Steve Voss, FindAGrave member #46775339, for the nice photos of the Sims grave plot & individual tombstones.
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