Simms - William H.
Source: Crawfordsville: Weekly Journal Friday, 31 July 1896
On Friday afternoon, July 24, the quiet village of Waynetown and adjacent vicinity, was shocked by the announcement of the death of William H. Simms
Mr. Simms was born August 20th, 1836, and was therefore just rounding out his 60th year. For a third of a century he has been a respected and prominent citizen of Montgomery County, during which time he has constantly grown in the esteem of those with whom he came in contact. Possessed of a genial disposition, a manly heart and an abiding love for his fellowman, richly endowed by nature in intellectual power, ever moved in all his acts by generous impulses, and always actuated by noble and charitable motives and purposes his untimely death has cast a gloom over the community, burdened the hearts of his friends with sorrow and prostrated a loving family with grief.
He leaves a widow and five children, two of whom are too young to realize their great loss. Sorrow is most poignant when unexpected, grief most bitter when unlooked for and death most appalling when it comes with no note of warning.
On Thursday, the day before his death, he was apparently in good health. No suggestion of his sudden demise entered the mind of friend or family. On Thursday evening he attended and presided over a meeting of the I. O. O. F., having been chosen Noble Grand of his lodge at the preceding election. Returning from the lodge he retired without complaint of ill feeling. Before midnight he aroused his wife and complained of rheumatic pains in his lower extremities. Physicians were summoned and all that medical aid and gentle administrations by loving hands could do proved unavailing to stop the pain or check its onward course. From the first the misery seemed moving upward. Within about twelve hours it reached his heart, when death—almost instantaneous death—resulted.
The funeral was conducted from the M. E. Church in Waynetown under the auspices of the I. O. O. F. Ten lodges from Montgomery and Fountain Counties participated in the ceremonies. The funeral procession, led by the Waynetown band, was perhaps the largest ever seen in Waynetown. The remains were laid to rest in the beautiful Masonic Cemetery, just west of Waynetown. -s