Describing Archives: A Content Standard

NTE2cg213.xml Guide to the John A. Simms Papers 1858-1881 Simms (John A.) Papers Finding aid prepared by Herman J. Deutsch Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections © 2025 Finding aid encoded by Suzanne James-Bacon. 2025 Finding aid written in English. English. Finding aid based on DACS 2nd Edition ( Describing Archives: A Content Standard). Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections Cage 213 Simms, John A., approximately 1827-1890 John A. Simms Papers 1858-1881 1.5 Linear feet of shelf space 3 Boxes Business and personal correspondence, reports, financial materials, and mercantile records regarding Indian agency affairs, of John A. Simms. Collection materials are in English

John A. Simms, born circa 1827, traveled to California in 1850 in the wake of the Gold Rush from his home in Leonardtown, Maryland. Within a year, however, he moved on to Oregon where he lived during most of that decade. In 1858 he moved from The Dalles to Walla Walla in the Territory of Washington. There in partnership with A. H. Reynolds and Captain F. T. Dent (brother of Mrs. U. S. Grant) Simms in 1859 built and operated one of the first flour mills in the region. That same year he was appointed by the Territorial Legislature to be an interim justice of the peace until elections could be held. During the Civil War years it appears Simms made his living by providing flour to settlers and especially to miners on their way into the gold fields at Oro Fino.

Simms was a member of the nine-man Territorial Council (upper house) where he represented Clark, Skamania, Klikitat, Walla Walla, and Spokane counties. He held this position from 1861 to 1862. Evidence from Owen's Journals and Letters tells us that Simms raised cattle and was regarded as a quiet, intelligent, and scrupulously honest man. During this time he had married Lucy McFadden, daughter of O.B. McFadden who had come from Pennsylvania to serve as an appointed judge in both the Oregon and Washington Territories.

Simms left for the east in 1868 in order to secure a federal appointment as Indian Agent in Washington Territory. By the spring of 1869 he was successful in gaining this commission and returned to eastern Washington to take up his duties in the Spokane-Colville region.

A disagreement over policy, in September, 1872, led to the resignation of W. P. Winans and the appointment of Simms as Winans' replacement. Simms' first assignment, the one Winans refused to carry out, was to convince the Spokane tribes that it was in their best interest to relocate to the newly formed Colville Reservation in the northern part of the territory and thus give up the improvements they had made to the land in the Spokane region. It was at this time that Simms assumed the position of principal Indian Agent at the Colville Agency. He held this position until 1883. John A. Simms died in Spokane September 1, 1890.

The papers align themselves with correspondence on one side and agency reports, bills and vouchers, financial statements, and abstracts on the other. The correspondence includes materials relative to Simms' work as Indian Agent and merchant and contains personal letters between himself and his wife, Lucy McFadden Simms, relatives back in Maryland, and friends. The agency correspondence includes reports on conditions at the Colville Indian Agency and School. The School, under the direction of Catholic sisters, came to be a center of controversy between Protestant and Catholic Indian factions. Simms, it should be noted, was a Catholic.

The financial records, reports, and abstracts present a picture of the economic interest the Federal Government was taking in the welfare of the Indian. Records of the mundane (office supplies for the Colville Agency) and the major (farming problems, relocation, and illness) are reflected in over 500 items.

The papers are arranged chronologically within folders in three series.

This collection is open and available for research use.

[Item description]

John A. Simms Papers, 1858-1881 (Cage 213)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

Dr. S. P. McPherson's home in Chewelah, Washington, had formerly been the Indian Agency building and office as well as the last known residence of Simms and the papers were found in the attic.

The John A. Simms Papers were acquired by Professor Herman J. Deutsch for the Washington State University Library in the summer of 1935 from Dr. S. P. McPherson. An additional and smaller selection of Simms' papers were received among the Colville Indian Agency records donated by Albert I. Kulzer that same summer (see Cage 2053).

>Under Professor Herman Deutsch's direction, the papers were designated the Simms Papers and processed during the winter of 1935-1936. They were reprocessed in July, 1973 by Robert A. Catale.

John McAdam Webster Papers, 1869-1917 (Cage 145)

William Parkhurst Winans Papers, 1815-1917 (Cage 147)

Colville Agency Records, 1866-1882 (Cage 2053)

Some additional information concerning Simms may be found in Frank T. Gilbert's Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia, and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon, (1882), and The Journals and Letters of Major John Owen, Pioneer of the Northwest, 1850-1871, edited by Seymour Dunbar (1927).

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Simms, John A., approximately 1827-1890 -- Archives United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Colville Agency United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Colville Agency Indians of North America -- Washington (State) -- Government relations Colville Indians -- Government relations Spokane Indians -- Government relations Native Americans Washington (State) Series 1: Correspondence Correspondence undated 50 items 1 1 Correspondence 1858-1869 33 items 1 2 Correspondence 1870 2 items 1 3 Correspondence 1871 12 items 1 4 Correspondence 1872 42 items 1 5 Correspondence 1873 62 items 1 6 Correspondence 1874 71 items 1 7 Correspondence 1875 87 items 1 8 Correspondence 1876 20 items 1 9 Correspondence 1877 17 items 1 10 Correspondence 1878 26 items 1 11 Correspondence 1879 24 items 1 12 Correspondence 1880 8 items 1 13 Correspondence 1881 5 items 1 14 Series 2: Financial Records, Statements, Abstracts, and Reports Census of the white inhabitants residing between the Spokane and Columbia Rivers together with the whole amount of assessable property of those owning real estate undated 2 items 2 15 Reports of employees in service at the Colville Agency 1872-1879 18 items 2 16 Statements of disbursing accounts 1872-1880 49 items 2 17 Statements of funds and estimates of expenses for the agency 1872-1880 15 items 2 18 Disbursement abstracts and receipt rolls 1872-1878 25 items 2 19 Reports and abstracts of articles and food issued to Indians 1866-1878 57 items 2 20 Office expenditures for the Colville Agency 1865-1878 46 items 2 21 Reports on the Colville and Coeur d'Alene Indian Schools 1873-1878 27 items 2 22 Statements of public funds on hand at the agency 1876-1878 76 items 2 23 Abstracts and statements of agency purchases 1867-1878 18 items 2 24 Statements of quarterly returns of public property 1865-1878 40 items 3 25 Expense vouchers 1860-1878 204 items 3 26 Reports on sick Indians 1865-1866 2 items 3 27 Contracts for agency supplies 1866-1874 15 items 3 28 Statements of current accounts 1872-1878 20 items 3 29 Miscellaneous records 1867-1881 21 items 3 30 Series 3: Mercantile Records Mercantile records: accounts, bills and receipts 1870-1878 37 items 3 31