wife of Oliver Bonneau, of South Dakota; Grace, the wife of Joseph Watts, of Osceola county, Iowa; C. M., who married Sadie Gondy, and is living in South Dakota; and Arthur, who married Gretta Hess and makes his home in South Dakota. All of the children were born in the same house in Lafayette township, Story county, and there has never been a death in the family although the youngest son is twenty-four years of age.
Mr. Bunce has been a lifelong republican, supporting the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He has ever been loyal to the best interests of the community and is as faithful to the interests of his country today as when he followed the stars and stripes upon southern battlefields. Friends and neighbors have found him a reliable, trustworthy and progressive man and citizen, and all speak of him in terms of high regard and good will.
J. D. SIMS.
For almost three decades J. D. Sims has lived in Story county, arriving within its borders in March, 1882. He is today the owner of extensive and valuable landed interests and is numbered among the leading and progressive farmers of Franklin township, his home being on section 36. He was born in McArthur, Vinton county, Ohio, March 1864, a son of Simon and Ann H. (Cramblit) Sims, who were also natives of the Buckeye state. The father was for one hundred days a soldier of the Civil war with Company E, of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment, and died when his son J. D. Sims was but thirteen years of age. The mother long survived him and passed away in Story county in 1902, at the age of seventy-eight years. Their family numbered seven children: A. B., living in Ralph, Iowa; Matilda A., the wife of H. Dunkle, of Franklin township; Sophia L., who became the wife of W. A. Miller and died in June, 1910; M. F., of Washington township ; Lavina E., who died in Ohio at the age of eighteen years; J. D.; and Mary E., the wife of Charles Cunningham, of Winterset, Iowa.
J. D. Sims spent the first eighteen years of his life in his native state, working on the farm and attending school. In March, 1882, he left Ohio and came direct to Story county, Iowa, with his mother, brothers and sisters. They took up their abode in Franklin township, where he has since resided with the exception of one year spent in Boone county. He has always followed farming and is now the owner of thirty-eight and a half acres of land on section 36, Franklin township, where he makes his home. He has also purchased two hundred acres in Warren township, a mile east of McCallsburg, and will take possession of this in the spring of 1911, after which he expects to sell the smaller farm. He has been engaged extensively and successfully in stock-raising and is the owner of two Perch-