From Proud Heritage, Volume III by DCPA. This 352 page hardcover book is available online.
Frances Sims Daniel (1790-1853) arrived in North Texas on February 2, 1849. She settled on 640 acres in present-day University Park (Daniel Avenue) just north of what is now Dallas Hall on the Southern Methodist University campus. This land was purchased for 50 cents an acre.
Frances Sims married John M. Daniel in Maury County, Tennessee, on July 11, 1816. Their children were:
- Jesse L. 1819-1902 Married Ann Purvis
- William L. 1820-1917 Married Mary Chandler
- Francis R. 1821-1903 Married Mary F. Robinson
- John F. 1823-1871 Married Mary Harvey
- Wesley W. 1825-1826
- Eliza A. 1828-1858 Married Levi Windham
- Thomas B. 1832-1922
- Nancy Isabell O. 1836-1851 Married Alexander Harwood
- Margaret Sims 1837-1905 Married Joshua Lafayette Smith
After the death of her husband, Reverend John M. Daniel (1790-1848), Mrs. Daniel began the long trek from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Texas together with eight of her children, slaves and relatives, making a party of 31. The journey ended with the little band’s decision to camp on the site near what is now the SMU campus. Soon the Daniel homestead had developed into a settlement of rough-logged houses, roofed with boards and floored with puncheons.
A few years later, just before the Civil War, the original homestead was abandoned because the family’s water wells dried up. A new home was built close to Turtle Creek near Curtis Park on Lovers Lane.
The boundaries of the first purchased acreage were Turtle Creek on the West, Lovers Lane on the North, Haynie Avenue on the South and roughly Greenville Avenue or Central Expressway on the East.
Frances Sims Daniel was the daughter and youngest child of William Sims and Judith Cross of Hanover County, Virginia. They married August 16, 1773. William was born May 7, 1757 in Hanover County to Bruster (Brewster) Sims and Mary Green.
William Sims served in the Revolutionary War in the militia of Hanover County, and his pension is recorded in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.. As a result, Frances Sims Daniel qualifies as a “real” Daughter of the American Revolution. In 1942 members of the Jane Douglas Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution placed a marker on her grave which is located in the Daniel Family Cemetery. The marker reads: “A Daughter of the American Revolution.”
William Sims moved his family and slaves in wagons to Tennessee in 1807, settling near Mt. Pleasant (Maury County) in 1810. He and his wife are buried in the family cemetery a few miles from Mt. Pleasant.
In tracing back in time for the Sims (Simms/Symes) family:
- St. Paul’s Parish in New Kent County (later Hanover), Virginia;
- Edward Sims was the father of Bruster Sims;
- George Sims and wife, Everard (parents of Edward) moved to Virginia from Antigua, British West Indies; and thence back to County Glouster in England.
Although Mrs. Daniel only lived for four years after arriving in Texas, she managed to purchase a total of 2,100 acres in what is now University Park and North Dallas. In addition to the first homestead, she owned property in the Royal Lane and Hillcrest area and the Inwood and Forest Lane area. A portion of the latter property is still owned by the Daniel family.
Frances Sims Daniel is buried in the Daniel Family Cemetery located in University Park at the intersection of Milton Street and Airline Road. The cemetery was the orchard of the original homestead.
By William Harper Daniel
