Jeptha Root Simms

Jeptha Root Simms (December 31, 1807 – May 31, 1883) was an American historian best known for chronicling the settlement of upstate New York.

Jeptha Root Simms was born at Canterbury, Connecticut on December 31, 1807, son of Joseph Simms and the former Phoebe Fitch. His family moved to Plainfield, New York in 1824. He married April 1, 1833, to Catherine Lawyer of Schoharie, New York. He died May 31, 1883 in Fort Plain, New York, age 75.

Mr. Simms was largely self-educated. He became an acknowledged authority on the history and geology of upstate New York through years of personal interviews with the region’s oldest surviving residents and collecting fossils and mineral samples. The interviews became the backbone of his subsequent writings, while his geological collection was eventually purchased by the State of New York for $5,000 (an impressive sum at the time).

As a young man, Simms worked at Canajoharie, New York, but removed to New York City in 1829. A few years later, he returned to upstate New York and began compiling his collection of historical material while working as a railroad ticket agent.