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J. H. SIMMS.

[[image - black & white photograph of J. H. Simms.]]
[[caption]] J. H. SIMMS. [[/caption]]

Prof. J.H. SIMMS, the subject of this sketch, is by birth and education a product of grand old Missouri.  

His reputation as a scholar and cultured gentleman is as extensive as are the wonderful resources of the State of which he is a most worthy and exemplary citizen.  Having graduated with honor from Lincoln Institute, the State School for Negroes, at Jefferson City in 1882, he was one of the first colored teachers of the

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J.H. SIMMS.

State to receive from the Department of Public Instruction a life certificate.

The public schools of the beautiful little city of Sedalia first secured his services, where for several years he taught for that city a model school.  He was loved by his pupils, and eminently pleased the Board of Education and his patrons.

Desiring a broader field of usefulness, for which he had thoroughly prepared himself, Mr. Simms in 1884 came to St. Joseph and accepted the principalship of the First Colored School.  The next year he was transferred to the Second Colored School. Here, as in Sedalia, his thorough training and adaptability showed themselves in the studious habits, progress and manly bearing of his pupils.

When the Colored High School was established he was elected first assistant to the principal, having charge of the department of Natural Science and History, from which during the last ten years graduates have gone out into the world standing shoulder to shoulder with the graduates of other high schools, showing thorough training and stick-to-it-iveness, for which the subject of this sketch shows dominant traits.  A few years ago, through his untiring efforts, the School Board was induced to fit up a physical and chemical laboratory in the High School, so that his graduates might leave school with a better knowledge of physics and chemistry.

The late Supt. E.B. Neely said, "Mr. Simms is one of the most enthusiastic teachers I ever saw."

Such a compliment from a man who had been en-