Sims, NC

Sims is a Wilson County town of 275 residents in the 2020 census, on the western edge of the county along the former U.S. 264 corridor. It began as Simms Siding, a railroad stop named for William Wiley Simms and his W. W. Simms Lumber Company. Freight cars carried mill products, especially house siding, beside the Norfolk Southern line. A post office opened in 1908-09, and the town was chartered in 1913 as Simms before the spelling changed to Sims in 1923.

Main Street, Highway 264 Alternate, and community buildings still show the railroad town's outline. Sims Community Park, two community centers, town water and sewer, and a local rural fire department give the small municipality current civic structure. The Bullock-Dew House near town entered the National Register in 1986, and the 1929 Sims Colored School reflects the era of Rosenwald schools and Black education in the region. With I-95 and U.S. 264 nearby, Sims now sits within reach of Wilson, Raleigh, Greenville, and Goldsboro. It is a town whose lumber-and-railroad beginning still shapes its roads and civic memory.