Elias Sims

Elias Sims. , Elias Sims was born in Onondaga, New York, and as a young man worked as a laborer on the Erie Canal. Later he entered the business of dredging and by 1856 had moved to Cleveland working as a contractor dredging the old river bed. In addition to his work in Cleveland he executed major projects in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Sims was involved with construction of the Great Western Railway in Canada and canal locks in Iowa. Elias's business colleagues included Marcus Hanna and Daniel Rhodes and, in 1867, they built the Rocky River Railroad which began at Bridge Street at the city limits And terminated at Sloane Avenue in Lakewood, an area known as Clifton Park. The railroad connected Clevelanders to the recreational country to the west. Elias and his wife Cornelia gave birth to three daughters. Their oldest daughter, Sarah, died from complications of child birth in 1867. The mausoleum you see here was completed in 1868 and Sarah was the first member of the Sims Family to be interred here. By 1931 the last member of the Sims Family interred here was removed to Riverside Cemetery.