Sims Lafayette Matheny

The first documentation to place Sims in Utah is the Utah Territorial Militia records. His name appears with the date of July 1854, prior to the arrival of that season's emigration. His name does not appear on the 1850 Utah census or the 1852 Bishop's report, so it is likely that he arrived in Utah in 1853. Further research is needed to determine the name of the pioneer company with which he traveled.

He married Ellen Barton Ray on 9 October 1855 in Salt Lake City.

In 1855 he paid tithing while living in the Fillmore Ward.