Joseph W. Sim

Joseph W. Sim was selected to be the judge of the County Court in the fall of 1873 and served a full four-year term until 1877. He was the third successor to the bench of County Judge after J.O. Cunningham and A.M. Ayers. When he was 23 years old, his family settled on a farm a mile east of Urbana, and after serving as principal of the village school for a short time, he studied law with William Coler. He was admitted to practice and immediately formed a partnership with Coler as “Coler and Sim.” The law office did not last, but a more personal union between the two men continued when Coler married Sim’s sister Cordelia in 1853. After his term as judge, Sim formed a professional connection with Cunningham and reentered civil service as the mayor of Urbana from June 22, 1864, to June 4, 1866. He withdrew from practice in the late 1860s because of his ill health and instead engaged in farming and stock-raising. Sim died on April 16, 1890.