SYDNEY A. SIMONS, LT, USN
Sydney Simons '67
Sydney Augustus Simons was admitted to the Naval Academy from Richmond, New York on September 22, 1863 at age 16 years 11 months.
Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1867 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.
Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.
Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1867 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.
Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.
Loss
Sydney was lost on November 24, 1877 when USS Huron (1875) went aground and then wrecked in heavy weather off Nags Head, North Carolina. Ninety-seven other officers and men were also lost.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
A few years after his father's death in 1854, Sydney was a farmer living with Jacob and Hannah Cobb in Colebrook, Litchfield County, Connecticut. His father Isaac was born here, and his grandparents Orrin and Sophia Simons still lived here. Sydney's brother Charles lived with his other grandparents, T. W. and Emeline Moore, on Staten Island.
Sydney won appointment by a competitive examination through the influence of Congressman Stebbins of New York.
In May 1869, Sydney was ordered to the Lancaster.
On July 9, 1873, he married Emma Polk at St. Mary's Church in Abingdon, Harford County, Maryland. After his death, she received a pension of $25/month.
In 1877 Sydney transferred from the Hartford to the Huron taking the place of Lieutenant Arthur H. Fletcher (Class of 1865.)
After Sydney's death, his classmates met together at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to make his funeral arrangements. His remains were in Sailors' Hall on the Cobb dock and then escorted to the Lighthouse Department wharf at Staten Island. The funeral was held at St. Paul's Church at Stapleton. At the head of the coffin were his chapeau, epaulette, and sword. The coffin was covered with flowers sent by the wardroom officers of the Swatara, Mrs. Eugene H. Pomeroy, and Mr. Woodbury Langdon. Friends from the Minnesota walked behind carrying flowers as well. Sydney was buried in the family plot at Woodland Cemetery next to his father Isaac.
Sydney's wife Emma, his mother Emeline (Moore) and brothers Charles and Augustus survived him.
Sydney's father Isaac was first mate on a vessel which encountered a severe storm in the Atlantic Ocean in 1854. He went aloft to repair the tangled rigging and was swept overboard by a severe gust of wind. Isaac's brother Aaron Sydney also died by drowning at age 8 in March 1832 in Colebrook, Connecticut.
In July 1939, Sydney's cousin Erwin Winslow Simons, president of the Pittsburgh Reflector Company, inquired if any dependents received a benefit from Sidney's death. The pension office replied that only his widow received a pension.
From Army & Navy Journal on December 1, 1877:
Lieutenant Simons was born and appointed from Richmond, Staten Island, N.Y. He entered the Academy on Sept. 22, 1863, and graduated in June, 1867, No. 5 in his class. He was promoted to lieutenant on March 21, 1871, and joined the Huron about three weeks ago. He was a fine officer, and one of the most promising young men in the Service.
Sydney is buried in New York; he was survived by his wife, Emma Polk, whom he married on July 9, 1873. She died in 1907.
Related Articles
George Ryan '61, Lambert Palmer '68, James Wight '71, Walter French '71, Frederick Danner '74, and Edmund Loomis '75 were also lost when Huron was wrecked.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1864
January 1866
January 1869
January 1872
January 1873
January 1876
July 1877
Class of 1867 Etching Book
Midshipman Benjamin Park '67 created a book, "Shahings", that was a collection of etchings he created for his classmates. It is an interesting and entertaining collection. It is available at the University of California, and a copy is provided here.
Sydney is one of 5 members of the Class of 1867 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
