Fondo yuk-1030 - Rev. V.C. Sim fonds

Vincent Collier Sim was born March 23, 1855 in Windsor, England, the fifth child of William and Eliza Sim. In 1875 he attended a preparatory institution and in 1876 attended the Church Missionary College located in Islington. On May 1, 1879 at the age of 24 he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Rupert's Land at St. Matthew's, Bayswater. Sim was appointed to the Athabasca Mission at Fort Chipewyan in the Northwest Territories with an annual stipend of £150. He remained at this post until 1881 when he was sent to Fort McPherson as assistant to Archdeacon McDonald. Sim spent several months here working with McDonald and gaining a working knowledge of the Takudh language. In 1882 he proceeded to Rampart House, on the Porcupine River, to establish a mission; this was the first parish in what is now known as the Diocese of Yukon. Rampart House was a post built by the Hudson's Bay Company when Fort Yukon was handed over to the Americans in 1869. In addition to ministering to all the natives that traded at this post he travelled extensively for the next 3½ years visiting, preaching and teaching English from Lapierre House (on the Bell River near the mouth of the Rat River) east of Rampart House, to Nulato on the lower Yukon River, and Fort Reliance on the upper Yukon River. In 1884 he travelled a total of 2670 miles and baptized 167 children and one adult. The combination of constant travelling and working and poor diet took a toll on Sim's health and by March 1885 he was bedridden. The Rev. T.H. Canham, who was McDonald's assistant at Fort McPherson, was at Lapierre House when he received word that Sim was ill and he quickly travelled to Rampart House. Canham remained with Sim (except for April 17 to May 6 when he returned briefly to Peel River) for the last months of his life. Reverend Vincent Collier Sim died due to malnutrition, pneumonia and exhaustion on May 11, 1885.