FWIA dug up the following information about the cemetery. Thanks, FWIA!
The State Historical Records lists this Cemetery under four different names. Harris Cemetery, Agency Buying Cemetery, Four Mile Cemetery, and Sims Burying Ground. It is now designated Sims Cemetery.
The Cemetery was established in Lee Township, outside the city limits of Des Moines six years before the Civil War. The acre of land was purchased from Pleasant W. Harris March 16, 1855 by Burying Ground Association, represented by John S Dean, James H Finch and L.S. Case all buried in Sims. On November 4, 1909 the Municipal Government of the City of Des Moines accepted care and maintenance of the burying grounds and turned it over to the Department of Parks and Public Property.
The first burial was of an unidentified man who drowned while driving a team of oxen through the Des Moines River on Vandalia Road. The last burial was that of Grover Maplethorpe, buried on August 26, 1967. Maplethorpe dies of natural causes.
One noteworthy burial in Sims is that of Newton Lamb, cousin of Daniel Boone. He owned 300 acres on the bank of the Des Moines River.