Samuel Alexander Mims and Nancy Ann (Sessions) Mims lived in Bladen County, North Carolina and had five children: James Sessions (1817-1855), Samuel Alexander, Jr. (1818-1864), Thomas J. (1819-1864), Catherine (1821-1849) and Columbia (1827-1911). The family moved to Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina in 1824. James Sessions studied religion under James C. Furman before attending Newton Theological Institution of Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1842. That same year, he was ordained as a Baptist minister at Society Hill, South Carolina and became a junior professor at the Furman Theological Institution in Winnsboro, SC. James moved with the newly incorporated Furman University to Greenville, S.C. in 1851, and he became chair of the Theology Department. James married Sarah McIver in 1844 and they had six children. He died in June 1855 at the age of thirty-eight.

Samuel Alexander Mims, Jr., attended the Medical College of Charleston and earned his medical degree in 1847. Samuel married Harriet McIver, twin sister of his sister-in-law Sarah in 1846. Samuel and Harriet had three children before Harriet died in 1857. Samuel later married Frances Ann Blackburn, and they had eleven children. Samuel died in Logansport, LA on January 1, 1864.

Harriet (1825-1857) and Sarah Catherine McIver (1825-1901) were born to Peter Kolb (PK) McIver and his first wife, Elizabeth S. Chapman on October 7, 1825. John, James, and Hannah were their siblings. Elizabeth died in 1845, and PK married Hannah Maria Nettles in 1847. They had three children together: Mary, Peter, and Thomas.