WILLIAMS, Richard

WILLIAMS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 5/31/2021 at 17:59:16

Richard Williams
born 1845, Pennsylvania

Richard Williams, County Commissioner of Ida County, Iowa, was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in 1845, the youngest child of Thomas and Margaret (Watters) Williams, natives of Cornwall, England. In 1839 the parents left their native land for the United States, locating in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where the father was engaged in mining coal, leaving there in 1854 to enter the employ of a London Mining Company of east Tennessee. He next worked for that company in Carroll county, Virginia, and in 1856 purchased a farm in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, where he died March 10, 1864. He lost his wife by death in 1848, and he afterward married Amelia Tonkin, who now resides in Marcus, Iowa. To the first union were born four children: Thomas S., married, and engaged in mining in Minnesota; William H., married Grace Williams Fletcher, now deceased, and engaged in the same occupation in Nevada; Patience, wife of B. F. Aiken, of Grant Township; and Richard, our subject. By their second marriage there were the following children: Zachariah, married and resides in Marcus, Iowa; James, of the same place; Susan, wife of John Burns, of Dakota; and John, a farmer of Plymouth county, Iowa
Richard Williams, our subject, was reared and educated in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. From that county, in October, 1864, he enlisted in Battery F, First Illinois Light Artillery, for one year, or during the war, and served principally with Battery I. He took part in the battles of Nashville, followed Hood to Eastport, Mississippi, where he was on garrison duty, and was honorably discharged at Chicago in August, 1865. After the close of the struggle, our subject resumed farming in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. In 1868 he removed to Boone County, Iowa, where he engaged in farm labor, and also assisted in building the Illinois Central railroad from Webster to Sioux City, in this State. In 1875 Mr. Williams purchased 160 acres of raw prairie land in Grant township, Ida County, which he immediately began improving, and erected a one-story house. In 1890 he built his present two-story residence, 28 x 30 feet, with a wing, 14 x 16 feet, and he has added to his original purchase until he now owns 240 acres in a good state of cultivation. Our subject assisted in organizing Grant Township, also every school district in the township, takes an active part in the Republican party, and in 1891 was elected County Commissioner, being the only one elected on that ticket in that fall. He has also served as Township Trustee, and is now Treasurer of the School Board. In his social relations, he is a member of Matthew Gray Post, G. A. R., No. 259, and of Ida Grove Lodge, I. O. O. F.
In Boone County, Iowa, in May, 1872, Mr. Williams married Miss Angeline Ewer, a native of Wisconsin, a daughter of Ruel and Ellen (Wamsley) Ewer, natives of England. In an early day the parents came to the United States, to Grant County, Wisconsin, but in 1869 made their home in Boone county, Iowa. The father enlisted in the late war from the former county, and died of disease contracted in the service. The mother now resides in Buffalo County, Nebraska. Our subject and wife have eight children: T. F., Ellen, William H., Rose, Albert Grant, Clara, Omer and Charley. Mr. Williams is one of the earliest pioneers of Grant Township, there having been only one house between his home and Ida Grove when he located in the county, and he has made what he now owns by industry and frugality.
Source: Biographical History of Crawford, Ida, and Sac Counties, Iowa, 1893, p.604