Biography of Joe Williams

JOE WILLIAMS Who is engaged in blacksmithing at Lime Springs and is numbered among the pioneer settlers of Howard County, Iowa, was born in Wales on the 12th of June, 1850, a son of John H. and Mary (Jones) Williams, who came to the United States about 1851. They made their way to the interior of the country, settling in Cambria, Wisconsin, where they resided until 1869, when they came to Lime Springs, Iowa. After two years here spent, however, they returned to Wisconsin and became residents of Randolph, where they remained until called to their final rest.

Joe Williams, was educated in the common schools of wisconsin and preceded his parents to Howard County, Iowa, where he arrived in june 1869. His brother, John B. Williams, had already became a resident of Lime Springs and was conducting a blacksmith shop which Joe Williams entered as an apprentice. He completed his term of indenture in his brother's shop and together they carried on the business for fifteen years, at the end of which time John B. Williams went to Montana and Joe Williams continued to conduct the smithy in Lime Springs.

in 1877, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Lydia Frisbie, of Lime Springs, a daughter of Chester Frisbie, who was one of the early settlers of Lime Springs, where he arrived in 1866. To Mr. and Mrs. Williams were born two children: David Roy, railway agent at Hall, Montana, for the northern pacific railroad company, and Beulah Gay, the wife of C. V. Summers, living in Charles City, Iowa. Mrs. Williams was born in Moddletown, New York, on the 11 march, 1852 and died in Lime Springs, April 26, 1905. She was a member of the presbyterian church. Mr. Williams is well known in masonic circles belonging to howard lodge, 211, A. F. & M., Shiloh chapter 150, R. A. M., and Jopa Commandery, No. 56, K. T. of Charles City. In politics he is a republican, well informed on the questions and issues of the day.

History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties,
By Robert Herd Fairbairn (Published 1919 - Volume II)
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois
Transcribed by Leonard Granger