Colusa County
Biographies
WILLIAM HENRY WILLIAMS
Throughout the county of Colusa few men are more widely known and none
is more highly honored than the founder of the town of Williams, who is a
pioneer of 1850 in California and three years later became one of the earliest
settlers of that section of country still his home and the scene of his many
activities. Possessing a keen foresight and sagacious judgment, he made
extensive investments in lands during the days of its merely nominal value and
at the same time he made a specialty of the sheep business, an industry
admirably adapted to bring prosperity to its followers during the pioneer
period of California history. When once the foundation of his fortunes had been
laid by industry and intelligence, he enjoyed a constantly increasing success
and now has accumulated a competency sufficient to give him standing among the
wealthy capitalists of northern California.
Especial interest attaches to the life
history of one so successful and so eminent in the annals of his county. The
genealogy shows that Robert Williams of Wales founded the family in America,
where he established his home upon a plantation in Maryland. A son and namesake
of this original immigrant born and reared in Maryland, learned the shoemakers’
trade in youth and in 1828, accompanied by his family, with his household goods
packed in a wagon, traveled across the Allegheny mountains to Ohio, settling in
Pickaway county. After ten and one-half years in Ohio he took the family as far
west as Illinois and settled in Vermont, Fulton county,
where he passed away in 1853. Twice married, he chose for his second wife
Margaret McCallister, who was born in Maryland and
died in Ohio February 2, 1848. In their early years they held membership with
the Methodist Episcopal Church, but later became associated with the United
Brethren denomination. Of their four sons and five daughters William Henry, who
was seventh in order of birth, was the only one to settle in California and is
now the sole survivor of the once large family.
While the family yet remained in Cumberland county,
Md., William Henry Williams was born April 7, 1828, and from there he was taken
to Ohio when but a few months old. At eleven years of age he accompanied his
father to Illinois and became a pupil in the schools of Vermont, a small
village in Fulton county. When he notes the fine
schools of the twentieth century he is forcibly impressed with the march of
civilization. The schools of his boyhood were built of logs,
the benches were of slabs, the floors of puncheon and the pens of quills.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages and the still greater misfortune of
irregular attendance at school as a result of being obliged to cultivate the
home farm, he has acquired a broad knowledge of mankind and is a well-informed
man. Experience has been his teacher and habits of close observation have been
his text-books no less instructive than those edited and issued by the world’s
most famous educators. With no undue deploring of adverse circumstances, but
with the hopeful spirit of youth he endeavored by self-culture to make the most
of his environment. With a brother he learned the shoemaker’s trade during
winter months and cultivated a corn and stock farm in the summer, but when news
came of the discovery of gold in California he dissolved his partnership with
the brother and started out alone to make his way amid untried conditions.
Leaving his relatives and the old
Illinois home, March 18, 1850, Mr. Williams and three companions started for
the west in a wagon with four yoke of oxen. They crossed the Mississippi at
Quincy and the Missouri at St. Joseph and then followed the new overland trail
via Forts Kearney and Laramie, leaving Fort Hall to the right and Salt Lake to
the left, proceeding up the Sweetwater and down the Humboldt, thence by the
Carson route into California, where they landed at Placerville on the 1st of
August after a trip of only ninety-six days. During this time they made it a
practice to rest on Sundays. When their oxen gave out on the desert they left
them and, having cooked enough provisions to carry them over the mountains,
started to walk with their blankets and supplies, getting across the mountains
in six days.
After an experience of four months at
mining, during which time he made only $70, Mr. Williams abandoned that work
and went to Sacramento, where he was engaged as cook in a hotel at $75 per
month, later becoming clerk in a store at $100. On leaving the capitol city he
went to the vicinity of Suisun and for a month or more was employed to mow hay
with a scythe, then hired to a Mr. Stevenson as teamster, later buying a team
and carrying on a freighting business for a year, during which time he cleared
$208 per month. On selling the team, in the fall of 1853 he conducted a
boarding house in Sacramento for six months, until the town was burned and
drowned out, and then took up land in Spring valley
and embarked in the stock business and general farming. A year later he began
farming on the plain near the present site of Williams. When the land came into
the market in 1858, he secured a tract at $1.25 per acre, to which he added
from time to time until his possessions assumed very extensive proportions.
Meanwhile he brought in fine blooded sheep from the east and made a specialty
of raising bucks, his work in the industry being that of a pioneer and
successful promoter.
By giving the railroad a right of way
through the town and an interest in two hundred acres of land, Mr. Williams
induced the officials to establish a station at Central, but when the town was
platted and laid out it was named in his honor. Since then the village has
become an important shipping point. In 1874 he erected a substantial brick
building, in 1876 built the Williams hotel, 84 x 124 feet in dimensions, and in
1880 put up a warehouse 121 x 200 feet, which is built in such a manner as to
allow teams to drive through the building as well as on the west side. During
the latter part of the ‘70s he with others built the steamer Enterprise and a
barge, to run from Colusa to San Francisco, the total cost being $56,000. At
this writing he owns the brick stable and another feed stable, also nine
thousand acres in the vicinity of Williams, the greater part of which is
operated under lease by tenants. At the time of the building of the steam flour
mill at Williams he was deeply interested in the project and retained his
connection with the mill until it was destroyed by fire. The foundry was also
the recipient of financial support from him and, with others,
he erected the old Odd Fellows’ Hall, a two-story building, 80 x 32 feet in
dimensions.
By his first marriage Mr. Williams has
three children, namely: Mrs. Harriet May Moody, of Williams; Lulu, wife of S.
H. Callen, postmaster in this village; and Ella, Mrs.
H. W. Manor, who lives near town. The present wife of Mr. Williams, with whom
he was united at San Francisco in 1880, bore the maiden name of Mary E. McEvoy and was a native of Dublin, Ireland, her father,
Thomas, having been a well-known horticulturist and landscape gardener in that
city; her mother, Anna (Horace) McEvoy, was a native
of Ireland and remained there until death. In the family of nine sons and one
daughter, Mrs. Williams was the only one to settle in California, and she has
been a resident of this state since 1877. The deepest bereavement of her life
has been the loss of four of her children, namely: Ira Cecilia and Inez Rashtia (twins), the former of whom
was fifteen months old and the latter four months old at the time of death;
Carmelita, who died at eight years; and William Henry, Jr., who passed away at
the age of fifteen months. The only children now living are the second, Belle,
and the youngest, Marguerita.
During the administration of President
Lincoln Mr. Williams was appointed postmaster of the old postoffice
(sic) at Central and the office continued to be in his house until after the
building of the railroad through the town. On the organization of the lodge of
Odd Fellows in Williams he became one of its charter members and served in its
official ranks, but afterward was demitted. Since the organization of the
Republican party he has been a stanch
supporter of its principles and frequently has been a delegate to its state
conventions. Though not identified with any denomination he has contributed
liberally and about equally to all churches represented in Williams, viz.:
Methodist, Christian and Catholic. Personally he is a gentleman of genial,
companionable disposition, with a jovial temperament that has enabled him to
see the bright side even of life’s shadows and that has won him the friendship
of acquaintances. In the annals of his home town and county his name is worthy
of perpetuation for the emulation of those who in future generations shall live
and labor here.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
313-314.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County Biographies