Samuel H. Williams Biography

Samuel H. Williams Biography

The number of families in Gibson County withthe Williams name is staggering. Determining which of these many families are our ancestors presents many difficulties for those who undertake the research. Very few documents or family stories came down from other family members About the only

reliable information we had was our grandfather Williams’ name was Ransom. From this meager bit of information, the research produced amazing results.

Where did our Williams family originate? From the available information it appears to

be somewhere in England, but as yet, no real indication of the exact location.

Evidence points to Wake County, North Carolina about the time of the American

Revolution in the 1770s. The census for 1800 in Wake County list three males with the

Williams family name on the same page. In all likelihood they were brothers. Their

names were Benjamin, Austin, and Robert B. Present evidence points to Benjamin

Williams as the great grandfather of Ransom Williams, our grandfather.

The various North Carolina census tracts indicate that Robert B. Williams never

married. In 1800, 1810, 1820, and 1830 he is listed as living alone. Austin Williams

migrated to Tennessee with other family members just before 1850. The given names of

his children eliminated him as the patriarch of our family. That only leaves

Benjamin, but no positive proof that he was the grandfather of Samuel H. Williams.

Before the census of 1850 the ages of heads of families were only given in certain

ranges. Only the number of males and females in age categories were listed. This made

it impossible before 1850 to determine the birth year of family members. The best

guess is that Benjamin, Austin, and Robert B. Williams were all born between 1760 and

1785. Austin Williams migrated from North Carolina to Madison County, Tennessee just

before 1850. Robert B. Williams disappeared from the Wake County census after 1830.

Benjamin Williams no longer appeared in the census tracts after 1820.

The documents indicate that Benjamin Williams and wife had a large family. After 1800

the three brothers moved a short distance to the west to Rowan County. Benjamin

Williams’ family in 1810 contained five males and five females, including the mother

and father. For whatever reasons the family was reduced to four males and four

females in 1820.

Levi Williams was born about 1806 in either Wake County or Rowan County, North

Carolina. In the Rowan County census of 1810, Benjamin Williams is the only one of

the three brothers with a son that matches the age range of Levi Williams. There is

no record that Robert B. Williams ever produced any children. Austin Williams did not

marry until 1824, therefore, was not likely a candidate to be the father of Levi

Williams.

On February 18, 1830 Levi Williams obtained a marriage bond in Wake County to marry

Mary (Polley) Holding. The witness to the bond was B. S. King and the bondsman was

Wiley Butler. The union began to produce children at a moderate pace unless some did

not survive long enough to be counted in the various census canvases. Alexander

Williams was born about 1833 in Wake County. About five years later Martha Williams

was born, also in Wake County. Ransom T. Williams, the second of three sons was born

about 1841. Two years later, a daughter, Eliza J. Williams was born. Finally, Samuel

H. Williams was born in 1847.

The exact birth year of Samuel H. Williams is not absolutely clear. In a Civil War

pension application in 1909, Samuel H. Williams said he was born on April 2, 1843 in

Wake County, North Carolina. Yet, on another page of the pension application Samuel

said he was 64 years old. That would make his birth year 1846. On Samuel’s gravestone

in Rose Hill Cemetery in Humboldt, the birth year is 1844. The census of 1850 for

Madison County, Tennessee list his age as three. In summary, it appears that Samuel

may have added a few years to his age when he made his pension application in 1909 or

his memory was a little faulty.

Samuel Williams’ father, Levi Williams, probably did not survive the 1850s. To date

no evidence of his actual death has been found, but he is not living with wife Mary

Williams and her children in the 1860 census. Sometime during the 1850s the family

migrated the short distance from Madison County to Gibson County and settled in

District 16. District 16 roughly covered the area in Gibson County from the Madison

County line north to the current Hwy 152. At the present time, most of the district

is located in Crockett County.

Two of Levi and Mary Williams’ children went out on their own by 1860. Alexander

Williams married and established a separate home according to the census of 1860 for

Gibson County. Ransom Williams hired on as a farm laborer for the family of H. H.

Nipper near Humboldt. Mary Williams, with Martha, Eliza, and Samuel, lived next door

J. B. Williams and his wife Jane and their six children. All available evidence

suggests that J. B. Williams was a brother of Levi Williams. No further information

has yet been found on Ransom Williams. He probably did not survive the 1860s or moved

further west as many Americans did at the time.

We must rely on our imagination to understand a child growing up in the 1850s in

western Tennessee. All of west Tennessee was part of the frontier. Treaties with the

various Indian groups allowing settlements in the area west of the Tennessee River

were a part of recent memory. At best, especially for families with little or no real

property, life as a struggle to survive from year to year on the frontier. Without a

doubt, Samuel Williams received some education, either formal or informal. He was

able to complete and sign his Civil War pension application in 1909.

The paramount issue facing many Americans in the 1850s was the growing conflict

between the North and South. Our family history is not the place to assign

responsibility for the break down of the friendly relations between the North and

South. It is enough to say that when the struggle became violent, there was no

shortage of southern youth willing to join the rebellion. Although no evidence exist

that anyone in the Williams clan owned slaves, they still took up arms against the

United States.

After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 a parade of southern states from

Mississippi to South Carolina joined in an effort to establish a separate and

independent government. At first Tennessee refused to join the parade because of the

reluctance of many to break up a union that had produced many benefits. Tennessee

quickly reversed that vote after United States troops tried to resupply Fort Sumpter

in South Carolina.

All across the south young, and some old, joined the effort to establish a separate

and independent government in fifteen southern states. At least two ancestors of our

mother (Kilzers) and Samuel H. Williams volunteered for service in the Confederate

effort.

On November 30, 1861 Samuel H. Williams, probably no more than fifteen or sixteen

years of age, enlisted in an infantry unit being organized in the Gibson County area.

He was assigned to Company F of the 47th Infantry. The 47th Infantry was organized in

Trenton in late 1861 from ten companies enlisted in November and December. The 47th

saw little action until it arrived at the Battle of Shiloh along the Tennessee River

on the last day of the battle. However, Samuel H. Williams was not one of the troops

from Humboldt on that day in probably the bloodiest battle fought in Tennessee during

the Civil War.

The muster rolls for Samuel H. Williams and his service in the 47th Infantry, Company

F, do not give a clear picture of his brief service in the 47th. After being

organized, the 47th went into camp at Trenton. The first muster roll card is dated

May and June, 1862. It states that Samuel had been paid up to the previous February

28. According to the company muster roll for May and June, 1862, Samuel was absent

and said to be at home in Gibson County. There is no indication as to why he was

absent. In light of later evidence, it appears that Samuel had joined or had been

transferred to another unit.

A second muster roll for July and August, 1862 says that Samuel was absent without

leave. A third card dated September and October, 1862 also says absent without leave.

A fourth for November and December, 1862 indicates the same information. A fifth card

for January and February, 1863 also says absent without leave. A final muster roll

for March and April, 1863 states that Samuel is “absent without leave and ordered

dropped from the roll.” Thus, ended Samuel’s service in the 47th Infantry, Company F.

In his pension application in 1909 Samuel Williams ignored his brief service in the

47th Infantry. He included sworn statements to demonstrate his service in the

calvary. There is a letter from G. W. Bennett who organized a calvary unit he called

“Bennett’s Battalion.” Bennett wrote that he mustered Samuel H. Williams into his

command in April, 1863. He also stated that Samuel made a good soldier until he

became ill in November, 1864.

Samuel took part in battles at Brice’s Crossroads and Harrisburgh. Both were part of

a campaign in and around Tupelo, Mississippi. Harrisburgh was just across the

railroad tracks from Tupelo and is now part of the city.

Samuel also took part in Nathan B. Forrest’s raid on Memphis, Tennessee in an effort

to capture the federal commander in the city that was his hometown. The raid on

Memphis enhanced the reputation of Forrest, but had no lasting significance on the

outcome of the war. Eventually, “Bennett’s Battalion” was made a part of the 12th

Calvary that was paroled at Gainsville, Alabama in May, 1865.

We cannot be sure that Samuel Williams was with the 12th Calvary when it surrendered

in May, 1865. In the pension application Samuel said he had never been wounded in any

of the action that he saw. For much of the time during his service in “Bennett’s

Battalion” and the 12th Calvary, Samuel was ill with some kind of sickness. While his

unit was in Jackson, Mississippi in November, 1864, Samuel developed some kind of

fever that was most likely typhoid fever and at times was unable to walk. He was

given a unlimited furlough and never returned to full-time service during the

remainder of the war.

It was several weeks after the war ended before Samuel returned to the Humboldt area.

The journey home was probably very agonizing. Ruth Fuell of Humboldt, now in her

early nineties, told me that her grandmother, Ada M. Williams Barker, a daughter of

Samuel’s, told her that Samuel often talked about the terrible conditions of the

southern soldier, including himself. According to Samuel, they were often hungry and

without shoes. Anyone that has studied the Civil War knows that Federal and

Confederate troops suffered. Nevertheless, southerners had the additional humiliation

of defeat at the end of the war.

When Samuel returned to the Humboldt area after the war, he was somewhere between the

age of twenty and twenty-five. The census of 1850 indicated he was about eighteen or

nineteen in 1865. His pension application states that he was born in 1843 which would

make him twentytwo. My own personal belief is that he was about age eighteen or

nineteen. Whatever his age at the end of the Civil War, he managed to find a wife

soon after the war.

How Samuel H. Williams met and courted Margaret Duren will probably always remain a

mystery. It is not hard to imagine that he met her during the widespread travels of

his army unit. In 1860 Margaret Duren was either living or briefly visiting a

brother, Manon J. Duren in Hardin County near the city of Savannah, Tennessee. The

Duren family had a long history associated with Hardin and Wayne counties near the

Tennessee River in the southern part of the state on the Mississippi border.

The patriarch of the Duren family was George W. Duren. George Duren was born about

1794 in Georgia. About 1830 he married Sarah Phillips and they spent the remainder of

their lives in either Hardin or Wayne counties. They eventually became parents of at

least thirteen children: Delila Duren; Manon J. Duren; Mahala Duren; Margaret Duren;

George W. Duren; Marion Duren; Calvin Duren; Elizabeth Duren; Luraney Duren; Jonathan

Duren; Thomas Duren; James Duren; and Ellison Duren.

A major researcher of the Duren family, Jerry Duren, told me in an e-mail that there

was little doubt that this was the Margaret Duren that married Samuel Williams. The

big question was her age, but except for accuracy, it really does not matter. Jerry

Duren stated that he had no absolute evidence of Margaret’s correct age, but it had

long been the accepted story that Margaret had married a Mr. Williams and had moved

away. My own personal belief is that Margaret removed a few years from her age and

Samuel added a few years to his own. Nothing earth shattering in either case.

Before leaving the subject of age, one of the few documents that placed Samuel

Williams in Gibson County was his military record. The census of 1860 does show that

Samuel, his mother and two sisters, lived in District 16. Whoever transcribed the

census made the mistake of thinking an ink mark to be part of the name John. On close

examination it is clear that the real name is Saml. Samuel was age 14 in the 1860

census. One other document has some bearing on the question of Samuel’s age. The tax

books of 1867 for Gibson County lists Samuel Williams as a tax payer for the first

time. Every male desiring to vote was required to pay a two dollar poll tax. Of

course, the voting age requirement was twenty-one years of age. It has to be assumed

that Samuel would not have paid the tax if he did not intend to vote in the

presidential election of 1868. Therefore, it is probably accurate to say that Samuel

was about to turn 21. The tax books show that Samuel paid the poll tax almost every

year until he became exempt at age 50 in Tennessee.

On April 15, 1867 Samuel H. Williams and Margaret Duren obtained a marriage license

in Gibson County. The clerk that filled out the license undoubtedly gave her name the

French spelling. On the license her name is spelled Margaret Deauran. However, every

other document listing her name, such as a death certificate, the name is spelled

Duren. The marriage ceremony took place on April 17, 1867 and the newlyweds set up

housekeeping near present-day Gadsden, Tennessee that was a part of Gibson County at

the time.

The precise location is difficult to determine. So far, no record of property deeds

have been found for Samuel H. Williams. There are numerous records of trust deeds

entered into by Samuel Williams. The earliest one to date was in 1875 in the newly

created Crockett County. Businessman William Tinder advanced Samuel $150.00 to

purchase supplies and put in a crop of cotton. William Tinder was one of the first

businessmen to establish himself in the new community of Gadsden after the Louisville

and Nashville Railroad was constructed through what later became the town.

Samuel pledged seven acres of cotton he planned to cultivate on land he rented from

Monroe Todd. Any funds remaining after the payment of the $150.00 were paid to

Samuel. Monroe Todd and William Tinder had property to the south of the railroad that

passed through Gadsden.

Ransom W. Williams, our grandfather, was Samuel’s and Margaret’s firstborn. Ransom

was born on June 5, 1868 and was probably named after Samuel’s older brother Ransom

T. Williams. Ransom Williams married Laura Lavenia Davis on November 24, 1887 in

Gibson County. Laura Davis was born on January 13, 1868 in Tennessee. Her mother was

Mary Margaret Smith Davis. The given name of her father has not been found as of this

writing. The best guess is that he died because Mary Margaret Smith Davis married

Frank Elkins about 1878. Laura Davis was living with her mother and stepfather

according to the census of 1880 for Dunklin County, Missouri. The children of Ransom

W. Williams and Laura L. Williams were: Virgie Williams born on May 4, 1889; Truman

Williams born on November 28, 1890; Della Williams born in 1896; Chester Williams

born April 29, 1899; Clarence H. (Rip) Williams(the author’s father) born in 1902;

Lucille Williams born on August 28, 1905; Robert Williams born on September 26, 1909;

and Mary Jane Williams born on September 11, 1913.

Most of Ransom’s and Laura’s marriage was spent trying to make a living from small-

time farming in the late 1880s. A trust deed from the late 1880s signed by Ransom and

his father Samuel, shows that they had put up as security a few acres of cotton and

corn for an advance to put in the crop. They were renting land from E. T. Trusou who

owned land and a nursery north of the present-day Hwy. 45 bypass.

Ransom abandon farming in the early 1900s. In the census of 1910 he was living on

17th Avenue in Humboldt. Ten years later he was still living on 17th and was working

at a sawmill located in Humboldt. According to Ruth Fuell, granddaughter of Ada

Williams Barker, a sister of Ransom, Ransom Williams died at their home. She said

that her grandmother told her that Ransom and his son Robert had been selling apples

door to door.

When they came to Ada Barker’s home, it was to late to return home and they decided

to spend the night. The next morning, November 10, 1925, they found Ransom dead in

his bed. Laura Williams lived on for many years spending time with her many children.

She died on November 26, 1951 at the home of her son Chester Williams in Humboldt.

Ransom Williams was buried in the Old Shiloh Burial Ground north of Humboldt, but the

exact location is forever lost. Laura Williams was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in

Humboldt.

Ruth Fuell, granddaughter of Ada Williams Barker, told me that her grandmother often

referred to Samuel as “Big Daddy.” Not because of his size, but because of his

ability to sire numerous children. After Ransom, Mollie(Mary) Williams was born in

1870; Thomas Alexander Williams on February 25, 1873; Ada M. Williams on June 23,

1875; Anna M. Williams on March 14, 1878; Sammie Mai Williams (female) on April 14,

1881; and Manon J. Williams in 1885. All of the children of Samuel and Margaret

Williams deserve to be treated equally, but the focus of this history in descending

order is Benjamin Williams, Levi Williams, Samuel Williams, Ransom Williams and

finally, Clarence H. (Rip) Williams. Ransom and Clarence will be treated in separate

works.

The second of Samuel and Margaret Williams’ children was born about 1870. No precise

date of birth has been found for Mollie(Mary) Williams. Very little information has

been found about Mollie. On February 27, 1888 Mollie married David Usery in Gibson

County. Three children came from the union. Cleveland Ursery born about 1889; Rosa

Usery was born about 1892; and William Usery was born about 1895. David Usery was

nearly twenty years older than Mollie. He likely died before 1900 because the census

for that year shows Mary and the three children living with Samuel and Margaret. She

is described as a widow in the census.

There is evidence to support the fact that Mollie(Mary) was married a second time to

William “Dock” Wilkerson of Crockett County in the early 1900s. One of the really odd

things about Dock Wilkerson was one of his daughters. His daughter from an earlier

marriage, Bettie Wilkerson, married Elijah C. Kilzer, a son of Jacob B. Kilzer, who

was our maternal great grandfather. More about this in the history of the Kilzer

clan.

The third child of Samuel and Margaret Williams was Thomas Alec Williams born on

February 25, 1874. Thomas Williams married Emma Fisher in Gibson County on August 10,

1898. Most of his life, Thomas worked for a monument company as a person that

polished gravestones to a high luster. Thomas Williams died on June 25, 1928 and Emma

Fisher Williams died on August 10, 1949. Both are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in

Humboldt. Their children included: Charles T. Williams born on June 4, 1889; Ruby Mai

Williams born on January 22, 1901; Ora Dee Williams born on July 28, 1902; Ocie

Williams born on June 29, 1904; Marie Williams born on August 17, 1906; Viola

Williams born on December 7, 1911; and Vada Levenia Williams born on January 15,

1913.

Ada M. Williams was born on June 23, 1875 in Crockett County and was the fourth child

of Samuel and Margaret Williams. She married Alexander H. Barker on December 18,

1890. Ada Williams Barker died on March 10, 1956. Alexander H. Barker died in 1948.

Their children included James Nelson Barker born in May, 1894; Lena M. Barker born in

April, 1897; Carrie L. Barker born in September, 1898; and George A. Barker born in

1902. The fifth child of Samuel and Margaret Williams was Anna M. Williams born on

March 14, 1878. Anna married Allen Sloan of Madison County, Tennessee on February 9,

1897 in Madison County. Allen Sloan was born in Pennsylvania on March 14, 1876 and

died September 17, 1966 in Jackson, Tennessee. Allen worked for one of the railroads

that passed through Jackson as a flagman and switchman. Anna Williams Sloan died on

October 27, 1918 and is buried next to her mother, father, and young daughter in Rose

Hill Cemetery in Humboldt. Their children included: Vance Sloan born in November,

1897; John J. Sloan born in December, 1899; Zula A. Sloan born about 1901; Charles

Sloan born about 1904; James Sloan born about 1908; and Elizabeth Sloan born on July

31, 1910, but died about six months later on January 11, 1911.

Sammie Mai Williams was born on April 14, 1881, and was Samuel and Margaret Williams’

sixth child. Sammie Mai married Abraham (Bud) Fisher on December 18, 1900. Sammie Mai

and Thomas Alec Williams were siblings; also married siblings. Thomas married Emma

Fisher and Sammie Mai married Abraham Fisher. The children of Sammie Mai and Bud

Fisher were: Lena May Fisher born in 1902; Edgar Fisher born in 1903; Annie F. Fisher

born in 1906; Iowa Fisher born in 1908; Earnest Fisher born in 1910; Elsie Fisher

born in 1916; and Lewis Fisher born in 1924.

The seventh and last child of Samuel and Margaret was Manon J. Williams born in

March, 1885 in Gibson County, Tennessee. In the 1910 census for Gibson County Manon

is still single and living with Samuel and Margaret. No further evidence has been

found related to Manon J. Williams as of this writing. District 16 of Gibson County

before 1872 encompassed most of the area between present-day Highway 152 west of

Humboldt to the Haywood County line west of Gadsden. Samuel and Margaret Williams

made the area their home until the mid-1880s. In 1872 the area was placed in the

newly created Crockett County, but it was only a short distance to Humboldt,

especially after the railroad came through the area in the 1860s.

With the help of their children, Samuel and Margaret scratched out a meager living

from the rich soil near present-day Highway 152. Time and again he made trust

agreements, many with A. J. Collinsworth, to put in a crop. Usually it was something

like ten to fifteen acres of cotton and about the same in corn. Life was about the

same after about 1885 when they returned to Gibson County and settled in an area near

the Old Shiloh Burial Ground. As in the past, he made trust agreements, mostly with

the law firm of J. J. R. Adams, in Humboldt. Much of the time he rented land about

where Mag Duffy Road is today.

On September 14, 1910 Margaret Duren Williams died in the Humboldt area. There is a

deed showing that Samuel purchased for $5.00 a plot in Rose Hill Cemetery where

Margaret was buried. Samuel lived on until 1917, living mostly with his daughter Ada

Williams Barker. At least he was living with her when he died in 1917.

Ruth Fuell, granddaughter of Ada Williams Barker, relayed to me the story of his

death as told by her grandmother. There was a family dispute among the Barkers over

land left to them by their parents. Ruth’s grandmother said they had sold their share

to other family members and moved to Pinson, Tennessee. Land there was not

satisfactory and they returned to Gibson County about a year later. Samuel Williams

died at their farm in Pinson in 1917, but no specific date has come to light at the

time of this writing. According to Ruth, the family as having a meal when Samuel had

some kind of food lodged in his throat and strangled to death. He was buried next to

his wife in Rose Hill Cemetery in Humboldt.