ISAAC WILLIAMS FIGHTING COMRADE OF CROCKETT, HOUSTON

(Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of four articles written from information gained in interviews with Ray Williams, rural Mitchell resident, who can trace his pots to Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., for whom the town of Williams in Lawrence County was named. Transcript of articles as they appeared in the Times-Mail newspaper at Bedford, Indiana March of 1983.)  Although he was born in the hills of Arkansas, Ray Williams, R. 2, Mitchell, proudly traces his roots back to Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., -a military hero for whom the own of Williams in Lawrence County was named.

By WANDA G. WILLIAMS

Sunday Herald-Times

March 27, 1983

UNTIL ABOUT 1880, the little town on White River had been called Greenville, named for the Green brothers, who built the first houses there and set up a sawmill.  But when the settlement wanted a post office, it was learned that there was already a Greenville in the state and another name had to be established before the post office could be acquired.

The town was named Williams because the Williams family was among early settlers and owned vast stretches of farmland along the river stretching nearly to Shoals. A star route was established and the mail was carried from Bedford.

Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., had received such glowing reports from Indiana from his Uncle William, a roving Quaker preacher that he decided to look the country over himself. lie came up from Tennessee after the harvest of 1815, a year after returning home from the Creek Indian War, in which lie commanded the East Tennessee Militia and two other fighting units.

ARRIVING BEFORE the land sales opened up, he was able to file on choice White River agricultural land. He made arrangements with a builder by the name of Cooke to erect a cabin for him, so that his family on arrival the following year would find shelter waiting. Isaac later join­ed with the first settlers in a Memorial to Congress, re­questing preferential treatment in the land sales.

The families of Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr. and his sister, Rachel Adamson made the trek from the French Broad River near Knoxville to the White River in the spring of 1817.

Their wagons ferried the Ohio at New Albany and they arrived in time to get in a short crop to tide them over the winter. Capt. Isaac claimed later that the actual cash outlay for the move was $65. With an arsenal of squirrel guns and shotguns, which Capt. Isaac brought along, the family had no worries about meat, for the wild game was abundant and the boys were crack shots, according to the Williams family history; published in 1963.

THEIR FIRST-BORN son, Laban, died at the age of 13 in east Tennessee. Capt. Isaac and Amelia Gibson Williams brought seven young ones on the 1817 trek to In­diana, the youngest being Andrew Jackson Williams, born in 1814, and named for the famous general who had com­manded Williams and other American soldiers against the British in the War of 1812. Five more were born in Indiana.

ISAAC WILLIAMS

The Williams were good farmers, and in a few years were leading the township in agricultural pursuits. In 1884, the editor of Goodspeed's History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties wrote: "No taken more active interest in the development of the resources of both county and township than the Williams family. There is in the southwest part of Indian Creek Township along the river what is known as the Williams settlement, and it includes some of the finest farms and most enterprising farmers in the county.  It extends along both sides of White River and embraces a considerable portion of Spice Valley Township."

WHEN LAWRENCE County was organized in 1818, Palestine was laid out for the county seat. Capt. Isaac Williams was an original lot holder. But the area was full of swamps and mosquitoes. Malaria became such a hazard that the new Hoosiers refused to live in Palestine.

In 1825 a new county seat town was established at Bedford. Palestine was abandoned. Lot holders were granted lots of equal value in Bedford on payment of the registration fee. For $450 Capt. Williams secured an excellent site. The city library was later built on part of his property, and still later, a great-granddaughter, Roxie Hatfield, lived on part of the purchase.

The family history traces the Williamsons’ from Wales America in 1690. Quakers, they settled in Pennsylvania then migrated to Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina Tennessee and Indiana.

 RECORDS INDICATE that Capt. Williams organize and commanded three different companies under Major General Andrew Jackson. Included were—The Mounted Riflemen (Sept. 24, 1813-Dec. 25, 1813) and the East Tennessee Militia (Jan. 10, 1814-May, 1814), both of which saw service against the Creek Indian nation; and The: Separate Battalion of Mounted Gunmen (Sept. 28, 181 March 27, 1815), which played a prominent part in the battle of New Orleans.

Capt. Williams was a fighting comrade of two other famous frontiersmen in the Creek Indian War — Davie Crockett and Sam Houston. Crockett was one of the 60-da volunteers, who came to Old Hickory's aid in Dec., 181. Sam Houston, an ensign of the 38th U.S. Infantry, played conspicuous role in the Battle of the Horseshoe, March 2- 1814.

Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., died Feb. 13, 1856, at the age of 76. His funeral was conducted at the Bedford Ne, School Presbyterian Church on February 14 by a famous Campbellite preacher, Elder James M. Mathes.

Capt. Williams is buried at Old Union Cemetery rep Fayetteville, near his first wife, Amelia Gibson William who died July 2, 1841, at the age of 55, and his third wife Rebecca Ribelin Williams, who died March 23, .1857, at the age of 60. His second wife, Lucy Dye, 43, died August  2. 1844, and is buried at Ferguson Cemetery.

(Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of four articles written from information gained in interviews with Ray Williams, rural Mitchell resident, who can trace his pots to Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., for whom the town of Williams in Lawrence County was named.) 

George William’s life filled with adventure

By WANDA G. WILLIAMS

Capt. Isaac Williams' great-grandson, George '.Williams, the son of Lewis R. and the grandson of Garrett G., was like his great-grandfather in his dreams of greener pastures and his love for guns.

At the age of 16, he left home and migrated west with two old men in a wagon, living first in Missouri and then in Kansas, and finally in Arkansas. His adventures as a young man, as related to his .son, Ray Williams, R. 2, Mitchell, included working ,as a cowboy, driving a stagecoach, and confrontations with hold-up men, Indians, and a horse thief, to name a few.

One tale Ray recalls was about four tough-looking, bearded men who boarded George's stage one af­ternoon, causing him to wonder if they would hold 'him up before lie got to the next stop, as had hap­pened to other drivers.  To his surprise, just before dark, three or four 'armed men stepped out of the bushes beside the road and ordered him to "halt, and get your hands in the air."  Suddenly, the doors of the stage burst open and the U. S. deputy marshals outside had a shoot out with the outlaws while George sat on the driver's seat with his hands in the air. One of his horses, one deputy marshal and two or three outlaws were killed in the hail of bullets, but George escaped to finish the run and the outlaw gang had been wiped out, just like in a western movie.

Shortly after Gen. George Custer's last stand at .the battle of the Little Big Horn, young Williams and an old cowboy were camped one night on the plains 'of northwest Kansas. They were awakened by a crackling fire that had encircled them. Suspecting Indians were on the other side waiting for them to ride out through the encircling flames; they set a backfire, waited for the two fires to meet and bum themselves out, then mounted their horses and rode out on the Indians.

In the gunfire that followed, three Indians fell, George later told his son, Ray, and he did not know if he had shot one of them or if the old man had shot all three.

Ray laughs when he recalls a tale his father told him about nearly being hung for a horse thief in northwest Kansas when he was a young man.

He recalled meeting a man on the road, stopping to talk and ending up swapping horses with him. George was just about ready to change his saddle to the other man's horse when a group of men rode over a hill and "threw suns on them."   After a few minutes of questioning the two, George was ordered to re-saddle his horse and ride off and not look back. He was informed that the man was a horse thief and the horse George was about to trade for had been stolen. Knowing that they hung horse thieves, George took their advice and rode off without looking back.

Another incident Ray recalls that his father told him about took place when George was driving a. freight wagon from Lead Hill to Springfield, Mo., a 12 to 14 day round trip. When the group of four or five wagons crossed a little stream one day they bought some fish from some fishermen and could hardly wait to get them in the frying pan over the open fire that night.  They did not realize the danger the pan of fish could create for them, however. A half dozen screaming panthers circled the camp, apparently hungry for the fish being fried. A guard was placed on the horses and the men prepared for a sleepless night with the circling panthers' screams ringing out.   But George had his eight-gauge muzzle loader, and a pair of gleaming eyes appeared in the light of the campfire, he fired, a loud scream was heard and the animals disappeared, leaving behind a trail of blood that was found the next morning.

George Williams was not only an adventurer, but a prankster, Ray laughs, as he recalls one episode from his father's younger days. It was at a Missouri camp meeting revival, where an arbor had been built up and covered with dry leaves for protection against the elements. After hearing an old man pray each night that the Lord would "come down and stick one foot through the, arbor," George and a friend caught a "possum and threw it through the dry leaves on top of the arbor just as the prayer reached the appropriate spot, "and the people scattered in all directions."

An avid hunter, whose wanderlust took him where the game was plentiful, George settled down somewhat after he met and married a young In­diana girl, Sarah Elizabeth McBride, who had come west to Kansas in a wagon train with her family from their home at Dover Hill, between Shoals and Williams.

The seven or eight wagons took six weeks to roll to Gerard, Kansas, one time crossing 16 sections of land without seeing a house. Ray remembers his mother telling of seeing lines of trees along the rivers and "prairie grass waist high."

(Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of four articles written from information gained in interviews with Ray Williams, rural Mitchell resident, who can trace his pots to Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., for whom the town of Williams in Lawrence County was named.) 

Ray William’s love for guns inherited from Isaac Williams

By WANDA G. WILLIAMS

In the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, where Wiley Raymond "Ray" Williams was born April 12, 1905, the youngest child of George and Sarah Elizabeth McBride Williams, he was known as "Jake" the first few years of his life. His nickname was later changed to "Big Horn," and he is still called that when he returns to Arkansas Like his father, Ray inherited a love for guns which could be traced back through he generations to his great-great grandfather, Capt. Isaac Williams Jr., who paned his private arsenal to the government in the War of 1812 and served as Commander of the East Tennessee Militia and two other units.

Mother let out a scream, 'don't shoot at the jar, I got a rose cutting under that jar that I’m trying to get started.”  Abby said, “he won’t be able to hit it.”  I not only busted the jar, but cut the rose stem in two. That got Abbey in bad and me just a little bit," he chuckled. .

Not long after that, he was shooting a .16 gauge at targets drawn on logs and hitting the bulls eye. By the time he was eight years old, he had killed his first game with a .10 gauge shotgun.

One of his greatest thrills as a child came when his brothers, Frank, Abbey and Lee, returned from the wheat harvest in Kansas and Lee brought him a small 22 caliber pistol. "I wasn't afraid of anything anymore,  even the wildcats that I had feared when I went to check my traps," he smiled.  "I'm still that way after 760 years. Give me a gun and I won't back up an inch from a grizzly bear, but, otherwise, I get a little shaky occasionally,' he laughed.

Boyhood memories bring back tales that Williams tells of the hunting, fishing and fights he engaged in with his best friend, Jess Westmoreland, the son of a Civil War soldier. Jess still lives in Oklahoma and Ray visited him there not too many years ago.

"There was a neighbor family by the name of Sutton that had two boys, and there was a girl for each of the Williams boys, with a spare. We had a lot of fun Playing together, and me and one of the boys had several fights at school," Ray recalled.

Ai the age of six, Ray started to school in a one-room school with 24 pupils, but he doesn't remember learning much the first year. "The teacher got homesick and left after only three months of school." He laughingly recalls getting three whippings in two days from the teacher.

"I ran wild in those mountains a good many years. When I was nine or 10 years old, Dad and I went to Harrison, with some others, but there were too many cars and it wasn't safe to be there.

Shortly after Dad's step-mother died in 1919, we moved to a farm at Lick Branch, four miles out of Alpena. I didn't like it, as it was too thickly settled with houses in all directions. I couldn't get out and holler without disturbing someone.
                         RAY WILLIAMS

"I got into the Hilltop Mission School and stayed awhile, then got a bad cough, I guess it was whooping cough. I quit and went back to Lick Branch for one or two terms. It was a pretty good school and I made friends with the Ledbetter boys."

A religious woman, Sarah McBride Williams organized a Sunday School in an old abandoned log house on a hilltop, and it was not unusual for 150 people to attend, Ray recalls.

(Editor's Note: This is the last in a series of four articles written from information gained in interviews with Ray Williams, rural Mitchell resident, who can trace his pots to Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr., for whom the town of Williams in Lawrence County was named.) 

Ray Williams enjoys spinning

By WANDA G. WILLIAMS

When he was 26 or 28 years old, Ray Williams, who had been born and reared in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, decided to migrate to Indiana, the ancestral home of his great-great grandfather, Capt. Isaac Williams, Jr.

He visited for the first time the town of Williams on White River, named for his ancestors, and saw the 30-room brick house built by his great uncle, Bart Williams, the home of his great-great-grandfather, Isaac, and the home of his grand­father, Lewis R. Williams, on Ind. 450 between Shoals and Williams:

A bachelor, Ray decided to stay in the Hoosier state for awhile, and Went to work on the farm of his father's brother, Laban Williams, west of Huron on White River, between Clark's Ferry and Chase Riffle. Laban and his brother, Abbey.

From farming, Ray entered the service station business in Bedford, "went broke," and later  worked at a service station owned by Irvin Burton, at Four-Points in Mitchell. He returned to farm work, working for Grant Toliver and Audie Carter in the Orleans area.

His love for guns and his ability to handle them was an asset when he applied for the job of Mitchell policeman, to replace Dan Hardman, who was resigning from the force. Mayor Lyle Root hired him, with $20of his monthly salary paid by the town and $80 paid by downtown merchants.

"I started out as a door rattler. I'd check the doors of the business places, and when I found one open or unlocked, I'd go inside and write a note so the owner would know it had been left unlocked, then I'd go out and lock the door behind me," he recalled.

After six years he was appointed police chief on the three-man department, which had two men at night and one in the daytime. He served in that capacity until his resignation June 30, 1946.

He served under mayors Lyle Root, Frank Pierce, John Walker and John* Taylor. In 1948, he went to work as a deputy sheriff and served in that capacity for 15 months.

Several times in his years of service as a lawman, Williams depended upon his trusty shotgun when he got in a tight spot, including the apprehension of a few killers.

Most of the police work was routine, however, with a lot of drunks picked up and jailed, especially on payday night when the WPA men came into town. "The people who got drunk and got into trouble were the ones who could least afford it,' Williams recalled, shaking his head.

Since the depression years, Williams has seen Mitchell grow and increase in employment op­portunities. When he •was on the police force, Lehigh was the biggest industry in town, Carpenter Body Works was employing about 40-50 men to make school buses, and the old Reliance sewing factory offered employment for women.

In addition to serving as a lawman and doing farm work, Williams was night watchman for awhile at Holmes' Orchard, worked on the water department in Mitchell and served as waterworks superin­tendent in Orleans for a time. His final place of employment was Carpenter Body Works, where he worked almost 20 years before retiring in 1971.

Through the efforts of mutual friends, Williams met Diana Thomas, widow of Gordon Thomas, and after a whirlwind courtship of three months, they were married May 327, 1960. Ironically, both their first marriages had ended after 27 years with the death of their part­ners. His first wife, Ola Hinsley Nixon, is buried in Arkansas.

Speaking of the happiness he and Diana have found in their marriage, Williams said, “ And we only wanted  (remainder of article not available at time of this transcription.)

********************

Transcript of articles as they appeared in the Times-Mail newspaper at Bedford, Indiana March of 1983.