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Troy's Genealogue

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Family Histories:

WILLIAMS Family History, Part I

Joseph WILLIAMS¹ (1786-[1837])

1. Joseph WILLIAMS¹ was born on November 5, 1786, probably in Ohio*. He married Rachel (HANNAMAN) about 1818 and had at least 9 children, including one set of fraternal twins:

The 1830 census records Joseph, age 40 to 50 (1780-1790) and his family in Hamilton County, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis. He is listed with a wife, age 30 to 40 (1790-1800), three boys, up to 15 years old, and two girls, up to the age of 10.^{[Cen 1830]}

Joseph WILLIAMS is variously reported to have died either in 1837 in Hamilton County, Indiana, at about the age of 50, or on August 1, 1883 in Glen Elder, Mitchell County, Kansas, just short of two weeks after his son Joseph M.² died. He would have been 96 years old.

Rachel (HANNAMAN) WILLIAMS is said to have died in Glen Elder, Mitchell County, Kansas, indicating she likely died after 1871, putting her at least in her 70s.

Joseph M. WILLIAMS² (1823-1883)

14. Joseph M. WILLIAMS² was born on December 18, 1823 in Noblesville, Hamilton County, Indiana, just northeast of Indianapolis. He married Martha Ann SILVEY, a native of either Noblesville or Rush County, Indiana, on January 14, 1845 in Marion County, Indiana, to the northwest of Indianapolis. They had nine children:

The WILLIAMS started their family in Marion County, where they were enumerated in the 1850 census in Lawrence Township^{[Cen 1850]}, on the eastern outskirts of Indianapolis. By 1860 the family moved northward to Pulaski, Beaver Township, Pulaski County^{[Cen 1860]}.

Civil War Service

Joseph M. WILLIAMS served as a private in Company K of the Indiana 20th Regiment Infantry, "The Fighting 300," during the Civil War. He enlisted at the age of 35 (or perhaps more accurately 37*) for 3 years on July 15, 1861 in Monticello, Indiana, south of Pulaski, and received a $25 advance on his $100 enlistment bounty. The following week, the 20th Indiana mustered in at Lafayette, Indiana on July 22, 1861.

Later that year, Joseph was recorded as sick in his quarters around the November-December timeframe.

The following year, Major General George B. MCCLELLAN launched the first large-scale Union offensive against Virginia known as the "Peninsula Campaign" (March to July 1862). Union forces landed at Fort Monroe (March 17) at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, the narrow stretch between the York and James rivers that leads to Richmond. The Union slowly advanced up the peninsula, fighting battles at Hampton Roads (March), which featured the first battle between ironclad ships (a draw); Yorktown (April to May); and Williamsburg (May 5). Cautious generals on both sides slowed MCCLELLAN's advance and permitted General LEE to fortify Richmond and launch bold counterattacks of limited success, known as the Seven Days Battle (June 25 to July 1), that resulted in President LINCOLN's withdrawing the Union forces in favor of bolstering forces in Northern Virginia.

At the conclusion of the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph was detailed as a driver for the brigade's ambulance corps on July 10, 1862. From there the unit redeployed to Northern Virginia and fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia (August 1862). It was in August that Joseph's eldest son Ira enlisted at perhaps the age of 15 and headed off to battle in Kentucky, Tennessee, and eventually Georgia and the Carolinas.

In the November-December timeframe Joseph was still detached to the brigade's ambulance corps and noted as being in charge of it as an "extra duty."

The following year the 20th Indiana was at Alexandria, Virginia where Joseph had been absent because of illness for a time between May and July, up to and perhaps during the time that the 20th Indiana fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylavania (July 1-3).

At the end of the year, Joseph was granted a furlough home on December 18, 1863. After the new year he was again noted as sick and hospitalized at the U.S. General Hospital in Indianapolis. In March he was temporarily transferred to the "86NYSVV" (perhaps referring to the 86th New York Infantry Regiment?) and transported from Indianapolis to Washington, DC. He was charged $15.26 for transportation -- apparently this had been a discretional assignment.

The 20th Indiana next fought at the Battle of Spotsylvania (May 8-12), then the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia (May 31 to June 12), and the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia (June 1864 to March 1865).

Pvt. Jospeph WILLIAMS' term of 3 year's service concluded in June and he was discharged on July 19, 1864 back home at Indianapolis, and received the balance of his $100 enlistment bounty (less the $15.26 transportation charges). He was annotated as being 38 years of age (probably more accurately 40* years old).

After the Civil War, the WILLIAMS are found in Logansport, Clinton Township, Cass County, Indiana^{[Cen 1870]}, southeast of Pulaski. Later they moved west to Kansas, arriving in Glen Elder, Mitchell County on June 20, 1871. In 1874 a plague of grasshoppers devastated Mitchell County and many of the WILLIAMS family returned east.

Joseph M. WILLIAMS died on Monday, likely July 16, 1883 in Glen Elder, Mitchell County, Kansas, after suffering from "dropsy of the heart" (edema and congestive heart failure). Joseph was 59 years old.

After Joseph's death, Martha moved to Woodland, Yolo County, California with her sons Garrett and Guy.^{[Cen 1900]}

Martha Ann (SILVEY) WILLIAMS, died about May 1902 of tuberculosis. She was buried in Glen Elder, Mitchell County, Kansas.

Robert WILLIAMS (~1828-)

1x. Robert WILLIAMS was born about 1828 in Massachusetts to immigrant parents from England. He married Maria ELLARD, an English immigrant herself, who was born in 1828 and immigrated in 1843. They had at least ten children, six of whom survived beyond 1900. The first two children were born in Missouri, the rest born in California after they migrated west in the early 1850s:

The WILLIAMS are first detected in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 with their first child Charles.^{[Cen 1850]} Probably about 1853 they make their way west to California where they settle in Sacramento, Sacramento County, by 1860. In 1860, Henry WILLIAMS, an apparent younger brother, was enumerated with the family as a laborer.^{[Cen 1860]}

During the 1870s the WILLIAMS moved down into Suisun Township, Solano County, California.^{[Cen 1880]}.

Robert WILLIAMS died sometime before 1900 leaving his widow Maria to live with their son Frank. The extended family also included four apparent cousins: Amos and Earl WILLIAMS, who lived with son Thomas, and Charles and Harvey WILLIAMS, who lived with the neighboring REECE family. These four are sons of Ira T. WILLIAMS.

Henry WILLIAMS (~1832-)

1y. Henry WILLIAMS was born between 1832 and 1833 in Missouri, likely the younger brother of Robert WILLIAMS. In 1860 he is enumerated with Robert's family in Sacramento, Sacramento County, California.

Continue on to Part II