Edgar R. Williams

As printed in 1914

EDGAR R. WILLIAMS.

Edgar R. Williams, one of the former owners and editors of the Ogden Reporter, published at Ogden, Boone county, was born south of this city on the isth of June, 1873, his parents being John T. S. and Jane (Thomas) Williams, the former a native of Canada and the latter of Wisconsin. They became pioneer residents of Boone county as is indicated in the sketch of John T. S. Williams on another page of this volume.

Edgar R. Williams was reared and educated in this county and is indebted to the public-school system for the opportunities which he received for intellectual progress. During the periods of vacation he worked in the fields and early became familiar with all the duties of farm life, continuing to assist his father in the various branches of farm work until he reached the age of twenty years. Thinking to find other pursuits more congenial than the farm work, he began learning the printer's trade in the office which he later owned. He was there employed for about eight years and mastered the business in principle and detail. He was afterward employed in various other places and in 1904 purchased the Ogden Reporter, while later he admitted Mr. Carl Lund to a partnership. They operated the plant continuously for a number of years and made the Reporter an interesting paper, with a good patronage in both the circulation and advertising departments. They followed the methods of modern journalism, and the success of the paper was a natural result of their close application and unfaltering energy.

Mr. Williams was married in September, 1902, to Miss Elizabeth Thompson, a daughter of William and Tillie (Latimer) Thompson, residents of Greene county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Williams had one child, Thelma, who died in 1903 in infancy. The family residence is a comfortable home at the corner of First and Walnut streets in Ogden. Mr. Williams belongs to the Knights of Pythias lodge in Boone, and his wife is a member of the Methodist church. His political support is given to the republican party, and he made his paper one of the organs in its support, but he does not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon other interests and duties. He has become widely known through his activity in the newspaper field and enjoys the confidence and good will of the general public.

As printed in History of Boone County, Iowa (1914). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.