Israel Williams

As printed in 1894

ISRAEL WILLIAMS. In the brief and imperfect outline we are able to give in this sketch of the personal history of one of the oldest living representatives of the Butler County Bar, we can do little more than merely glance at some of the principal events with which he has been connected during his long and useful career as an attorney, patriot and citizen. Rising through his own unaided efforts from a humble position in youth to a place of honor and distinction among men, his life and character present a useful lesson to the youth of this generation, and add another striking illustration of the power and force of determined purpose and perseverance.

This influential citizen of Hamilton is one of Ohio’s native-born sons. His birth occurred in Montgomery County, August 24, 1827, to the union of William and Mary (Marker) Williams, the former a native of Bedford County, Pa., and the latter a native of Frederick County, Md. In the family there were three sons and six daughters. The sons, Israel, George (of Hamilton, Ohio) and Raymond (of Whitley County, Ind. still survive, but only one daughter is living, Mary Ann, wife of Samuel Briggs, of St. Paris, Champaign County, Ohio.

In the year 1816 William Williams came to Ohio and settled in Montgomery County. When about thirty years of age he removed from there to Champaign County, which he made his home until his death in 1872, at the age of sixty-nine years. Throughout his entire life he engaged in farming, and in addition thereto occasional held public positions. His wife survived him about three years, dying in 1875, when sixty-eight years old. They were a worthy couple and devoted members of the English Lutheran Church.

Israel Williams, Sr., our subject’s grandfather, was born in York County, Pa., of Welsh parentage, and by trade was a blacksmith. In 1816, accompanied by his family, he boarded a flatboat at Johnstown, Pa., and came down the Ohio to Cincinnati, from which place he proceeded to Montgomery County and afterwards to Champaign County. Establishing his permanent home there, he continued to reside in that county until his death, at the age of eighty-four. He and his wife reared a family of ten children. The maternal grandfather of our subject, George Marker, was born in Maryland and was a wagon-maker by trade, though he also engaged in farming for many years. About 1825 he came to Ohio and became a resident of Montgomery County, where he died, aged seventy-seven ears.

The most of his time until eighteen years of age our subject spent in Champaign County, after which he practically made Montgomery County his home until he came to Hamilton in 1856. After gaining the rudiments of his education in the district schools he entered Granville College (now known as Denison University and later was a student in Farmers’ (now Belmont) College, from which institution he was graduated in 1853. He then began the study of law in the office of Gunckel & Strong, of Dayton, and conducted his reading under their tutelage until March, 1855, when he was admitted to the Bar at Cincinnati, upon the completion of a course of study and graduation from the Cincinnati Law School. From Ohio he went to Washington, D. C., where he was employed seven months, and later went to Des Moines, Iowa, remaining in that city six months. In 1856 he came to Hamilton, and since then has occupied the same office, giving his attention to the management of his large practice.

Mr. Williams was a Democrat previous to the late war, but with the firing on Ft. Sumter his party adhesion was changed and he gave a hearty support to the government of Abraham Lincoln. To strengthen the Union cause he purchased, in conjunction with Frederick Egry, the Telegraph, the Democratic organ of this county, October 24, 1861, and shortly afterwards merged the Hamilton Intelligencer with it, which paper they also purchased. During their management the paper gave no uncertain sound. It upheld the Union and the prosecution of the war. On the 12th of March, 1863, Mr, Williams disposed of his interest in the newspaper enterprise to Capt. John C. Lewis. Through the entire period he was a member and Secretary of the Military Committee of Butler County. His associate members on the committee were the Hon. N. C. McFarland, Judge Alexander F. Hume, May. John M. Millikin and Henry Beardsley. The duties of the committee were varied and very useful. In all matters of recruiting soldiers and selecting officers they were in intimate relation with Governors Tod and Brough, and the committee was no less useful in providing measures for support of the families of the patriotic soldiers in the military service from this county. His support has ever been given to measures tending to the development of the place and the enhancement of its prosperity. He was largely instrumental in securing the present cheap gas supply for Hamilton and in effecting the city ownership of the water and gas works, which was accomplished about 1879.

On the 9th of January, 1860, Mr. Williams was united in marriage with Miss Maggie, daughter of John and Mary (Norman) Wakefield, natives respectively of Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Mrs. Williams was born May 27, 1838, and is well known in the social circles of this place, and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. Of the live children born to Mr. and Mrs. Williams, we note the following: JCel la died in infancy; Mary married Frank G. Warden, of Newark, Ohio; Stella is the wife of J. Volney Gilbert, of Muncie, Ind.; Nina is the wife of Thomas L. Tincher, now a resident of Asheville, N. C.; and John W., the only son, is in the employ of the E. B. Rodgers Furniture Company, of Hamilton.

Nature has bestowed upon Mr. Williams a vigorous mind. He has been quick to see an emergency, and equally quick to devise means of overcoming it. His energy is one of the most noticeable traits of his character. His habits of prompt decision have made him a man of earnest and decided convictions, and both by nature and training he is admirably adapted for the successful discharge of every duty that his profession may bring to him.

As printed in Memorial record of Butler County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of representative citizens of the county together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States (1894). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.