The Biographical Annals of Ohio - 1902 - 1904 - 1905 - 1906 - 1907 - 1909
A Handbook of the Government and Institution of the State of Ohio.
by A. P. SANDLES, Clerk of the Senate
E. W. DOTY, Clerk House of Representatives
77th General Assembly

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JAMES M. WILLIAMS, of Cleveland.  President Pro Tem. of the Senate. Was born in Plainfield, Coshocton County, Ohio, July 22, 1850.  His father Heslip Williams a leading physician of Coshocton County, was a native of Ohio, and a member of the House of Representatives of this State in 1845 and 1846, and of the Senate in 1854 and 1855.  His grandfather, Levi Williams, was a native of Staunton, Virginia.  He came to this State with General Way's army at the time of the establishment of the Greenville treaty line.  He was a captain in the service, and on their march West the army encamped where the public square of Cleveland is now located.  His great-grandfather, David Williams, and his great-great-grandfather, Richard Williams were both in the Colonial Army during the War of the Revolution, and were in General Washington's army at the surrender of Yorktown.  His ancestors on the paternal side came originally from England, settling in Virginia.  His mother, Charlotte Miskimen was also a native of Ohio.  Her father, James Williams' education was obtained in the common schools of his native county, at the Newcomerstown, Ohio, high school, and at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in the class of 1873.  He studied law in the office of Judge J. C. Pomerene, of Coshocton until 1888, when he removed to Cleveland.  He enlisted as a private soldier in Company C, 3rd United States Cavalry, during the late Civil War, when he was only thirteen years old, and served in campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.  In 1883, Mr. Williams edited the Revised Statutes of Ohio, in three volumes, which was afterward adopted by the General Assembly and furnished to the judiciary and all other State and County officers.  In 1885, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of this State, as a Democrat, serving for two years.  While in the Legislature he was a member of the Committees on Judiciary, Revision of the Laws, and Public Works, and was chairman of the special committee which prepared a code of parliamentary law for the Ohio House of Representatives.  He drafted the statute passed in 1885, providing for the organization and jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts of the State, and the constitutional amendment adopted in the same year changing the time of holding the State elections form October to November; also the proposed constitutional amendments submitted in 1889, providing for biennial elections and for single legislative districts.  He is the author of the laws, passed in 1887, defining the rights and liabilities or husband and wife; how a married person may sue and be sued in courts of record; and exempting every honorably discharged soldier from the two days' labor, then required, on the public highways.  Mr. Williams is well known as a practitioner before the Supreme Court of Ohio.  He has appeared frequently before that court in causes involving important constitutional questions.  His arguments have always been characterized by clear and forcible statement, searching analysis, and great argumentative power.  In the notable case of Cope vs. Foraker, governor, the issue was the adoption or rejection of the biennial elections amendment to the Constitution; and the plaintiff applied for a writ of mandamus of compel the governor to declare by proclamation the amendment adopted, because it received a majority of the votes cast directly on the question, though not a majority of all the votes cast at the election.  The utmost interest was felt in the decision, and few abler and more ingenious arguments were ever made before the Supreme Court of Ohio than that of Mr. Williams in behalf of the adoption of the amendment.  Equal praise was elicited by his argument before that court in the application for a mandamus in State vs. Sawyer, sheriff of Cuyahoga County.  The points made by Mr. Williams, in a masterly argument, were sustained, and the unanimous decision of the court was, that proclamation must issue, and four judges of the Common Pleas Court be elected for Cuyahoga County, with the other county officials, in November, 1889, instead of 1890.      He was a nominee of his party for Judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1888 and 1894, but was not elected.  He was chosen at the November election, 1905, one of the Senators from the Cleveland District by a majority of 10,002, and on the organization of the General Assembly, he was chosen President pro tem, of the Senate.      Besides his duties as President pro tem, of the Senate, he is chairman of the Committees on Commercial Corporations and Rules, and is also a member of the Committees on Judiciary, Taxation, County Affairs and Fees and Salaries.      Mr. Williams was married in 1879 to Miss Mary S. Brockway only daughter of Hon. Charles B. Brockwayof Ripley, Chautauqua County, New York, by which union he has one child, a daughter, born in 1882.  Mrs. Williams died in 1897.  His home is at 2127 East 100th St., Cleveland. Source:  The Biographical Annals of Ohio, 1906-1907-1908 - Compiled 1904 by A. P. Sandles, Clerk of the Senate, E. W. Doty, Clerk House of Representatives, 77th General Assembly - Page 350