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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Past & Present History of Wyandot County, Ohio -
Illustrated
Vol. II
Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company - 1913
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JOSEPH ALBERT
WILLIAMS. Through successive stages of progress and
advancement Joseph Albert Williams has worked his way upward
in the banking world until he is today cashier of the Nevada Deposit
Bank, an important position which has come to him in recognition of
merit and of unusual ability as a financier. He was born in
Blooming Grove, Morrow county, Ohio, Nov. 6, 1863, and is a son of
Christie and Amy Ann (Bachman) Williams, the former
born in Millsborough, Richland county, Mar. 24, 1831, and the latter
in Pennsylvania, Aug. 20, 1838. The father, who was a merchant
by occupation, died in Blooming Grove, Dec. 6, 1898, and is survived
by his wife and a daughter, Seppie S., who make their home in
that city.
Joseph A. Williams attended district school
until he was eighteen years of age and then went for one year to the
Nevada high school. After laying aside his books he turned his
attention to teaching and followed this occupation in the district
schools for one year. The banking business had, however,
always attracted him and he was very desirous of making it his life
work. In order to accomplish his end he agreed to work as a
clerk in the Nevada Deposit Bank for one year without pay. His
services, however, proved so valuable that within a few months the
contract was set aside and a lucrative position given to him.
He has since advanced step by step, assuming new responsibilities
every year and proving himself eminently well qualified to discharge
his duties. He once had entire charge of the institution for
two years and he is now cashier. He is regarded as an able,
discriminating and farsighted financier and a great deal of the
success of the institution with which he is connected is due to his
well directed labors. He is a stockholder in the bank and also
in the First National Bank at Upper Sandusky. He is a member
of the American and State Bankers' Association, the Private Bankers'
Association, and stands as a central figure in banking circles of
this part of Ohio having filled responsible positions in the work of
state associations.
On the 1st of January, 1885, Mr. Williams
married Miss Nina Lee Agnew, a daughter of James K. and
Jennie (Bibler) Agnew, of Nevada. The father is a well
known banker and served through two enlistments in the Civil war.
MR. and Mrs. William became the parents of four children, one
of whom died in infancy. The others are Grace Louise,
Jeanette Agnew and Miles Stanley.
Mr. Williams and family are members of the
Methodist church, and fraternally he is connected with the Masonic
order and the Knights of Pythias. He gives his political
allegiance to the republican party and has always been prominent in
public affairs, serving two years as president of the school board
and four as a member of that organization. He has been
treasurer of Antrim township and treasurer of the village of Nevada,
holding the latter office for twelve years, and he was for three
terms a member of the town council, two years of which time he
served as president. Mr. Williams also a notary public,
and as such is widely known having very recently served in this
capacity under commissions from the states of Colorado, Kansas and
Pennsylvania. His interest in public affairs is of a most
practical character, manifest by active cooperation in measures
calculated to promote the pubic good. He is not only one of
the distinctly successful men of the community but is also the
possessor of a forceful character which makes him a leading figure
in community affairs as well as in business circles.
~ Page 114 - Source: Past & Present History of Wyandot County, Ohio -
Illustrated -
Vol. II -
Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company - 1913 |
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Volney E. Williams |
VOLNEY
E. WILLIAMS is classed among the important landowners of Pitt
township, owning and operating three hundred acres of land, and he
is also well known as a breeder of high-grade racing horses.
He has spent his entire life in Pitt township and no man of this
section of the state is more widely and favorably known. His
birth occurred on Jan. 2, 1850, his parents being Benjamin and
Elizabeth (Hitchcock) Williams, natives of New York state, where
the father was born on the 17th of September, 1818, and the mother
in February, 1817. Benjamin Williams was a farmer by
occupation and spent the later years of his life upon his property
in Pitt township, where he died in 1911, having survived his wife
for a number of years, her death having occurred Feb. 20, 1900.
He was one of the earliest settlers in Wyandot county and operated a
saw and gristmill for the Indians in the early days and laid the
foundations of his future prosperity in his trade relations with the
savages. He and his wife became the parents of six children:
Mary J., Anna, Volney E., John E., Franklin B. and one child
who died in infancy.
Volney E. Williams attended district school in
Pitt township and high school in Upper Sandusky, leaving the latter
institution at the age of twenty in order to assist his father with
the work of the farm. He left the homestead in 1881 in order
to begin his independent agricultural career. That he has met
with success in the years which have come and gone is indicated by
the fact that he is today the owner of three hundred acres of fine
land on sections 15 and 16, Pitt township. On his place stand
a fine residence and substantial barns and outbuildings for the
shelter of grain and stock. Mr. Williams follows the
most modern methods in carrying on his work and each year gathers
abundant harvests of all kinds of farm produce as a reward for the
care and labor he bestows upon his fields. He is also
extensively interested in stock[-raising, owning twenty horses,
three hundred sheep, seventy-five hogs and twelve head of cattle.
Of his high-grade racing horses, of the breeding of which he has
made a specialty since the beginning of his active career, "Bay
Dick" was the first. He bought him for thirty-five hundred
dollars and subsequently sold him to William H. Vanderbilt, in
1882, for seven thousand dollars. Another famous horse
"Ambassador" he sold to Brown Stockbridge at Kalamazoo, Michigan,
for the high sum of eighteen thousand dollars, these figures being
indicative of the quality of his horses.
On the 20th of December, 1881, in Mifflin township,
Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Miss Angenette Straw,
a daughter of Joel and Mary (Swaysze) Straw, the former a
prominent farmer in that section. HE died in 1867, at the age
of fifty-eight, and was survived by his wife until 1898, her death
occurring when she was eighty-eight years of age. Mr. and
Mrs. Williams became the parents of two sons, Harry S.
and Robert W.
Mr. Williams gives his allegiance to the democratic
party and his interest in the cause of education is indicated by the
able and effective work which he did during his term of service as a
member of the school board. Having resided in this township
during his entire life, covering a period of sixty-three years, he
is well and favorably known here and is widely recognized as a
prosperous and progressive business man as well as an upright and
honorable citizen.
~ Page 170 - Source: Past & Present History of Wyandot County, Ohio -
Illustrated -
Vol. II -
Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company - 1913 |
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