Bio: Williams, George (History - 1826)

Contact: Janet Schwarze

Surnames: WILLIAMS MARSH MORSE

----Source: Biographical History of Clark and Jackson Counties, WI," Lewis pub. co., 1891 pg. 369:

GEORGE WILLIAMS, a prominent farmer of Clark County, was born in Ontario County, New York, in December, 1826, one of a family of ten children, only four of whom grew up,--one daughter and three sons. The family came from Wales many years ago, in three branches, one of which settled in New Jersey, one in Massachusetts and one in New York State. His father was a representative man, of sterling worth and good education for the times in which he lived. From youth to the age of forty years he was a teacher and he was seventy years of age when with his wife he accompanied his three sons to this State, settling in this county. Here he lived to the remarkable age of 100 years, one month and fourteen days. His wife survived him three or four years, and died at the age of seventy-nine years. The Williams family came to Clark County in June, 1855, and, excepting the families of Thomas Wage, Sr., and Levi Marsh, were the first settlers within a radius of eight miles. To reach this point they had to make a journey of seventy miles, from Sparta, with their own team, through an unbroken region. During the first several years of their residence here, especially the third and fourth years, they had to endure many hardships. Their present comfortable home is a magical contrast to the desolate, dreary and monotonous wilderness of those primitive times. Mr. Williams' two brothers, Isaac and Ella, have married and settled, the former in Wood County, just over the line from Clark, and the latter within the same section as that upon which he himself lives.

Mr. Williams married Mary Morse, who was of a family from Lewis County, New York, and they have had nine children, six of whom are living, namely Anna, Amelia, Willis, Jane, Salina, and Henry. The four daughters are married and two are settled in Clark County, one in Wood County and the other in the State of Washington. The two sons, yet unmarried, remain upon the homestead with their parents, content to remain with, and lighten the cares and burdens of, parents now passing down the decline of life, respected by all.

WILLIAMS MARSH MORSE