Bio: Williams, George L. (1881)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Williams, West, Turner

----Source: History of Northern Wis. (Wood County, Wis.) 1881, page 1207

GEORGE L. WILLIAMS, was born at Homer, Cortland Co., N. Y., May 24, 1848. His father was from Connecticut and his mother from England. His father moved to Whitewater, Wis., in 1855, where he died the same year. George continued to make his home with his mother until 1868, meanwhile he attended Milton Academy in the Spring and Fall of 1865, and taught his first school in the Fall of 1867. He entered Appleton University in 1868, and was graduated in the scientific course in 1873. He was mail route agent between Appleton and Manitowoc on the M., L. S. & W. R. R. for three and one-half years, and studied law with H. G. & W. F. Turner, of Manitowoc, and admitted to the Bar in 1875. He came to Grand Rapids in May, 1877, and was elected County Superintendent of Schools for Wood County, in November, 1877, and served one term; then resumed his practice of law, and was elected District Attorney for Wood County in the Fall of 1880. He was married, October, 1873, to Miss Edith J. West, daughter of Edward West, of Appleton, who is said to have taught the first public school in the State of Wis., at Milwaukee. Mr. W. is also City Superintendent of Schools at the present time. Mr. W. had brain fever when he was four years old, at which time the muscles of his lower limbs became paralyzed, from which he has never but partially recovered, necessitating a life-long struggle with this physical infirmity.