WILLIAMS, Noah

WILLIAMS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 5/31/2021 at 12:10:33

Noah Williams
born in 1840

Noah Williams, one of the representative citizens and early settlers of Ida County, Iowa, came to Ida Grove in 1876 and engaged in business, opening the first bank in the county, known as the Ida County Bank. This was in the old town on the north side and was a private concern. In 1878 he erected a bank building in the new addition, and moved his business to the present town. Under his judicious management the enterprise proved a successful one and he transacted a vast amount of business, requiring three efficient assistants. Here he continued banking until the fall of 1888. He was also interested in a real-estate and loan business. He has handled a large amount of Ida County’s land, and is now the owner of about 7,000 acres. He also owns 1,000 acres of land in Black Hawk County, this State. Since he disposed of his banking interests he has devoted his time entirely to real-estate, long-time loans and stock-raising. He has, indeed, been one of the most active business men of Ida Grove.
Mr. Williams was born in Highland County, Ohio, in the year 1840, and is a son of James and Sarah (Wolf) Williams, of Welsh and English descent. He was reared and educated in his native county, and taught school for several years in Ohio and Illinois. He also handled grain for a time. Soon, however, he began to invest his money in bonds and securities, and in 1875 came to Iowa with a view entering into the banking business at Jefferson, but changed his mind and came on to the west part of the State. He spent about eight years in Illinois. Politically, Mr. Williams is a Republican.
During the war he was a member of Company H, Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel William H. Trimble, and served for a short time only. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of Kane Lodge, No. 377, and having taken all the degrees up to the thirty-second. He is deeply interested in educational matters and since 1888 has been one of the trustees of Cornell College. Mr. Williams is eminently a self-made man. And while he has been busy in accumulating a competency, he has been generous in contributing toward all worthy enterprises of public good. He and his wife are worthy members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Williams was married near Waterloo, Iowa, in 1883, to Miss Louisa J. Cottrell, a native of Troy, New York, and a daughter of Amasa and Rebecca J. Cottrell. They have one child, Noah, Jr., born in 1885.
Source: Biographical History of Crawford, Ida, and Sac Counties, Iowa, 1893, p.503