Cephas Williams

WILLIAMS, KRITZMAN, KLINDT, LEWIS, HAYWOOD, ROCKWOOD

Posted By: Debbie Miller (email)
Date: 3/25/2003 at 14:55:10

Cephas Williams, was born at Iowaville, Ia (near Selma), July 23,1868, the oldest child of L.H. and Mary Williams and passed away at a hospital in Phoenix, Az, June 5,1957 at the age of 88 years, 10 months, and 12 days. He had been in poor health the last two years, but critically ill only two days preceding his death. He was the oldest child in a family of eight children, all of whom have passed on except his two youngest brothers, Owen of Ottumwa and Henry of Farmington. As a young man he went to work in Ottumwa with the Morrell Packing Company, working at the butcher trade until he married Carrie Kritzman, of Keosauqua on Feb. 26,1894. Soon afterward they settled on a farm west of Keosauqua, remaining there until March 1915 when they moved to Keosauqua, living there until January of 1917, when they moved to Mesa, Az. They bought a ranch near Mesa and he again resumed his butcher trade following it until his retirement more than 20 years later.Following the death of his wife in 1936, he made his home with his daughter Edna and family on the ranch they bought when they came to Arizonia. He is survived by seven children, Sydnor of Tempe, Az, and Waldo and Howard of Mesa, Mrs. Maude Rockwood of North Hollywood,Ca, Mrs. Rose Lewis of Phoenix, and Mrs. Edna Klindt and Mrs. Vada Haywood of Mesa. Also surviving are 21 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held in Mesa on June 8. Pallbearers were his grandsons. Burial was in the Mesa City Cemetery at the family plot.