Williams, Thomas E.

WILLIAMS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 7/3/2021 at 11:51:56

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.643

THOMAS E. WILLIAMS
For over forty years Thomas E. Williams has been a resident of Warren County, Iowa, and has been actively identified with its agricultural interests, now owning and operating a well improved farm of eighty acres on section 34, Squaw Township. His early home was on the other side of the Atlantic, for he was born in Wales on the 18th of September 1837, his parents being Thomas and Hannah (Jones) Williams, who were farming people and spent their entire lives in that country. The father served under the Duke of Wellington in the British Army and participated in the Battle of Waterloo. He lived to be over seventy years of age but his wife died when in the forties. She was a nurse by vocation. In their family were seven children, but with the exception of our subject, none came to America.
Thomas F. Williams spent the days of his boyhood and youth in his native land and early became familiar with agricultural pursuits, being manager of stock farm in Wales for a few years before his emigration to the United States. It was in 1859, when about twenty-two years of age, that he crossed the broad Atlantic and became a resident of Des Moines, Iowa, where he had charge of the gardens and trees for Captain West [Captain Francis R. West, banker] for whom he continued to work at different times for several years. Subsequently he operated and rented farms in Polk and Warren Counties for a number of years and then purchased his present place of eighty acres in Squaw Township from Barlow Granger, who was probably the first lawyer of Warren County. Upon this farm Mr. Williams has now made his home since March 1889, and he has erected good buildings thereon and made many other useful and valuable improvements which add greatly to its appearance.
Before leaving Wales he married Miss Elizabeth Winslow, a native of that country, who died in Des Moines in 1859, only three months after their arrival. By that union there were three children who were quite young at the time of the mother’s death. The oldest, Mary Ann, and the youngest, Harry, were both reared by Mrs. Tomlin, of Polk County. The former is now the wife of William Hague, of Mitchellville, Iowa, a farmer by occupation, and they have three sons and three daughters. Harry is now engaged in farming in Texas. Nettie, the second child, was reared by Mrs. Hinkle and was graduated from the Des Moines high school at the age of nineteen years. She then engaged in teaching in that city for about two years, but for the past five years has been a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now located at Calcutta, India, where she is a teacher in the schools and where she will remain two years longer.
On the 20th of September, 1876, Mr. Williams married Miss Alma Bentz, who was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, fifteen miles from Milwaukee, May 24, 1857, a daughter of Henry and Sarah Ann (Mucky) Bentz, of German descent. The father was a native of Germany and was a young man when he came to the new world, being married in Wisconsin. He served for three years in the Civil War as a member of Company G, Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and was killed in the service. His widow subsequently married John McCowen, who died at State Center, Iowa. Mrs. Williams and the other children were reared by their mother and she has two sisters still living, namely: Emma, now the widow of Joseph Raum Metler and a resident of Des Moines, and Lily, the wife of Joseph Moore, also residents of Des Moines. She has two half-sisters: Josephine, the wife of Lee Wilson, of Warren County, and Nellie, the wife of Thomas Lawman, of Rodman, Palo Alto County, Iowa. She also has two half-brothers: George McCowan, living on Park Avenue, Des Moines; Charles, who is engaged in the livery business and also owns a farm in Palo Alto County; Fred, a merchant on Park Avenue, Des Moines; Perry, now working in Northern Iowa; Edward, of Des Moines, and Homer, a plumber of the Capital City [Des Moines].
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have five children: James, a carpenter and blacksmith of Luverne, Kossuth County, Iowa is married and has two children, Edith and Violet. Alice is the wife of Don Kerr, living near Osceola, and they have one daughter, Leila. Hanna is the wife of Stephen Farr, of Des Moines, and they have one child, Thelma. Thomas Jr., married Alta Matthews and they have one son, Keith. Wilbur is still on the home farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Madora, and with one exception, all of their children are also connected with the church, the youngest son being quite active in the Epworth League. By his ballot Mr. Williams supports the men and measures of the Democratic Party and he is deeply interested in public affairs. On coming to Iowa he had but a few hundred dollars and the success that he has achieved in life is due entirely to his own well directed labors.