Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 279-281; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Francis M. Williams. Prominent among the citizens of
Fulton County who have materially contributed to its prosperity, is the
subject of this sketch. He is one of its ablest and most brainy
farmers and stock-raiser, and has been a conspicuous figure in its
civic life for many years. He is the proprietor of one of the
largest and best equipped farms in Harris Township, and here he and his
family have one of the best appointed and most attractive homes in this
part of the State.
Our subject is the representative of an old pioneer family of
Illinois, and many incidents of his early life here are of interest and
are incorporated in this biography. He was born in Adams County,
Ohio, December 1, 1833. His parents John and Nancy (Smalley)
Williams, were natives of the same place. The Williams family
originated in Wales, and the Smalley family was of mingled Irish and
Dutch extraction. His mother was the daughter of Isaac and Nancy
Smalley, who came from the East, crossing the Alleghanys with pack
horses. David Smalley, the father of Isaac, who was the
descendant of an old American family, served in the Revolutionary
War. He was a personal acquaintance of Gen. Washington, and it is
said that in early life he had many a bout with him in wrestling, but
is not stated which was the best man. John Williams was the son
of John and Mary Williams, who went from Maryland to Ohio in a very
early day. John Williams, Sr., had two sons in the War of 1812.
In 1836 John Williams, Jr., the father of our subject came to
this State with his family, and located in Winnebago County, near where
the city of Rockford now stands, there being then but one house on the
present site. He had come from Ohio with three yoke of oxen and a
prairie schooner, and making good time, was but six weeks on the
road. He squatted on a piece of land, and when he first settled
there was surrounded by Indians who came to his house to beg. All
the family had to eat, except some wild meat, which was very scarce,
was cornmeal made by pounding corn in an old iron kettle with a wooden
pestle. Mr. Williams made a little addition to their fare by
raising some buckwheat on the sod, which was ground in an old-fashioned
coffee mill. After he had lived there three years, a man came
along with a load of hogs which he was taking to Galena, and Mr.
Williams bought one. This was the first animal of the kind
introduced into the county, and our subject, then a child of five or
six years, made of it a great pet, and would stay with it for hours at
a time. His sole playmates in his early youth were the little
Indians of the Pottawattomie tribe, and in playing with them he became
familiar with their language, and could speak it quite well. He
can remember the ceremonies at that time of the death of a chief of the
tribe, whom his men placed on a log, which they chipped off with their
tomahawks, with his gun, tomahawk, pipe and tobacco around him.
They built a fence around this novel bier, on which the Sachem lay
until his skeleton fell to pieces. His last resting place was
right on the ground where the city of Belvidere now stands.
Mr. Williams’ first trip to mill was with an ox-team and cart
loaded with corn, and he journeyed to where the city of Joliet now
stands. He was gone from home three weeks, as he had to go into
camp and wait his turn, so many had preceded him. His wife was
much worried about his long absence and almost gave him up as dead, as
she heard nothing of him from the time he stated out until his
return. Their place was only about four miles from the battle
ground of Stillman’s defeat, which occurred in the Black Hawk
War. They left there in 1844, and removed to McLean County near
where the town of Lexington now is and eighteen miles from
Bloomington. In the fall of 1847 the family came to the farm
where our subject now lives and here his parents passed their remaining
years, he dying in 1868 and she in 1873. They had six children,
all of whom survived except one, John Jefferson, who died when
young. The others are: Sarah Jane, our subject, Elizabeth,
Isaac N., and Andrew Allen.
F. M. Williams, of this biographical review, gained his early
education as best he could. He being the eldest child, much
depended on him in helping his father carry on his farming. But
he was ambitious to train his mind, he being studious and scholarly,
and he attended on term at the Farmington Academy, then entered Hedding
College, at Abingdon, where he pursued a fine course of study. He
was thus well equipped for his chosen calling, that of farming, and he
returned to the homestead and resumed the pursuit of agriculture.
In 1862 he married Miss Sarah Foster, a native of this county, born
near Fairview, and a daughter of William and Hannah Foster. Her
parents came here from near Columbus, Ohio, and were very early
settlers of this section of the State. Of this marriage ten
children have been born to our subject and his amiable wife, of whom
eight are now living and are with their parents. They are named
as follows: Florence D., who has been well educated and carefully
trained for a teacher, to which profession she has devoted herself for
three years, and is regarded as one of the best in the county; Odus C.,
an enterprising young man; Harry L., Charles C., Idola A., Adda V.,
George Emerson, and Chalmers C., the youngest member of the
family. Mary May the third child, died at the age of sixteen
years; Luella died in infancy.
After marriage Mr. Williams moved to Lee Township, and bought
seventy acres of land in its native wildness, which he brought under
the plow in the course of a few years, and he added thereto one hundred
and sixty-six acres, the most of which he developed. In 1866 he
bought his father’s place, after disposing of his Lee Township
property. This homestead then comprised two hundred and
twenty-eight acres, and he has since added two hundred and forty to it,
a good share of which he has under a fine state of cultivation, and he
has here one of the finest places to be found in the township. He
has greatly increased its value since it came into his possession by
the many substantial improvements that he has made, including the
commodious residence that he erected in 1884, which is one of the
handsomest dwellings in this locality. It is neatly and
tastefully furnished, marking the presence of an intelligent and
cultured household, and among its choicest adornments is the
well-selected library of the best authors of modern times and many of
the past. Mr. Williams owes his present prosperous circumstances
solely to his own persistent labors. He began life as a teacher
after leaving college, and in that way earned his first $400, which he
judiciously invested in land, on which he located at the time of his
marriage. He thinks that his first thousand dollars was the
hardest to acquire.
In his career our subject has shown himself to be possessed in a
marked degree of those faculties that are requisite to success –
sagacity, far-reaching forethought and practical tenacity of
purpose. Underlying all these traits are those high principles
that have gained him the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and have
caused them to elect him to important offices of trust and
responsibility. He is Democratic in his political affiliations,
and while in Lee was Collector two terms, and Supervisor for a like
length of time. Since he has been a resident of Harris he has
represented the township on the County Board of Supervisors four
terms. During his official career he was instrumental in making
appropriations for building iron bridges across Spoon River, Shaw’s
Creek and Pearsol’s Branch. He was a member of the Board at the
time of the Chicago fire, when the railway sinking fund was
appropriated for the use of food and clothing for the sufferers.
As there was no money in the treasury which they could legally use to
meet the demand, our subject made a motion to restore the original fund
to the county treasury, which was done. He was one of the
committee that purchased a portion of the land for the County Poor
Farm. Mr. Williams has been a life-long Christian, and a
consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since he was twelve
years old, and he has taken an active part in the Sunday-school and in
all religious matters. He has been School Director, of which
office he is still an incumbent, and has been a School Trustee for many
years.
