Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== History of Davidson County, Tennessee by W. Woodford Clayton pub. January 1, 1880 pg 248 ELISHA WILLIAMS and SARAH JOSEY were born in Halifax Co., N. C., and were left orphans without brother or sister. They were married in 1773. Four of their children lived to mature age,-- ELIZABETH, WILLIAM, JOSIAH F., and ELISHA. WILLIAM WILLIAMS was born in Halifax Co., N. C., April 15, 1776. He graduated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., in 1799. Judge Joseph Story was a member of the same class, and as warm personal friends they corresponded through life. Returning home, he read law with Judge Haywood. In 1804 he came to Nashville with the view of settling, and purchased the Evans grant of six hundred and forty acres, four miles from Nashville, on the Gallatin road. The following year he moved to the farm, bringing with him his father and mother and brothers. His father, then in bad health, died soon after. WILLIAM WILLIAMS and SALLY PHILIPS, a daughter of JOSEPH PHILIPS and MILBREY HORN, were married in Davidson County, February, 1807, by the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead. She was a woman of firmness, of kindness, and of practical sense. The children born of this marriage were ELIZA, MARTHA, CHARLOTTE, HENRY, MARY, WILLIAM, JOHN, JOSEPH, MARIA, and EVANDER. The girls were educated at the Nashville Female Academy. All of them died soon after reaching womanhood except CHARLOTTE, who married Col. W. B. A. RAMSEY, of Edgefield. HENRY, JOSEPH, and EVANDER died in early manhood. WILLIAM WILLIAMS practiced his profession in Nashville and the counties adjoining Davidson for twenty-five years. He was not a fluent speaker, but what he said or wrote was always a strong argument, and his conclusions very apt to be correct. He was noted for punctuality in all his business. As a legislator he studied the interest of Tennessee. After discontinuing the practice of law he was elected a magis- trate without solicitation, which office he filled for several terms. A great part of this time he was chairman of the County Court, the duties of which he performed with marked ability and fidelity. He was a trustee of the Robertson Academy, the Craighead Academy, and the Nashville University for many years, and took a deep interest in their success. In religion he was a Presbyterian. He, his wife, and two daughters joined the church in Nashville in 1833, when Dr. John T. Edgar became pastor, and subsequently two daughters and four sons joined the same church. He was for years an elder of the church in Nashville, and an elder of the church in Edgefield at the time of his death, which occurred March 6, 1862, his mind unimpaired and his body not showing old age. His son, WILLIAM WILLIAMS, graduated at the Nashville University in 1839; taught a male academy three years; gradu- ated at the Louisville Medical College in 1845; settled in Hendersonville, Sumner Co., and married LIZZIE B., eldest daughter of DANIEL S. DONELSON and MARGARET BRANCH, May, 1849. Moving to the old homestead in 1865, he discontinued the practice of medicine, and has since devoted his time to the improvement of his farm, to the rearing and educating of his children, to the cause of public schools, and to the Church. The names of their children are MARGARET, MARY ELIZA, EVANDER, SALLY, WILLIAM, EMMA, and EULA. MAGGIE BESSIE DAVIS, a bright child two years old, occupies the place in the affections of the members of the family circle made vacant by the death of her mother. His son, JOHN W. WILLIAMS, graduated at the Nashville University in 1841; surveyed land in Texas several years; read law; married MARTHA, youngest daughter of GRAVES PENNINGTON, of Davidson County; purchased a farm in Mississippi Co., Ark His wife dying, he married ANNA, eldest daughter of Col. ELLIOT FLETCHER, of Arkansas. They have three children,-- SUSAN, ELLIOT, and SALLY. Mrs. MARTHA MARTIN, a sister of Mrs. WILLIAMS, is the only unbroken link connecting the family to the past century. She was born in a fort four miles from Nashville, near her present resi- dence, in 1792. She is blessed with good health, a clear mind, a distinct memory, and reads and sews without glasses. Loving and beloved by all who know her, in select words and sweet voice she relates the history of six generations, whom she remembers per- fectly. By reading she keeps up with the age. Her Bible and hymn- book are always near her. Her lamp full of oil she keeps trimmed and burning, cheerfully and hopefully watching and waiting the coming of her Lord. ===============================================================================