My Genealogy Hound

Robert Brady Williams, the subject of this sketch, is a member of the well-known law firm of A. B. & R. B. Williams, of Washington, Ark. He was born in Pike County, Ark., on August 28, 1851, of the marriage of Hon. Abner B. Williams (who was born in Christian County, Ky., April 9, 1828) and Ann B. Carruth (who was born in Fayette County, Tenn., September 21, 1831). When quite small they were brought by their parents to Hempstead County, Ark., where they were reared, and in 1850 married. After spending a few years in Pike County, they returned to Hempstead County, and settled at Washington, where Mrs. Williams died in 1885, having been a devout member of the Methodist Church for many years. Mr. Williams afterward married Mrs. Annie G. Fullerton, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., and they are now residing in Washington. Mr. Williams was educated in Wirt College, Tenn., and soon after studied law with Judge John Field, since which time he has followed his profession with marked success, and is recognized as one of the foremost attorneys in Southwestern Arkansas. He served several terms as judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, and was at two different times in the State Senate, first in 1862 and again in 1866 and 1867. During the early part of Cleveland’s administration, he was made Utah commissioner, a position he still occupies. The duties of every public office he has held have been discharged in an admirable manner, and he has at all times displayed the soundest judgment and a thorough knowledge on all public matters. He has always been a close student, and is noted for his scholarly attainments, as well as for the simplicity and kindness of his manners. Few men in this section are better known or more highly respected than he, and he is perhaps more familiar with the early history of Hempstead County and Southwestern Arkansas than any man residing therein. He was made lieutenant-colonel of McNaire’s Arkansas regiment at the opening of the war, but his health would not admit of his serving. He has been successful in every undertaking, financially and otherwise, although he has never been desirous of great wealth, his tastes being of the simplest kind. He and the subject of this sketch own some 6,000 acres of land in this section of the State, besides valuable town property. In his political views he is a Democrat, although formerly a Whig, and prior to the war was a non-secessionist, strenuously opposing that measure. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow of long standing. His father, John W. Williams, was a Virginian, in which State he married his first wife, and from there he went to Kentucky, where, after the death of his first wife, he was married a second time, to Catharine Bryson, who was the mother of Judge Williams, he being their only child. In the year 1832 John W. Williams removed with his family to Hempstead County, Ark., and settled in what was long known as the Seven-Mile House, it being situated on the Little Rock road, seven miles northeast of Washington. Here he spent the rest of his life, dying in 1867. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving under Gen. W. H. Harrison in the battle of the Thames; was of Welsh descent, and was a descendant of one of eleven brothers who came from Wales at an early day, and settled in South Carolina. [For a sketch of Elias Carruth, the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, see the sketch of W. H. Carruth.] Robert B. Williams was the eldest of four sons and five daughters, six of whom are living, and after acquiring fair knowledge of the common branches, he finished his education in Washington and Lee University of Virginia, graduating in literature and the languages, after which he began the study of law with his father, and in 1876 was admitted to the bar. Soon after the present firm was established, and Robert B. has built up an excellent reputation for himself. Like his father he is a Democrat, politically, and his first presidential vote was cast for Greeley in 1872, while he was attending college in Virginia. He was married, in 1880, to Miss Kate, a daughter of Wiley B. and Valeria J. Stuart, both of whom were born and still live in Hempstead County, they being, one of the first families of this section. Mrs. Williams was born in the town of Washington, and has borne Mr. Williams two children. While Mr. Williams has never aspired to any political office, he has always taken a lively and active interest in the political affairs of his State and section, and has served for four years as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. His party, recognizing his ability as a lawyer and his worth as a man, have just tendered to him, unanimously, the nomination for the circuit judgeship of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. As a businessman and a financier he is regarded as one of the successful young men of the country. In addition to large real estate interests, he is vice-president of the Hempstead County Bank, one of the solid and substantial institutions of Southwestern Arkansas, and has stock and interests in numerous other successful enterprises in this section of the State.