My Genealogy Hound

Silas M. Williams, another of the prominent planters of Noland Township, was born in Newberry County, S. C, on August 4, 1835, a son of John and Jennie (Boyd) Williams, natives of South Carolina. They were married in their native State, and there was born their only child, the subject of this sketch. He was rendered motherless in 1837, when he was but two years of age, and when he was but six years of age his father died, leaving him wholly orphaned. He grew to maturity in Mississippi, and was there married on April 22, 1860, to Miss Mary A. Griffith, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Rogers) Griffith, born in Mississippi, on November 2, 1841, by whom he became the father of ten children—six sons and four daughters—seven of whom survive, namely: William I. (wife of Charles Fowler, a farmer of this county), Mary E. (wife of James Livingston, also an agriculturist of this county), John M., James W., Marion D., Robert D. and Eva. In October, 1861, Mr. Williams enlisted in the Confederate cause, joining Company F, Eleventh Mississippi Battalion, in which he served until the close of the war. He surrendered at Gainesville, Ala., in 1865, and immediately after returned to his family in Mississippi. In 1870 he moved to Arkansas, settling in Clark County, where he made his home until the spring of 1875, and then moved to Hempstead County, where he owns a valuable farm on which he lives. He and wife both belong to the Presbyterian Church, and are honored members of that body. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, and socially is a member of the Masonic order, to which he has belonged since 1868.