My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAMS, JOEL GRANT, civil engineer and farmer; Sec. 34; P. O. Ursa; was born in Pendleton county, Ky., May 14, 1804. He has been married three times. His first wife was Temperance Heddington, of Fayette county, Ky.; second, was Annie Workman, of North Carolina; his third and present wife was Miss Mary F. Bell, to whom he was married Feb. 4, 1857. She was born in Muhlenburgh county, Ky., April 19, 1804. They have two children, one boy and one girl. He came to this county, Oct. 26, 1833, and settled in this township. He studied civil engineering in Kentucky, and has made it his business ever since. He has been County Surveyor for four years, and Deputy for about sixteen. He owns a beautiful farm of 125 acres, stocked with fruit, on which he has lived since April 1, 1834. He was ordained in the New Providence Church in July, 1835, and was made its pastor, which he has remained up to the present time without fee or reward; a portion of the time he preached to three congregations, one at Payson, Coatsburg and his own. He is one of the few remaining early citizens who have labored hard for the county’s prosperity. From the attainment of his majority up to the passage of the Nebraska and Kansas bill, he was identified with the old line Whig party. At the time of the birth of the Republican party, he became a Democrat and has remained with that party ever since.