My Genealogy Hound

J. P. WILLIAMS, farmer and stock-raiser, section 6, post-office Avilla, is a native of Tennessee, born in Murray county, June 21, 1829. In 1831 his parents moved to southwest Missouri, locating two and a half miles southwest of Mount Vernon. His father, Samuel S. Williams, erected the first cabin and made the first improvements west of Springfield, Mo. He was a man of remarkable force and energy, in fact, a Daniel Boone sort of man, and was known as a mighty hunter during the early settlement of southwest Missouri. He died March 5, 1875, and was buried on the old homestead, where his widow still lives. He was the father of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, ten of his offspring now living. Our subject spent his youth in assisting on the farm and acquiring an education at the pioneer schools, almost his only diversion being a deer or turkey hunt, which game at that time was very abundant. He was married Nov. 22, 1850, to Miss Mary Cherry, a native of Tennessee, daughter of James and Rachel Cherry, well-known old settlers of Lawrence county, Mo. Her father died June 10, 1874, and her mother still lives on the old homestead. Our subject, though reared up to strict pro-slavery ideas, his father being a slave-owner, was always a Union man, and was enrolled early in 1861, in Company B, Seventy-sixth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, and went into active service in 1862, participating in all the experiences of that command. At the cessation of hostilities he returned to his avocation on the farm. Became a resident of Jasper county in the spring of 1866. His farm consists of 200 acres, 140 being in cultivation, the soil of remarkable fertility and productiveness, romantically situated on White Oak Creek, and natural groves of fine timber on three sides of the buildings afford shade and protection. They have reared and educated two sons and two daughters: James T., born Sept. 10, 1851, now a resident of McDonald county; Rachel E., born April 2, 1853, now wife of James Warthen; William H., born May 27, 1857; and Sarah J., born Dec. 17, 1863.