My Genealogy Hound

THOMAS DALE WILLIAMS, chief operator W. U. Tel. Co., Bellevue, was born Dec. 10, 1844, in Allegheny City, and named for Dr. Dale of that place; he is a son of Walter and Mary (Bozman) Williams, the former of whom belongs to the family of Williams, settlers of Monongahela City and Washington county. His parents were Cumberland Presbyterians, and their nine children were baptized in that church. The father died at the age of sixty-five. The maternal grandparents of Thomas D. Williams were William and Jennie (Johnson) Bozman, the former born at Coal Hill (South Side), and the latter in Carlisle, Pa. The grandfather of our subject was a tanner, and his father a marine engineer, who was for some time captain of a steamer, and was on a transport during the Mexican war. He resided in California, where he followed blacksmithing from 1850, but, his health failing in 1853, he located in later years in Allegheny City, where he died in 1876. The maternal grandfather of Thomas D. Williams accumulated a large number of land-warrants during the revolutionary war, which he located at Coal Hill. Our subject received his education in the Fourth ward, Allegheny, and at the age of thirteen he commenced life as an errand boy for J. M. Little. Soon after he went with his brother-in-law, as messenger boy, to Lafayette, Ind. He soon learned telegraphy, and has been operator for the Western Union company since 1865, and for six months he was with the Army of the Cumberland as operator. He was appointed assistant chief operator, in 1873, at the Pittsburgh office, and in 1882, by faithful attention to duty, promoted to chief operator. Mr. Williams was married, March 10, 1887, to Ida Robinson, of Allegheny City, daughter of Samuel R. and Rebecca (Gallaker) Robinson.