My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES M. WILLIAMS. It has been officially recorded that the natives of countries where vast amounts of fruit are raised are wholly free from certain diseases that are invariably brought on by the consumption of meat; and if the use of fruit as a diet serves no other end than that of a preventive of human ailments, it has fulfilled its mission and duty. The fruit industry has become a profitable and popular one in southern Michigan, and one of the men who, in connection with farming, earns his living thus is Charles M. Williams, who has a fine farm of forty acres situated about eight miles south of St. Joseph in Royalton Township.

Mr. Williams was born in the township and county in which he now resides September 24, 1836, his parents being Daniel and Malinda (Millage) Williams, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania in 1810. In an early day he removed from the State of his birth to Michigan, becoming one of the first settlers of Berrien County, and during the long term of years that elapsed until his death, in 1861, he cleared a number of valuable farms and tilled the soil with success. He was of English descent. His widow died in Kansas in 1868, having borne her husband five sons and two daughters, of which number the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth. Charles M. Williams was born in Berrien County and received his education in the common schools, but was compelled to leave them when quite young because his parents were poor, and he had to lend his assistance in the support of the family. He remained with and aided them until he attained his majority, then began to accumulate for himself, and since about 1873 has resided on the farm on which he is now living. As a citizen, Mr. Williams has always been industrious, enterprising and honest, is a practical and intelligent fruit grower and farmer, a man who has a naturally humane and kindly disposition, and a discerning mind, which has been strengthened and broadened by reading, observation and contact with the business affairs of life.

He chose for his wife Miss Catharine Moyer, a native of the State of Pennsylvania, their union being solemnized on the 11th of September, 1858, and to them three sons and a daughter were given: Aurilla, wife of Charles Scofield; Franklin, Robert and Henry. Mr. Williams is a member of the Farmers’ Fire Insurance Company, and has been a member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons since 1887, Occidental Lodge of St. Joseph. He and his wife are members of the Free Methodist Church, and politically he has always been a member of the Democratic party, his first Presidential vote being cast for Douglas. Mr. Williams is an honorable man, of well-known integrity of character and high moral principles, and his life-long residence in Berrien County renders his influence for good in his section certain and effective.