My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL P. WILLIAMS, one of the leading and industrious farmers of Sheridan, New York, was born April 29, 1819, in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Stephen and Polly (Horton) Williams. He is a descendant of the famous Roger Williams, who has passed into both the secular and ecclesiastical history of our country, as the founder of the State of Rhode Island, and as the first advocate of heterodoxy in America. Subject’s grandfather was also named Roger Williams, and claimed Vermont as his native State, though he emigrated to the Black river country in the State of New York, where he spent the greater portion of his life and died. Stephen Williams (father) was also a native of Vermont, born near Danbury, and came with his father to northern New York. Later he removed to Hanover town, Chautauqua county, taking up four hundred acres of land known as “Oak Hill.” He entered the army during the war of 1812, served till its close as a private, and died in the town of Hanover in 1838. In education he ranked considerably above the average of his day, and in addition to his occupation of farming, he added that of teaching school. His qualifications as a successful pedagogue gave him a well deserved prestige in the neighborhood in which he lived. Though strongly republican in his political views, yet he was devoid of all political aspirations, and firmly believed in fidelity to party for the sake of the party and not for mere official aggrandizement. As a result of his marriage he had ten children, nine of whom grew to maturity, two boys and seven girls.

Samuel P. Williams was united in marriage to Charity Slocum, a daughter of Jonathan Slocum, by whom he had four children: Georgianna, died in childhood; Newton S., a farmer by occupation, married to Cornelia Cockburn, and now living with subject; Rhoda, dead; Elizabeth L., married to J. C. Russell, a machinist employed at the Dunkirk Locomotive Works.

Samuel P. Williams received a very limited education in the schools of his day, but made the best of his poor advantages. He commenced life as a farmer, purchased a farm of some two hundred and thirty acres near the centre of Sheridan town, and devoted himself to its improvement and cultivation. He now has one of the most highly improved and well kept farms in Chautauqua county. In addition to operating his farm, he has also dealt largely in real estate, and has been quite successful in his ventures, always conducting his enterprises with tact and business skill. He has always zealously advocated the principles of the Democratic party, and has been frequently importuned to let his name go before his party as a candidate for official preferment, but has always steadily refused. Upon the great issues of the day Mr. Williams is thoroughly conversant, and keeps fully abreast of the best political and literary thought. Mr. Williams is also the possessor of a cabinet of much prized relics, among which is a rolling-pin made from the famous black walnut tree that grew near the present site of Silver Creek, and was transferred to the national museum at London, England, where it was destroyed by fire when the famous Crystal Palace burned.