Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Williams, Stephen J 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 9, 2007, 11:58 pm

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

STEPHEN J. WILLIAMS. In the management of his dairy and farm interests Mr. 
Williams has displayed energy and wise judgment. From early manhood he has 
been one of the important factors in the promotion of local enterprises and 
agricultural improvements in Dupage Township, and as a progressive farmer of 
high integrity, has won the confidence and regard of his large circle of 
acquaintances. The land which he owns lies on sections 33 and 34. Here he was 
born September 22, 1846, and here much of his life has been passed. In the 
stock business his specialty is the raising of cattle and Norman horses. He 
buys heavily in the Chicago markets and often sells again without taking the 
stock out of the yards. He has a large number of milch cows and ships from 
seventy to eighty gallons of milk to Chicago daily, finding in the dairy 
business a profitable source of revenue. Thomas Williams, our subject's 
father, was born and educated in Cornwall, England, where he learned the 
contract business with his father, an able and well-known contractor in 
Cornwall. In early manhood he engaged in the flax-seed business, shipping from 
England to America. In 1852 he came to this country and carried on a coal 
business in Pittsburg, Pa. Upon the starting of the canal in Illinois he sold 
his coal business and took a contract to build a part of the canal in Will 
County, a part of sections 23 and 24, extending through Romeo. In 1850 he went 
to California and built a levee in San Francisco, which work consumed almost 
three years. His next contract was for building fifteen miles of the Great 
Western Railroad in Illinois. Upon the completion of his canal contract he had 
purchased forty acres where our subject now lives, and his family resided here 
while he was in different parts of the country filling contracts, adding to 
the home farm from time to time. On finishing his railroad work he returned to 
this place and gave his attention to its improvement. He was nominated in 1880 
for the legislature by the Democratic party, but before the election was 
stricken with paralysis and died, August 25, the same year. He was then 
seventy-two years of age. In religion he was identified with the Church of 
England. Fraternally he was connected with the Masons. By his marriage to 
Susan Homer, who died November 23, 1898, he had nine children, of whom all are 
deceased but Mrs. Susan G. Haney, of Chicago, and Stephen J., of this sketch. 
In the academy at Naperville and the college at Wheaton our subject received 
excellent educational advantages. His first work was the management of a coal 
mine owned by his father at Gardner, where he remained for three years. He 
then went to Lockport Township and took charge of a farm on sections 31 and 
32, which he conducted for sixteen years. He still owns the farm, comprising 
three hundred and twenty acres. He returned to the old homestead at the death 
of his father. On this place he has since made his home. Mr. Williams has been 
one of the most successful farmers and stockmen during the last decade in Will 
County. His methods of farming are the most advanced and his judgment in 
regard to buying and selling stock has made him well known in the Chicago 
market. His home farm now comprises over one thousand acres of choice land, 
the equal of which it would be hard to find in northern Illinois. A Democrat 
in national affairs, he is independent in local matters, voting for the men he 
considers best qualified to represent the people. He has been a delegate to 
township and county conventions and to many of the state and national 
gatherings of the Democratic party. Upon the death of his father he succeeded 
him in the office of supervisor, which he held for thirteen years. At one time 
he was nominated for the legislature, but the district being strongly 
Republican he was defeated. He is warmly interested in all that concerns his 
immediate locality, especially in educational matters, and his influence for 
years in the office of school director has been exerted in behalf of the 
schools. While in Gardner Mr. Williams married Mary E. Burns, who died January 
2, 1876, at the age of twenty-seven and one-half years. This union was blessed 
by three children: Thomas, who is in Albuquerque, N. M.; James, who cultivates 
the home farm for his father; and Maude, who married Isaac Sims, a merchant in 
Lockport. Two years after the death of his first wife Mr. Williams married her 
sister, Katie Burns, by whom he has three children, Mary E., Jennette B. and 
Stephen J. Jr.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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