John Alexander Williams, Rapides Parish, La
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     JOHN ALEXANDER WILLIAMS has attained considerable prominence in the
material affairs of Rapides Parish, La., for he is a man of excellent
parts, and has shown good judgment and tact in the management of his
mercantile business, and nets a fair annual income from his sales.  He was
born in Minerva, Essex County, N. Y., September 17, 1835, being a son of
John and Ann (Harrison) Williams, the former a native of Ireland, and a sea
faring man.  He came to America in the early part of his life, and after a
number of years located in New York City, afterward taking up his abode in
New Orleans.  John Alexander Williams was left motherless in his early
youth, and in the city of New Orleans, under the care of his father, he was
reared to manhood and educated.  At the age of eighteen years he left that
city and came up Red River, and for eight years made his home at Lecompte.
Four years of this time was devoted to clerking, and the following four
years as a partner in a mercantile store, the firm being known as Sharritt
& Williams.  In 1861 Mr. Williams came to Alexandria, then to terminus of
the Red River Railroad, to take charge of the office here, it being the
main one on the line at that time, but the breaking out of the war caused
him to give up this position to enter the service, enlisting in the Second
Louisiana Cavalry in 1862, as acting sergeant-major of his regiment, and
participating in the following engagements:  Boute's Station,
Donaldsonville, Texarkana, Bisland and others. He also served for some time
as captain and disbursing officer of the Nitre Mining Corps, and was
paroled at Natchitoches, in April, 1865.  After the war he began purchasing
cotton, continuing until 1866, when he went into the warehouse business,
which received his attention until 1873, adding to it mercantile business,
which he carried on till 1880 as John A. Williams & Co.; from 1880 to 1884
as John A. Williams, which has continued without interruption ever since.
Mr. Williams was married in 1860 to Miss Mary Ann McKinney, but her death
occurred in St. Landry Parish, she being in full communion with the
Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of her death.  She left a daughter,
Lizzie, now the worthy wife of W. C. McGimsey, of New Orleans.  Mrs.
McGimsey has two daughters and one son.  In 1869 his second union took
place in St. Landry Parish, Miss Clarisse Lastrapes, a daughter of Alphonse
and Mary Ann (Bullard) Lastrapes, becoming his wife.  Mrs. Lastrapes was a
daughter of Judge Henry A. Bullard, of the Supreme bench of the State of
Louisiana, and of the Bullard of Massachusetts-Pilgrim descendants.  Mr.
Williams was so unfortunate as to lose his second wife by death, she being
a member of the Episcopal Church, and she now rests in Pineville Cemetery.
She left a daughter, Mary Aline.  Mr. Williams' third marriage took place
in 1877, his wife being Miss Celeste Baillio, a daughter of the late
Sosthene Baillio, of this parish.  They have two sons and two daughters:
Effie Harrison, Joseph Aloysius, Martha Ann and John Alexander, Jr.  Mr.
Williams has been chairman of the executive committee of his parish for two
consecutive terms, was a member of the police jury, and has been a member
of the Masonic order for over thirty years.  He is now, and has been on the
board of directors of the Rapides Bank since it began business, and is one
of the principal promoters of the enterprise.