Biographies: Dr. William Harbin Williams, 1932, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: Dec. 7, 1967 Winn Parish Enterprise (H. B. Bozeman article reprinted with permission granted me by Mr. Estes Bozeman) Winn Parish As I Have Known It by H. B. Bozeman Article No. 520 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. William Harbin Williams Born: January 8, 1862 Died: July 1, 1918 by P. K. Abel Dr. William Harbin Williams was born in Grant Parish, Louisiana, January 8, 1862, the only son of Dr. James Williams and Mrs. Elizabeth Rebecca (Bettie) Smith Williams. His father, Dr. James Williams, came from Pulaski County, near Little Rock, to Louisiana, in 1860, and married that year, Miss Bettie Smith, at the home of her parents, Harbin and Mary Ann Corley Smith, near Beech Creek in the eastern part of Winn Parish. Soon after their marriage they settle in Grant Parish near Liberty Chapel Church, not far from what is not Williana Station on the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad. Here Dr. James Williams practiced his profession and preached to several nearby Primitive Baptist Churches, he being a member of that denomination. He also operated a tannery, tanning leather from which boots and shoes were made for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. When he was a small boy, he fell on a sharp stick which pierced one of his eyes, destroying the sight in that eye. This, no doubt, explains whey he was not enlisted as a soldier during the Civil War. Dr. James Williams died in 1863 and was buried at or near Liberty Chapel Church. His widow remained in this community the greater part of her widowhood until her second marriage to John Morris Abel in 1866, after their marriage, they moved to Winnfield. This family was made up of the following persons: my father, J. M. Abel, and his son, Pat, by his first marriage; my mother and her son, Billie, as she always called him, and Grandma Sexton, Pat's maternal grandmother. Billie objected very strenuously to his mother being taken by that big tall man, and Pat wanted no mother but Grandma Sexton, who had had him in charge since the death of his mother about 1863. However, soon after the family was established and all got acquainted and accustomed to each other, very happy relations grew up among all the members of the family. When I appeared on the scene August 14, 1867, I found everybody happy and congenial, a condition that prevailed until the family was dissolved by removal or deaths. The subject of this sketch was known to me always as Bill. Bill's features were a good index to his character, real red hair, fair complexion, piercing blue eyes, denoting indomitable energy and industry, unwavering integrity and unswerving courage. He was always busy, if not at his allotted tasks, hunting and fishing, his favorite sports. I never knew him to do a mean thing knowingly. He was an entire stranger to fear. His greatest handicap was a fiery temper which he could usually keep under control by discretion and good judgement. Bill's early boyhood chum was Buddie Brian (Dr. Francis N. Brian, who became a very prominent physician in Alexandria, La., and died there about 1926). Bill Red and Buddie and "Old Runner", their faithful dog, were known to the entire town and community for their pranks, and this trio was a holy terror to all members of the cat tribe. When Bill was 15 years old, father bought a farm two miles west of Winnfield and moved our family out there. When we moved to the farm in 1877, there were only eight acres in cultivation on the place. When father sold the farm and moved back to Winnfield in 1891, there were more than 100 acres under fence and in cultivation. Bill and I did our share of the work, clearing new grounds, building fences, and cultivating those acres. Bill's courage and daring often had his mother anxious about him. He always kept a pack of hounds and frequently he would be out all night, chasing foxes, racoons, and wildcats, regardless of how cold the weather was, or dark the nights were. No horse or mule ever got too wild, or bucked too high, that Bill could not conquer and tame. Bill may have been hot tempered in some things, but in "breaking" wild stock for saddle riding, and work animals to work in harness, he was most patient and tenaciously persevering. Bill was always prominent in all the activities of the community. In school, in revival meetings, singing schools, community dances, farmers union meetings, or whatever it might be, he could always be counted on to be present and doing his full share. In the year of 1885, Bill taught a subscription school at Yankee Springs, in the northwestern part of Winn Parish, and boarded in the home of Henry B. Bates. On December 17, 1885, Bill was happily married to Miss Mattie Ada Dickerson, a neighbor girl, and became the brother in law of his boyhood chum, Dr. Francis N. Brian, who had married Mattie's sister, Geneva. Bill proposed after his marriage to settle down and make a good farmer, so he and I went into the nearby pine forest and felled trees and split and hewed logs (without any thought as to who the timber belonged to, it being the common custom in that day to cut house logs or board trees wherever you found them suitable, regardless of who owned the land). We erected Bill's new home on the SE/SW of Section 21-11N-3W, into which Bill and his bride moved and began at once to prepare for farming. (Note: Here I would like to say that Dr. W. H. Williams first log house was located just about where Benny Smith now lives out on the Natchitoches Highway, and coincidentally, Benny is a "Smith" kinsman of both Dr. W. H. Williams and Mr. P. K. Abel - H. B. Bozeman) Farm life proved too tame and commonplace for Bill's turbulent and restless spirit, besides, I believe he had a distinct call to the practice of medicine. From early boyhood he read all the books and magazines he could find on the subject of medicine and surgery. He never failed to visit the sick and wait on them and was known to be the best nurse in the neighborhood, so while following the plow and turning the soil, the urge of the call to be a medical doctor became so strong, that he no longer could resist it. Bill borrowed the necessary money from his intimate friend, R. L. Tannehill, who was then Sheriff of Winn Parish, Louisiana, and entered the Memphis Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, from which institution he graduated. Bill returned to his home very poor in finances but very rich in ambition and aspirations, with a diploma from the Memphis Medical College and a certificate from the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, authorizing him to practice medicine and surgery in all its branches, and a husky son who had arrived during his medical college days. In 1888 Bill began his first medical practice up in the Pine Ridge community of Ward 10, Winn Parish, near Yankee Springs where he had taught school a few years before. Bill had a discontented, roving disposition. He was never contented to stay long at one place, always believing that the best practice was at the other place, so the thirty years of his active and useful life as a practitioner were spent in Winn, Grant, Rapides, Avoyelles, and Vermillion Parishes. He was always quite popular and successful in his practice wherever he lived and no doubt would have made a great success in his chosen profession, if he could have remained contentedly in one place. Bill and Mattie had six children born into their home, all of whom are now living in June, 1932, except Era Lois, who died in April, 1904, at the age of eight years. Those surviving in 1932 are Alva Chester, who married Miss Ethel Bailey, and are living in Conway, Arkansas; Clara Pauline, married C. W. Spiegle, and are living in Aberdeen, Washington; Novo Pearl married P. C. Mosley and they live in New Orleans; Audie Blondelle married George Moffett and they live in Monroe, La. and Burton Harbin married Ruth Caroway and they live in Winnfield. No man was ever more devoted to his family than Bill. His first thoughts, always, were for their well being and happiness. He planned and worked and sacrificed to give them the best preparations possible with which to meet the problems and responsibilities in life and all are well equipped and are meeting life's duties successfully. Bill was initiated and became an Apprenticed Mason, passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft Mason and raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason in Eastern Star Lodge No. 151 F. & A. M., at Winnfield, Louisiana, in 1879. He also was a member of Cedar Camp Woodmen of the World No. 105 and he and his family were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. I feel I owe my life to Bill. In the year of 1895 I had an attack of typhoid fever of two months duration. Dr. J. S. Pearce, our family physician boarded in our home. He and my mother and my sisters gave me every attention possible. When the fever reached its worst stage Bill was notified. He at once left his home and practice at Ruby in Avoyelles Parish and came to my bedside and remained until all danger had passed. I attribute my recovery, largely, to his skill and close attention at the critical stage of the malady. He was a real brother. Most of the recreation in hunting and fishing that I have enjoyed was planned by him. It was not his custom to ask me if I wanted to go hunting and fishing. He would have the trip planned and would say: "We are going, get ready." Bill had been a sufferer from an illness for some years before his death and had been living and practicing temporarily at Boyce, Louisiana, and taking the baths at Hot Wells in the hope of regaining his health. On July 1, 1918 he started to come home to spend the Fourth of July with his family in Winnfield. He had reached Alexandria and was waiting for the Winnfield train, sitting on the curb, talking to E. Eagles, Jr. a Winnfield friend, when he was stricken with heart failure or apoplexy and died almost instantly. Bill was very sympathetic by nature and never lost an opportunity to do a kindly deed or to relieve suffering humanity. He never was too tired and the nights were never too dark, or the roads too bad for him not to respond to the call of a sick patient. It mattered not to him how poor the sick patient was, or vague the possibility of renumeration, the call was made and services rendered just as faithfully as if it had been the banker, and he had known that the fee would have been paid on the spot. He gave many toilsome hours of sacrificial services to the destitute and suffering when he knew there was no hope of compensation and I think when he appears before the Great Judge of all hearts and deeds of men here on this earth, Bill hear the welcome words: "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Having personally known Mr. P. K. Abel here in Winnfield for over 60 years, of the nearly 99 years that he lived here in Winnfield, I want to say I never knew anyone who lived a more exemplary life than he did. Knowing this, the tribute Mr. Abel paid his brother Bill, in his "Biographical Sketch of Dr. William Harbin Williams," that has just been concluded with this article, has had an intense deep down inside appeal for me. I hope those who read my column found it so, too. - H. B. Bozeman)