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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer 






					EDWIN R. WILLIAMS.
			      MRS. JANE R. (CURTIS) WILLIAMS (1st wife).
			     MRS. VINNIE L. (HIGBEE) WILLIAMS (2nd wife).

	John A. Williams, father of Edwin, was born in West Bloomfield, Ontario Co., N. Y., Oct. 
16, 1798, and about 1826 married Patience Jenks, who was born in Tioga Co., N. Y., about 1800.  
This marriage took place in Oakland Co., Mich., in which Mr. Williams was an early settler.  He 
cleared and improved a farm in the township of West Bloomfield, and there Edwin R. Williams was 
born Sept. 20, 1836.  In 1856 the old farm was sold out, and the family removed to North Plains, 
Ionia Co., taking up a section of land.  In May, 1868, occurred the death of Mrs. Williams, Sr., 
and that of her husband in February, 1880.
	Edwin R. Williams, who had remained with his parents until they removed to Ionia County, 
received then from his father two hundred acres of the section which had been purchased, and 
began at once to improve it.  On the 27th of March, 1860,  he married Miss Jane R. Curtis, who 
was born in 1836, in Niagara Co., N. Y.  Her father, William Curtis, was born in Ticonderoga, 
N. Y., and was a farmer by occupation.  Mrs. Williams was the oldest in a family of seven 
children.  Her father is now living in Wisconsin, to which State he removed in 1871.  His wife 
died when the daughter was quite young, and the latter met Mr. Williams while on a visit to her 
sister in Michigan.  To Mr. and Mrs. Williams were born five children, a son and four daughters, 
who are all living but one daughter.  Mrs. Williams died May 4, 1870, and on the 6th of December,
in the same year, Mr. Williams married Miss Vinnie L. Higbee, daughter of Benjamin F. and 
Laura M. Higbee.  She was born March 11, 1849, in Orleans township, Ionia Co.  Her parents were 
natives of Oneida Co., but were married in Michigan,  in which State they were early settlers.  
They had a family of six children, in which Mrs. Williams was the third.  Mr. Williams children 
are as follows:
	By first wife:  Ella E., July 28, 1861; Minnie S., born April 28, 1863; Frederick S., 
born March 23, 1865; Florence M., born March 19, 1867; Jennie Patience, born Aug. 17, 1869, 
died Jan. 12, 1874.  By second wife:  Grace A., born Jan. 4, 1873; Frank Edwin, born March 8, 
1875; Earl Rutheven, born Aug. 24, 1876.
	Mr. Williams, although his family has always lived on the farm, has been for a large 
portion of the time engaged in other business, buying and shipping stock, acting as general agent
three years for E. Ball & Co., of Canton, Ohio, in the sale of agricultural implements, etc., 
during which time he traveled in Michigan and Wisconsin.  Since the death of his first wife he 
has been engaged exclusively in faring.  His first farm included two hundred acres on section 16 
in North Plains, but in 1874 he changed his place of residence to a farm of fifty-four acres on 
section 30.  In the winter of 1879-80 he sold that and purchased his present residence in Orange 
township, containing two hundred and forty acres, and is engaged in general farming.  In 
October, 1873, a residence on his farm was destroyed by fire, causing a loss of six thousand
dollars.
	Although taking an active part in politics, Mr. Williams is thoroughly independent, is 
progressive in his views, and awake to the interests of the class of producers to which he 
belongs.  He is an earnest and determined Patron of Husbandry, and Master of Ionia County Pomona 
Grange.  Is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, having been one of the charter members of 
the lodge at Hubbardston, and in which he was Master when he left it, and is a member of the 
Disciple Church, as was his first wife.  His present wife is connected with the Baptist Church at
Ionia.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 301.  Orange.