Biographical Sketch of J. N. Williams, Johnson County, Missouri, Jackson Township. >From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell, Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918. ********************************************************************** J. N. Williams, a prominent lumberman of Johnson county, is one of the most enterprising and successful citizens of Jackson township. Mr. Williams is a native of North Carolina. He was born in 1866 in Surry county, a son of James D. and Nancy (Ridenhour) Williams, both of whom were natives of North Carolina, in which state they were reared, educa- ted, and married. James D. Williams was a son of Williamson Williams, a native of North Carolina and of Welsh and Scotch descent. In 1869, the father of J. N. Williams came to Johnson county, Missouri from North Carolina with his wife and children and they settled on a farm in Jackson township. Two years later, the grandfather, Williamson Williams joined them in the new Western home and spent the remainder of his life in Johnson county. To James D. and Nancy Williams were born seven children, four of whom are now living: J. H., Kingsville, Missouri; J. N., the subject of this review; Mrs. Lydia Paul, Kingsville, Miss- ouri; and Mrs. Minnie G. Majors, Lonejack, Missouri. The father died in 1883 at the Williams homestead in Jackson township. George Sage was instructing the school held at Fairview schoolhouse in Jackson township when J. N. Williams first attended school. In those schoolboy days, Mr. Williams often stood in the doorway of the schoolhouse and watched the deer, wild turkeys, and prairie chickens that often left the forest nearby and came within the view of the children. Wild game abounded in Johnson county in the early days. Mr. Williams states that in his youth the settlers could travel in a straight line from the Williams farm to Holden, a distance of thirteen miles, and to do so had to ford the numerous streams along the way. He recalls the time when Holden was a small village and when there was not one building in the town that was not a frame building. The first brick structure was a novelty. After his father's death in 1883, J. N. Williams assumed the management of the home place. He was at that time a young man, seventeen years of age, and for many years remained at the homestead. Early in life, he became interested in the lumber business and engaged in buying logs and shipping them to different sawmills in the country. At first, he con- ducted the lumber business in connection with farming and stock raising, but after a few years of experience he devoted his entire attention to the lumber industry. He has operated in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Mr. Williams buys the logs on the ground, cuts and ships them, and he is at present employed by the largest walnut mills in the United States, furnishing walnut logs for the Penrod Mills of Kansas City, Missouri. There the logs are made into gun stocks for musket barrels and shipped to the Rock Island Arsenal. On his farm of sixty acres of land in Jackson township, J. N. Williams is raising fine Poland China hogs and an excellent strain of Plymouth Rock chickens. In addition to the lumber business, stock raising, and poultry raising, Mr. Williams is intensely interested in horticulture, for which from boyhood he has had a decided liking. To him this department of husban- dry has a peculiar fascination and to gratify himself he is planting ten acres of his place in orchard, which he hopes in time will be one of the finest and most valuable of the small orchards in Johnson county. In 1886, J. N. Williams was united in marriage with Nora C. Wagner and to this union were born seven children, four sons of whom are now living: Albert F., Kingsville, Missouri; Otto W., Kansas City, Missouri; Leslie M., Kingsville, Missouri; and J. D., Kingsville, Missouri. The mother and two children met with a tragic death by drowning in 1903. Four years afterward, in 1907, the marriage of J. N. Williams and Armelia Ellis, daughter of Frederic Ellis, of Priorlake, Minnesota, was solemnized and to them have been born four children: Roy E., Mildred L., Evelyn E. and Dorothy L., all at home with thier parents. Mr. Williams built one of the most beautiful homes in this part of the state on his farm in 1914. This residence is a structure of stucco and the interior woodwork is either walnut or oak veneer. The massive walnut door of the front enterance is three feet in width and made from a log obtained at Horton, Kansas. Mr. Williams aided in sawing down the tree and the log was shipped to the Penrod Mills of Kansas City. The living room is wainscoted with panels of walnut to a height of five feet and the nat- ural grain of the wood is perfect. The dining room is so finished, but in oak. Some of the rooms are finished in walnut and others in oak veneer, and the doors are so finished that they correspond with the woodwork of the room. Mr. Williams has a handsome library table con- structed from a walnut stump which was taken out of the ground. The workmanship, besides the material used displayed in its construction is far above the average. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: <> Penny Harrell ====================================================================