Surry County NcArchives Obituaries.....Williams, Lewis, Rep.  February 23, 1842
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Carolyn Shank Carolynshank@msn.com January 22, 2009, 11:26 am

Patriot (Greensboro, N. C.)Tues., March 8, 1842 
DEATH OF LEWIS WILLIAMS
(Reprinted from the National Intelligencer), Feb. 24)
   It is with the most poignant sorrow that we announced the death of the 
HONORABLE LEWIS WILLIAMS, the long known and universally respected 
Representative for North Carolina, who expired at his lodgings in this City 
[Washington, D.C.] yesterday, after an illness of barely two days duration. So 
unexpected was this sad event, so suddenly has it come upon us, we can 
scarcely yet contemplate its reality.
  On Sunday, he dined with a friend, cheerful, happy, and apparently in the 
best of health; on Monday, he was at his post in the House of  Representatives 
attending to his public duties; at noon on Wednesday, he lies a lifeless 
corpse. So sudden a death of one so cherished in the affections of his brother 
members and of all who knew him, is, indeed, an event to “give us pause.” And 
never have we known any similar bereavement to produce a deeper sensation or a 
more general gloom. 
   The disease which has thus suddenly deprived his country of one of the most 
honest, most faithful and most enlightened of Representatives, and of the 
purest and most virtuous of men, was, we are informed, bilious pleurisy; it 
attacked him on Monday and  so rapid was its progress that, although a man of 
robust frame, it terminated his life in 48 hours.
   MR. WILLIAMS entered Congress, a representative from his native State of 
North Carolina in December, 1815, and continued such, by repeated elections to 
the day of his death, making an unbroken service of more than 26 years; a 
proof at once of his own fidelity to trust and of the confidence of his 
constituents very rarely equaled in the history of our government.
   He had long been what is termed, “the Father of the House,” but 
notwithstanding that venerable title and the length of service it implied, he 
had reached the age of only 56 years. A sincere Christian, he was a man of the 
strictest morals, and one of the most conscientious and unswerving public 
servants whom we have ever known. Such, indeed, were his merits, public and 
personal, and such his eminent value as a Representative, that we look upon 
his death as a serious loss to the whole country, as well as to his immediate 
constituents.
   Mr. WILLIAMS was a native of Surry County, North Carolina. He graduated 
from the University of North Carolina and served on the Board of Trustees for 
the University. He was a member of a numerous family, the head of which 
acquired an honorable fame by his patriotism and service in the War of the 
Revolution and by which his public spirit and elevation of character in after 
life. A twin brother now resides as a judge in the Courts of Tennessee. His 
elder brother, COL. JOHN WILLIAMS was distinguished for his gallantry as an 
officer during the late war, and for his talent and character at a subsequent 
period as a Senator in Congress from the State of Tennessee. A third brother 
was for a long period Adjutant General of the State of North Carolina. The two 
latter, though deceased, have left children.
                                      

 


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